In honour of Terry Smutylo's (founding director of the Evaluation Unit) long commitment and work to promote evaluation as a contributor to positive change, organizational learning, and improved effectiveness in international development, the Evaluation Unit has established a research awards competition.  These awards will assist Canadian and developing-country graduate students undertake their thesis research in the field of evaluation. The IDRC Graduate Research Awards on Evaluation are intended to promote the growth of Canadian and developing-country capacity in evaluation and to better the theory and practice of evaluation.  Normally, such research is conducted in Latin America, Africa, the Middle East, or Asia.

Eligible Fields of Study

• Developing innovative evaluation methodologies;
• Researching the utilization of evaluation methodologies;
• Developing evaluation processes for organizational learning;
• Researching the utilization of evaluation processes for organizational learning;
• Capacity building in evaluation and evaluative thinking: research on improving capabilities, professional competencies and tools needed to conduct better evaluation.

Preferences will be given to research corresponding to IDRC's research priorities.

These awards will not be granted for:

• Evaluative research that only judges the effectiveness of particular development interventions (projects, programs, activities, etc.).

 Eligibility

• Hold Canadian citizenship or permanent residency status in Canada, or hold a citizenship of a developing country;
• Be registered at a Canadian university or a recognized university in a developing country;
• Research proposal is for a doctoral or master?s thesis and has been approved by the thesis supervisor;
• Proposed field research will take place in a developing country
• Provide evidence of affiliation with an institution or organization in the region in which the research will take place;
• For doctoral candidates, completed course work and passed comprehensive examinations by the time of award tenure.  For master?s students, have completed course work.

Value of Award

The award will cover justifiable field research expenses to a maximum of $20,000 per year. Candidates may apply for a renewal of funding for a second year of fieldwork if the nature of the research requires a second season of data collection. Renewals will be the exception.

Number of Awards

2 per year.

Deadline

Applications must be received by January 15, 2009.

Applications

Applications will be evaluated according to criteria, such as relevance to sustainable and equitable development and to IDRC priorities, quality of the research proposal and suitability of the candidate.

Re-applicants, whose research proposal was reviewed and was unsuccessful, must explain, in a covering letter, what changes have been made since the last application and specify where to find the changes in the proposal.  Please note that Centre policy stipulates that an individual cannot apply more than twice, if unsuccessful, for the same IDRC award.  However, this policy does not apply for Internship Awards.

If there are ethical questions connected with the research, the applicant may, at IDRC's discretion, be required to submit the appropriate approval from the Ethic's Committee of the University.

Please submit all documents listed in the List of Supporting Documents to be Submitted. Complete applications must be received at the Centre by the deadline. Incomplete applications will NOT be considered for the competition.  Applications must be sent to the following address:

By regular mail, Canada Post Priority Post or XPRESSPOST: 

IDRC Graduate Research Awards on Evaluation 
Centre Training and Awards Program (CTAP)
International Development Research Centre (IDRC)
P.O. Box 8500
Ottawa, Ontario
K1G 3H9 - Canada

By courier services:      

IDRC Graduate Research Awards on Evaluation
Centre Training and Awards Program (CTAP)
International Development Research Centre (IDRC)
150 Kent Street, Mailroom Suite 990
Ottawa, Ontario
K1P 0B2 - Canada

Fax: (1 613) 567-7748
Telephone: (1 613) 236-6163 ext. 2098
E-mail: cta@idrc.ca

We thank all applicants for their interest and will contact those candidates whose academic background, quality of the research proposal and skills best match the criteria of the Award.