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Development Economics Center

About the Department

The Weiss Fund for Research in Development Economics supports innovative research projects that aim to improve the lives of people living in developing countries. The Fund also aims to attract talented researchers to the field of development economics and support them in producing creative, rigorous evidence to address complex challenges affecting less-developed countries. The Weiss Fund strives to create links to policy and implementation for the most relevant and promising research.

Since its launch in 2012, the Weiss Fund has supported over 200 projects led by 180 scholars at leading institutions. In 2019, the Fund began a global expansion with the donations of additional funds when Nobel laureates Abhijit Banerjee, Esther Duflo, and Michael Kremer committed the entirety of their \$1 million prize money to the Weiss Fund. At that time, CRI also drastically increased its commitment, pledging \$50 million to the Fund through 2035. To further broaden its impact, the Weiss Fund now offers funding opportunities to an expanded pool of eligible scholars at academic institutions around the world.

Job Summary

The job manages academic, research, clinical or administrative programs of the University.

The Weiss Fund for Research in Development Economics is seeking a full-time Weiss Fund Program Manager (WFPM) to manage the calls for proposals and grant awards, while leading research and communications projects to advance the aims of the Fund. The WFPM will work as part of a team to coordinate requests for proposals (RFPs) to fund development economics and implementation projects and disseminate results of Weiss Fund supported projects that have the potential to impact the lives of the poor at scale.

The WFPM will lead recruitment of new scholars, including by being the lead coordinator of the Kabir Banerjee predoctoral program. This will include significant outreach and creativity to recruit talented young scholars and to coordinate with the mentors at eligible institutions. The WFPM will also coordinate recruitment of researchers to apply for the Weiss Fund. For example, the Fund recently added a self nomination process for Junior Faculty that the WFPM will help advertise and administer.

Finally, the WFPM will lead policy and communications for the Weiss Fund, including highlighting successes on the website, conducting outreach on social media, advertising the Funds\' opportunities, and leading the coordination of a high-level policy event in Washington DC.

The ideal candidate will have a strong interest in rigorous development economics research, be a self-starter who thrives working both independently, with minimal supervision, and as part of small teams, juggling multiple responsibilities concurrently.

Responsibilities

Develop and refine processes and procedures for running the funding process, communication with grantees, tracking projects, and annual reporting to the donor(s).

Help manage the proposal application, review, selection and award process.

Support development of programmatic strategies and execute the vision of the Weiss Committee and funders.

Support the process of expanding the Weiss Fund to support researchers based at a variety of institutions and in other countries, including in developing countries.

Help manage other programs, including a pre-doctoral fellowship program, through which the Weiss Fund aims to identify promising students from low- and lower-middle income countries, and support them to complete a pre-doctoral fellowship with top researchers in development economics.

Work closely with the Weiss Team to manage key relationships, including with the major funder(s), Weiss Committee membe s and other academics.

Manage communications with and reporting to Fund donors, including developing and collecting appropriate outcome and impact metrics.

Support organization of communication and dissemination of promising Weiss Fund research. Lead the organization of a high-level Weiss conference in DC, in fall 2024 or spring 2025.

Build and maintain distribution lists to announce calls for proposals and other solicitations.

Lead a communications strategy to highlight the successes of the Weiss Fund and to actively recruit more participation. This includes updating the Weiss Fund website and collating and amplifying success stories of Weiss-Funded research.

Support matchmaking opportunities between researchers and policy implementers, and organization of academic and non-academic events.

Help build a pipeline of researchers from low- and lower-middle income countries.

Oversee the Kabir Banerjee Predoctoral Fellowship. This includes launching an aggressive recruitment campaign to recruit strong talent into the profession, especially from countries that are underrepresented in the profession.

Manage the self-nomination process for Junior Faculty. This is a new portal that allows an