Call For Abstracts: Women as Agents of Change Excellence in Research Prize
Date issued: December 23, 2021, 3pm (PST)
Deadline for submissions of abstracts: January 31, 2022, 11:59 PM (PST)
Overview
William Carey International University (WCIU) is pleased to announce a new funding opportunity, implemented through its Women Institute (WI). This Call for Abstracts (“Call”) aims to advance the accumulation and use of research evidence of women as agents of change in contributing to church leadership, development, health, marketplace, education/training, and intercultural studies. Whatever the area, the research must encompass both social action and evangelism.
This Call will support research on women-led and evidence-based projects that demonstrate a clear application of social action and evangelism to empower women and communities. The Call will address ways to support and scale-up women-led initiatives that promote holistic development in communities and/or of women in particular. The Call will support research projects that document and analyze evidence of women as agents of change, who lead holistic transformation in their communities. Prize winning papers (Maximum of three) will each receive an award of US$3000.
About WCIU
WCIU is a private faith-based university, established over 40 years ago to train development practitioners. It provides balanced, research-based educational programs leading to the improvement and furtherance of global development practices. WCIU’s mission is to provide innovative distance education programs to enhance the effectiveness of scholar-practitioners as they serve with others to develop transformational solutions to the roots of human problems around the world.
Background and Rationale
Globally, women are recognized as key players in development, from the smallest institutions (family units) to national, regional, and international spheres. Over the years, the perception is that women have participated in international development efforts mainly as beneficiaries. In the recent past, however, it is clear that women are more than mere passive beneficiaries, and are in many cases, change agents, who bring about transformational and holistic change in the communities where they serve. This paradigm shift calls for the generation and accumulation of well-documented practices and policies of women-led initiatives to better explore the contours of this change and to maximize the rich leadership potential of women globally.
Accumulating evidence of women as agents of change will influence the design of women-led programs and projects, donor investment, and support. The objective of this Call is to add to this body of evidence on how women act as leaders and examples of the changes in development outcomes produced by women's increased involvement and leadership roles in transformational development efforts.
Eligibility
This Call for Abstracts is open to individuals doing research work on women. The individuals will research and document evidence of women-led initiatives that clearly demonstrate that women are agents of change in their areas of influence. We encourage applications from individuals or consortia of individuals. Employees of WCIU and their family members are not eligible to apply.
Required information for the abstracts
Interested individuals that meet the eligibility criteria as described above, are encouraged to apply to this Call. The maximum length of an abstract is 500 words in English or 750 characters in Chinese.
The abstracts should include the following information:
the background for the research, and a clear statement of the problem that it intends to address (max. 100 English words/150 Chinese characters)
research purpose, objectives, research questions, and how these are relevant to affect intended change (max. 200 English words/300 Chinese characters)
research design and methodology (max. 100 English words/150 Chinese characters)
anticipated results, specifying how the research questions will help achieve them (max. 100 English words/150 Chinese characters)
Evaluation Criteria
Submitted Abstracts will be evaluated according to the following criteria and weighting:
Submission of final papers
Short-listed individuals will be invited to submit full final research papers maximum 5,000 words in English or 7,500 characters in Chinese. This will entail further elaboration of all aspects described in the Abstracts, including:
Background
Research objectives and questions
Research methodology
Ways in which the research intends to make an impact
Team composition and partnerships
Research ethics
Results
Conclusion and recommendations
Areas for further research
Final selection and grant negotiation
Upon submission of final papers by the researchers, the Women Institute Review Committee will evaluate the papers and choose the Prize recipients. In the event that no submissions meet the above criteria, no prizes will be awarded. Up to three best papers will be awarded a prize of US$3000 each. The paper must be an original piece that has not been previously published and will be submitted for editorial review of the WCIU Journal, the university’s peer-reviewed electronic journal on development.
Summary of Timelines
Additional Important Considerations
Research ethics
There might be cases (e.g., human subjects research) where applicants may need to obtain approval from the national research ethics body or an official institutional prior to commencing research. The applicants, in this case, are responsible for obtaining the research permit or approval from the official institutional or national research ethics body in their respective countries.
Permission for use, disclosure, and retention of information
By submitting an application under this Call, applicants consent to the disclosure of the documents they submitted to the reviewers within WCIU who are involved in the proposal assessment and selection process. Applicants further consent to the disclosure of their name, the name of the lead researcher, and the title of the research in any announcement of selected papers unless otherwise agreed upon between the applicant and WCIU WI.
All personal information collected by WCIU about grant applicants is used to review applications, administer and monitor grants, and promote and support development projects. In line with these purposes, applicants should note and expect that information collected by WCIU may be used and disclosed in WCIU-supported activities unless otherwise agreed upon between the applicant and WCIU WI.
Conflict of interest
In submitting an application, must declare to WCIU any real, apparent, or potential conflict of interest. If such conflict of interest cannot be resolved to WCIU’s satisfaction, WCIU reserves the right to immediately reject any applicant from consideration.