Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) research commissioning centre: call for proposals

Closed: The FCDO invited proposals by 11 November 2022 to establish a commissioning centre and results platform. This will enable more agile and streamlined delivery of FCDO research, and increase impact and value for money of R&D investments.

• From: Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office
• Published: 23 September 2022
• Last updated: 30 September 2022 — See all updates

• Funds: Closed
• Countries: Bangladesh, Congo (Democratic Republic), Ethiopia, Ghana, India, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Liberia, Malawi, Mozambique, Myanmar, Nepal, Nigeria, Occupied Palestinian Territories, The, Pakistan, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, South Sudan, Sudan, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Uganda, Yemen, Zambia, Zimbabwe
• Sector: Agriculture, Climate change, Disabilities, Education, Empowerment and accountability, Environment, Girls and women, Health, Humanitarian emergencies/disasters, Livelihoods, Peace and access to justice, Private sector/business, Research, Technology, Trade, Water and sanitation
• Eligible organisations: UK-based non-profit organisations, Educational institutions
• Value of funding: More than £1,000,000

This opportunity closed on 11 November 2022.

The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) is launching an accountable grant competition to improve operational delivery and value for money of FCDO research.

This will be achieved by investing up to £25 million over 5 years to establish a commissioning centre. It will include testing and developing a streamlined commissioning process for delivery of research in FCDO priority areas, based on learning and best practice from other research-funding government departments and the wider sector.

FCDO will retain a full control over the scope and approach to research whilst embracing its existing sectoral partnerships and thematic research platforms.

What the fund will achieve

Building on the existing expertise within the sector, FCDO will establish a commissioning centre to test a develop improved approach to delivery of FCDO research using a limited pipeline of research projects, with an option of scaling up in the longer term.

The commissioning centre will have the infrastructure and capacity to manage research calls in any thematic area in development and diplomacy research, focusing on the International Development Strategy priority areas including:

• investment
• economic growth
• women and girls
• humanitarian
• climate change
• nature
• global health
• a portfolio of non-ODA R&D focussed on wider FCDO diplomacy and policy priorities

The improved delivery model will reduce current timescales for commissioning research, increase access to academic expertise and align FCDO closely with the sector, to reduce bureaucracy and deliver more timely research.

In addition, specialist functions within the commissioning centre will support FCDO with designing research, whilst strategic approach to uptake and new centralised platform for collating and communicating FCDO research results will further impact across range of FCDO international priorities.

The commissioning centre will also work closely with FCDO to develop a coherent identity to enhance the visibility of FCDO research and development investments.

FCDO held a virtual information session on Thursday 13 October 2022. Please refer to the Questions and Answers Note from the event.

If you have questions about this call for proposals, email: ResearchCommissioningCentre@fcdo.gov.uk.

In the interest of fairness and transparency, all questions and answers will be published on this website.

Published 23 September 2022
Last updated 30 September 2022 + show all updates

1. 30 September 2022

   Sector tags have been updated.

2. 23 September 2022

   First published.