Competition Policy and Power Research Fund

Deadline Date: April 30, 2024

Donor Name: Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations (SOMO)

Grant Size: $10,000 to $100,000

Applications are now open for the Competition Policy and Power Research Fund to promote research that will help combat excessive market power, by bridging gaps in current knowledge and supporting practical advances and innovations in the use of competition and anti-trust tools.

The Competition Policy and Power Research Fund seeks to build connections between researchers in this field and thereby promote a strong international and interdisciplinary network of researchers working on competition and monopoly power.

The Call is broad in scope, but the projects proposed should show how the research can advance, in concrete ways, the anti-monopoly agenda. This could be through links to policy advocacy, engagement with regulatory authorities or involve more innovative approaches to impact. It is also important that proposals can demonstrate what gap the research will fill and how it will be used by the proposing entity to achieve impact. Activities to share and workshop the research with key stakeholders can be covered by the Fund, but the expectation is the funding will primarily support research.

They encourage two types of research proposal:

• Proposals for short-term/quick turn-around research with a clear link to policy opportunities or work with regulatory bodies (duration: 6 months – 1 year)
• Research that helps address critical gaps in knowledge and proposes innovative approaches (up to two years in duration)

Funding Information

• Grant awards will be up to a maximum of USD 60,000. While there is a maximum, they do not expect all proposals to reach this amount, and they encourage proposals that are focused and seek smaller amounts of funding for specific research initiatives. They will examine budgets and may engage short-listed applicants on budget questions. A budget line for overhead should not exceed 10%.

Eligibility Criteria

• In this inaugural Call for Proposals, they are seeking applications from civil society and academic organisations for research grants on the theme of competition policy and concentrated corporate power.
• With this Call for Proposals they also seek to encourage the involvement of early career researchers, including but not limited to post-doctoral researchers, in proposals. Research proposals that include roles for, and build the capacity of, researchers in the early stages of their research career will be given priority.
• They encourage applications from all countries and regions and will seek to award research grants to a broad diversity of applicants.
• All successful applicants will be invited to present their research at an international conference to be held in 2025

Criteria

• They will prioritize proposals which meet the following criteria:
  • Clarity on how the research will advance policy reform and/or regulatory enforcement and/or advance the anti-monopoly agenda.
  • Innovative, novel approaches to addressing monopoly power.
  • Interdisciplinary, multi-country research team.
  • A clear plan for how the research will reach relevant stakeholders.
  • Proposals that include roles for and build the capacity of early career researchers.

For more information, visit SOMO.