Research Commissioning Centre

The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) Research Commissioning Centre (RCC) has been established to commission and manage research to enhance development and foreign policy impact.

Led by the International Initiative for Impact Evaluation (3ie), the University of Birmingham, and an unmatched consortium of UK and global research partners, the RCC aims to commission different types of high-quality research in FCDO’s key priority areas.

About the RCC

The RCC provides support to FCDO teams for commissioning and delivering high-quality and impactful research. It addresses challenges associated with research bureaucracy, as highlighted by the Independent Review of Research Bureaucracy, by providing a streamlined process for commissioning and delivering FCDO-funded research.

How we work

The RCC aims to reduce administrative burden, accelerate access to world class academics and strengthen the ability to deliver rapid and responsive research commissioning, all with a focus on impact. The RCC will start with a limited number of projects in the proof-of-concept phase, and then scale up significantly within a few years. A central role of the RCC will enable stronger coordination across FCDO research and investments, including identifying opportunities for cross-sectoral research. Inclusion and equitable partnership principles will be at the heart of the RCC to drive high-quality and impactful research.

How to apply

If selected, RCC funding recipients will be required to comply with several guidelines and policies to ensure high standards of research and programme delivery. Shortlisted funding recipients will be assessed for compliance during the due diligence process. Potential funding recipients are encouraged to familiarise themselves with the following resources, which will be used throughout the delivery of RCC-funded projects.

Note: In case of any discrepancies between the FCDO’s PrOF guidance and 3ie’s policies, the PrOF guidance will prevail.
*Applicants are not required to fill in the risk register template at the Calls for Proposals stage. This resource is included for information only.

Research programmes

Understanding the impacts of El Niño and the Indian Ocean Dipole in the Indo-Pacific

As part of an RCC-commissioned project, 3ie is leading the development of a systematic review to examine the evidence on the effects of El Niño and the positive Indian Ocean Dipole on health, economics, conflict migration, food and security across low- and middle-income countries in the Indo-Pacific Region. The protocol for this review and additional information on this project is available here.

At the moment we don’t have any open opportunity
RCC_Uruguay_deadline date

Call for proposals: Studying the effects of climate change and variability on water resources in Uruguay

Closed

On behalf of the FCDO Research Commissioning Centre, 3ie invites proposals from organisations or consortia to assess the impact of climate change and variability as well as socio-economic activities on water resources in Uruguay and to recommend sustainable strategies for water resource management and adaptation.

deadline date

Call for proposals: Adopting a behavioural science lens to improve the impact of FCDO’s technology and innovation investments: a portfolio review

Closed

On behalf of the FCDO Research Commissioning Centre, 3ie invites proposals from organisations or consortia to conduct a review of FCDO’s technology and innovation portfolio and its current use of behavioural science.

deadline closed

Call for proposals: Systematic review on the impact of climate change on rail operations in Turkey

Closed
On behalf of the FCDO Research Commissioning Centre, 3ie invites proposals from organisations or consortia to conduct a systematic review of the impact of climate change on rail operations in Turkey.

RCC

Call for proposals: Systematic review on shadow economy in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Georgia, Moldova, Cyprus and Malta: evidence on policy actions

Closed
On behalf of the FCDO Research Commissioning Centre, 3ie invites proposals from organisations or consortia to conduct a systematic review of the shadow economy in the Baltics. The aim of this research is to identify evidence-informed policy options to tackle the shadow economy across Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Cyprus, Georgia, and Moldova.

Upcoming opportunities

In this section, we will provide information about upcoming opportunities, also known as prior information notices, coming from the RCC. These opportunities will cover a range of development and diplomacy topics. If interested, please sign up to the mailing list for more updates and to track the opportunity.

Evidence on Evidence Use Programme

While the case for evidence use in policymaking is difficult to refute, with more than 40 years of research and drive to increase evidence uptake in policy, barriers to evidence use remain and governance around evidence use remains weak. Barriers are particularly strong in low- and lower-middle-income countries. Most of the current research on the use of evidence in policymaking has engaged in a limited manner with the political and institutional nature of decision-making. Improving the use of evidence in policy will require the establishment of principles of what would constitute good evidence to inform policy, along with good use of evidence within a policy process.

We will issue a call for proposals for research to understand and generate evidence on the barriers, facilitators, politics, institutional factors around evidence use and to identify effective policies, interventions and institutions that have helped bridge the gap between evidence and policy. This will focus on evidence use and uptake within developing countries, with a particular focus on evidence use within policymaking for economic development.

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