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USAID explained

Image: USAID Digital Development [CC BY 2.0], via Flickr

What is next for the world’s largest governmental aid organisation?

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 GDP.

Spending is channelled through the US Agency for International Development, for which research and innovation is a key area of funding. For researchers looking to apply their work to challenges in global development, USAID is therefore a need-to-know funding body.

Ticora Jones, deputy for research at the USAID Innovation, Technology and Research Hub, says the agency spent at least $400 million on research and innovation between 2018 and 2020, but spending varies significantly across its different thematic areas. “Some of our strongest research programmes are in global health, as well as resilience, agriculture and food security,” she says. 

But Jones gives a substantial list of other fields where USAID is also active, including economic growth, energy, education, water and sanitation, gender equality, democracy, human rights and climate change. The last is something the administration of US president Joe Biden is particularly looking to go big on.

In terms of how research funding is distributed, Jones explains that there are opportunities through several avenues due to the way USAID is structured. The first port of call for a researcher based in a country receiving international aid is the USAID country mission, Jones says. However, to contribute on projects with a wider scope, funding opportunities can be found centrally through the US government’s online platform, grants.gov, or through individual USAID bureaux for specific areas. 

There are also major USAID-funded programmes coordinated by external organisations that can independently offer ‘sub-awards’. For instance, Feed the Future Innovation Labs, based at US universities, offer sub-awards focused on food security.

And then there are research and innovation schemes run directly by USAID. These include the Development Innovation Ventures programme, which looks for technical solutions to development challenges and is open to applicants anywhere in the world, and the Partnerships for Enhanced Engagement in Research programme, which brings together researchers in the US and the global south.

Targeted approach

Jones advises that applicants “be very targeted in what they’re looking for” when they view potential avenues for funding from USAID. Programmes such as the Development Innovation Ventures are very popular, Jones says, because they are open so broadly. To stand a chance of attracting funding, researchers should understand how the agency works and make sure this comes through in the bid.

“Approaching USAID [without] at least a base level understanding of where our priorities might be in a country or in the technical area makes an applicant less attractive,” Jones says. “But if you have something that’s emergent, that could be utilising new tools like artificial intelligence or machine learning, or other tools like that, and you’re connecting them to where our current priorities are, those things can be more interesting.”

One thing that applicants should bear in mind, Jones says, is that, as a development agency, USAID is focused on making evidence-based decisions on development priorities. For this reason, she explains, the agency will “lean more heavily into applied versus basic research” for improving development outcomes. “We have some space for exploratory work,” Jones says, but “we don’t have the same kinds of space that the National Science Foundation might have for that kind of expansive work.”

She stresses that researchers should not see USAID funding simply as a means to publish more scientific papers. “We, as an agency, work to ensure that we find ways to adapt and use the research that people are generating,” Jones says, adding that it is “always a plus” to acknowledge the importance of research translation when working on development issues.

Presidential support

Alongside a greater focus on climate change, the recent change of government in the US could herald a bigger role for the research and innovation wing of USAID. Jones hopes the US government’s “renewed interest in scientific research, scientific integrity and evidence-based decision-making will allow USAID to increase investments in research and innovation in the coming years”.

The agency itself is undergoing changes to support a greater role for research and innovation, including a new internal advisory group, which will be led by an agency chief scientist who is yet to be selected.

The amount of additional funding USAID will have to work with will depend on lawmakers in the US Congress, who have started the process of drawing up legislation for government spending in fiscal year 2022. But Jones sounds optimistic: “The White House, as it put forward [its] budget, leaned more heavily into supporting development, and within that, how it supports science and technology.” 

This is an extract from an article in Research Professional’s Funding Insight service. To subscribe contact sales@researchresearch.com