Global Development Awards and Medals Competition

The Global Development Network (GDN) is an independent International Organization that allies researchers and institutes in development globally. GDN supports researchers in developing and transition countries to generate and share applied social science research to advance social and economic development. GDN’s core business is building research capacity. Its aspiration is to achieve a critical mass of researchers who are globally interconnected and produce good research to impact public policy.

Each year, GDN holds the Global Development Awards and Medals Competition, the largest annual international competition for research on development. Launched in 2000 with the support of the Government of Japan, this competition seeks to unearth new talent and support innovative ideas on development. Nearly 7,000 researchers representing more than 100 countries throughout the developing and transition world have participated in this competition to date. Almost US$ 2.2 million has been distributed in prizes and travel to finalists and winners.

The Competition specifically impacts young researchers and development practitioners from low income and developing countries. The main purpose of the competition is to channelize funds to where other types of funding cannot reach.

In the past GDN has supported multidisciplinary research on a range of issues including global health concerns and domestic responses; pro-poor market reform; changes in global trade; industrial development and long-term growth; governance and development, reforms, interest groups and civil society; conflict, human security and migration; and the role of institutions for development in the context of globalization.

The competition is held in three categories:

Category 1: The Japanese Award for Most Innovative Development Project is a competitive grant program that provides development practitioners the opportunity to compete for grants to help scale up their innovative project. The grants are awarded to projects and/or organizations that are carrying out original and path-breaking work in the development field and meet certain set criteria. These projects are not theme based. However, the projects need to contribute to sustainable development.

Category 2: Japanese Award for Outstanding Research on Development is for research proposals that seek to explore any of the three competition themes (announced around July every year) in an original, innovative and policy-relevant way.

Category 3: Medals for Research on Development are for completed research papers of outstanding nature on any of the three competition themes (announced around July every year).

Related Links: 1) www.gdnet.org 2) www.gdnet.org/~2011_awards