Brushing up on the US development funder’s priorities is job number one before submitting bids
Top tips
- USAID has several funding streams and many are accessible to researchers around the world.
- The first port of call for researchers in countries receiving aid should be via the agency’s country mission.
- First-time applicants should take time to understand how USAID functions before applying.
- USAID mostly supports applied research and, as such, impact is more of a priority than contributing to the academic literature.
In 2020, the United States spent more than $35 billion in international aid—a figure that tops the leaderboard of countries in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, despite the US spending half the OECD average in terms of percentage of gross domestic product.