2026-27 Autumn Quarter - Global Development Research Funding

The Stanford King Center on Global Development invites Stanford faculty and postdoctoral scholars to submit proposals for new research in low- and middle-income countries on topics critical for addressing global development and poverty. Funding is intended for new research projects or early-stage work that will position investigators to compete successfully for larger external grants. 

Awards are made twice a year, in November and April.

• Apply for Autumn 2026 by Sunday, November 8, 2026    
• Apply for Spring 2027 by Sunday, April 4, 2027  

Awards provide up to $80,000 per faculty project and $30,000 for postdoctoral scholars. Modest budgets are welcome and appreciated.

The proposed work may involve the broad range of disciplines involved in global development, including but not limited to earth sciences, economics, engineering, medicine, political science, and policy. Work should focus on low and/or middle-income countries. 

We especially encourage proposals that provide meaningful in-country research opportunities for Stanford PhD and master's students. 

Additional funding for research on issues important to Brazil may be available through a partnership with the Lemann Center.

For those interested in conducting research in China, the King Center on Global Development’s focus is on global poverty and development in middle- and low-income countries. Funding for research in China may be possible if it aligns closely with the above. Funding for research on other issues important to China may be available through the Stanford Center on China’s Economy & Institutions (SCCEI).

Proposal submission and budget guidelines

Proposals should be submitted via the Stanford Seed Funding website. The proposal is subject to a five-page limit, including the text, figures, tables, and references. Proposals must be self-contained with no links to additional information. Use one-inch margins and an 11-point or larger font. 

The budget and budget justification are limited to two additional pages. Please use the King Center budget template. 

In the proposal, please address the following questions:

• What is the global development issue you are hoping to address?
• What is the study context?
• How will you design your research to answer your question with a high level of confidence? Consider elements including (but may not be limited to) sampling strategy, the kinds of comparisons you plan to make, data sources and methods, timing of data collection, and how you propose to deal with potential threats to sound inference (e.g., confounding and bias).
• How will the project contribute to the academic literature? 
• What is the potential for policy impact?
• What is the anticipated timeline? Please provide both an optimistic and a pessimistic scenario. 

Each Principal Investigator (PI) who will be associated with the proposed work should submit a CV.  

Postdoctoral scholars applying for funding should have their faculty mentor send a short email to kingcenter_programs@stanford.edu  indicating their willingness to serve as the official PI for the project. 

Budget Proposals and Award Administration

Proposals may not include indirect costs, even if non-Stanford investigators complete part of the project, because these awards are made with gift funds. 

Awards are funded through Stanford gift accounts. The King Center will cover the University's 8% infrastructure charge. 

Proposed budgets do not need to be routed through the Office of Sponsored Research (OSR) for this internally funded research initiative. 

Salary support for PIs  is not allowed. Proposals with substantial requests for funding for existing staff or postdoctoral salaries will not be prioritized for support through this mechanism.

Allowable expenses:

• Travel costs ( domestic or international) directly related to the proposed research
• Purchasing datasets
• Survey development and administration
• Human subject costs
• Data entry and transcription
• Hiring locally-based research assistants
• Other research expenses with adequate justification

Expenses that are NOT allowed:

• PI salary
• Travel to attend or present at professional conferences
• Travel for dependents or spouses
• Childcare
• Language training

Review and selection criteria 

Proposals are first screened for alignment with the themes of global poverty and development, then evaluated by a review committee of faculty against the following criteria: 

1. Alignment with Global Development Goals

• Does the proposal clearly define and articulate a critical issue related to global poverty or development that it is addressing?
• Is the research primarily designed to address relevant challenges facing LMICs, rather than simply taking place in an LMIC setting for convenience (e.g., data access or cost)?
• Does the proposed work advance the King Center’s mission of supporting research that shapes policy and practice in addressing global poverty and advancing development in LMICs? How well is this articulated in the proposal?

2. Innovation and Academic Rigor

• Are the research goals and objectives clearly articulated?
• Is the research design well-developed, with sufficient detail on key elements such as hypotheses, sampling strategy, data sources, and analytic methods?
• Does the proposed approach adequately address the research question and potential challenges or potential threats to inference (e.g., bias, confounding)?

3. Policy and Academic Impact

• Does the project have the potential to make a significant contribution to the relevant academic literature?
• Are the questions and findings likely to be relevant or useful to policymakers?
• Does the proposal identify a plausible pathway from research to broader impact?

4. Budget Justification

• Is the proposed budget reasonable given the scope of the research?
• Does the proposal provide good value for the potential insights or policy relevance?
• Are the costs well-justified and consistent with the allowable expense categories?

5. Feasibility

• Is the proposed timeline realistic?
• Does the research team have the appropriate expertise and capacity to successfully execute the project?

Priority will be given to junior faculty over senior faculty. 

Review committee members with conflicts of interest will recuse themselves from evaluating relevant proposals. Additional subject-matter experts from Stanford or other institutions may be invited to review proposals. All reviewers are required to maintain proposal confidentiality. 

Timeline and Project Duration

Funding decisions are announced approximately two months after each submission deadline.

Projects are funded for up to two years. 

One no-cost, extension of up to one additional year may be requested. 

For postdoctoral scholars, the proposed project must be completed during the postdoctoral appointment. Funding cannot be transferred to other institutions, individuals, or continue after the PI’s Stanford appointment ends.

Please note that follow-on funding in subsequent years should not be expected.