The Penn Development Research Initiative (PDRI) offers grants to support the research of Penn graduate students doing research on the challenges facing low- and middle-income countries.
Grants are offered once a year, in the spring/summer. Students may apply for grants of up to $2,500. PDRI plans to fund between 4 and 10 research projects per year, with a planned annual disbursal of $10,000.
Funds may be used for the following purposes:
Applicants may combine PDRI funding with other sources of funding for their projects. Grants are open to individual students as well as for collaborative projects between graduate students.
Any full-time Penn doctoral student enrolled in any school is eligible to apply. Applicants are not required to hold any affiliation with PDRI.
Note: any Penn PhD student with interests in research on low- and middle-income countries is eligible for PDRI fellow status. Please email pdri-info@sas.upenn.edu for more information.
Proposed research projects should focus on challenges facing low- and middle- income countries. PDRI will not fund work that is primarily based in and of sole relevance to high-income countries. Proposals for research based in high-income countries with clear relevance to international development (e.g., international migration) may receive consideration.
The application must use the provided template, and should include:
Applicants should email their application materials to pdri-info@sas.upenn.edu with the subject line “PDRI graduate research grant application”.
Applications must be submitted by the deadline. Awards will be announced within 6 weeks of the application deadline.
Annual deadline: April 10th
Proposals will be assessed by an interdisciplinary panel of PDRI leadership and faculty affiliates. Each proposal will be assessed on the following criteria:
For further information and questions, contact PDRI at pdri-info@sas.upenn.edu.