Learn how this approach is addressing the critical need for funding innovative, locally grounded research.
To support research in its Economics and Human Flourishing priority in a broader and more equitable way, the Templeton World Charity Foundation (TWCF) developed an innovative method for identifying potential grantees in or with direct relevance beyond high-income country settings. Known as the “champions approach,” the strategy leverages the expertise and networks of leading economists from around the world which, in turn, enables the foundation to support high-potential research in majority world countries that may have otherwise gone unnoticed.
"We often hear, ‘This is the first time I’ve been recognized by a granting agency for my work,’" said Tracey Farquharson, senior program officer and program director for the foundation’s Economics and Human Flourishing priority. “The champions approach not only helps us find hidden gems, but also empowers researchers, offering them visibility and credibility across a broader funding community.”
Launched in tandem with the foundation’s Economic and Human Flourishing Research Fund (EHF), which aims to identify grantees in historically underfunded regions, the champions approach aims to open up new pathways for funding that is both inclusive and impactful. Particularly in global contexts, where challenges can vary dramatically across geographies, it has translated into selecting grantees better equipped to navigate the sorts of cultural, economic, and political differences that can make or break the success – and sustainability – of a project.
Dr. Esteban Ortiz-Ospina’s early interaction with TWCF as a grantee helped shape his perspective on the critical need for funding innovative, locally grounded research.
“I was teaching Economics at Oxford when my career drifted toward the non-profit,” says Ortiz-Ospina, an Honorary Researcher at the Oxford Martin School and Executive Co-Director of Global Change Data Lab, the non-profit organization that publishes and maintains Our World in Data.
“We received a grant from Templeton. I had a good impression working with them, and vice versa,” he says. “They knew of my research, knew I was from Colombia, so they reached out and asked if I would be a champion.”
As a grantee, Ortiz-Ospina – who has a reputation for bridging academic research and practical institutional work – experienced TWCF’s support as being in stark contrast to what he refers to as “the hierarchical discipline of economics” where the most prestigious institutions, journals, and universities tend to attract the most funding.
“A lot of emerging researchers are not on the radar of some of the more accredited and prestigious publications,” says Farquharson. “Leveraging our network of champions can give their work a new level of credibility and raise the chance for wider recognition.”
For Ortiz-Ospina, the motivation to champion Santiago Tobón Zapata stemmed from two critical factors – the relevance and importance of Tobón Zapata’s work, and the systemic barriers that often prevent such research from receiving adequate funding.
As Ortiz-Ospina tells it, Tobón Zapata (whose work is pictured above) exemplified a grantee who was operating outside of the mainstream academic networks typically prioritized in economics. A Professor of Economics at EAFIT University in Medellín, he had dedicated his research to addressing not a fancy complex problem that would attract the attention of a prestigious publication, but a longstanding and deeply entrenched problem— understanding the socio-economic drivers behind gang recruitment.
“I wanted to understand the context better,” says Tobón Zapata. “Most policies that try to address organized crime are designed without much context – both on the law enforcement side and in terms of prevention.”
The challenge was data. How to measure gang recruitment required out of the box thinking and qualitative, subjective methods. To make sense of the problem, Tobón Zapata set about defining data sets with no precedent, and then went to extraordinary and sometimes dangerous lengths to get that data.
“When I approached him, I didn’t know what was next in the research agenda after the initial data collection,” says Ortiz-Ospina. “The first round of work was about understanding the co-existence of legal and illegal structures in Medellín – like guns that are used for good and bad.
“It was clear that ultimately the end game was a policy question, how to work with the local government to architect social programs.” Ortiz-Ospina urged Tobón Zapata to draft a grant proposal to articulate what he would spend the money on, and supported him with feedback and advice based on his own experience as a grantee.
“So much of economic research is about prioritizing more abstract complex matters rather than difficult relevant problems,” says Ortiz-Ospina. “Incentives are often aligned to publish in big journals with fancy methodologies, so it’s more difficult to get funding for other projects. TWCF offered an opportunity to help someone get funding for work that is really important.”
A former lead economist at the World Bank, Wolfgang Fengler aimed to create a platform to make data more relevant, and enable researchers to provide short answers to big questions. As co-Founder and CEO of World Data Lab (WDL) – a data science organization focused on creating open-access, cutting-edge tools that provide real-time insights into demographic trends, consumer spending, and the progress of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) – he is in the unique position of being a TWCF grantee, as well as a universal champion for TWCF grantees and non-grantees alike.
“Things that need to be simplified in order to become scalable, this has not happened in the data space,” says Fengler, whose aim is to help everyone engage with data interactively and intuitively. “We put numbers into geographic context to show the impact or highlight a denominator – the big picture – whether for a grantee or a private sector company.”
Founded with support from TWCF, WDL has pioneered groundbreaking research on Internet Poverty, focused on tackling the digital divide by identifying and analyzing disparities in access to affordable internet worldwide. The partnership enhances WDL’s mission to democratize data access and deliver scalable, real-time solutions that are both locally relevant and globally transformative, while affording researchers access to tools, expertise, and a global network to help them frame regional challenges in both analytic and strategic ways.
“There are two approaches in giving,” says Fengler. “In the US, institutions give primarily to US institutions. Or they give to grass roots organizations. What’s often missing is global reach. We provide good data sets and data science globally, even for places as [inaccessible] as North Korea.”
Far from being merely transactional, the relationship between a champion and a grantee often evolves into one of collaboration, mentorship, and shared purpose in advancing impactful research – an intellectual and strategic partnership with champions helping to guide researchers through the complexities of presenting their work, and researchers offering novel insights that can address critical social, economic, or political issues.
“Even if a potential grantee is not successful in terms of securing a grant from TWCF, many researchers report that the process has time and again proved to be instructive,” says Farquharson. “It helps potential grantees learn more about what funders are looking for, and to refine their narrative accordingly.”
For Ortiz-Ospina, the experience yielded many positive externalities, from helping to strengthen the local capacity of researchers to amplifying the reputation of a Colombian university and local institution in Bogotá. For Tobón Zapata, receiving a substantial grant from a prominent international foundation like TWCF helped shine a spotlight on critical research that might otherwise have been overlooked – interventions for at-risk children that could potentially scale to other cities in the region facing similar problems.
“Personally, I’m very grateful to Esteban and TWCF for their support,” says Tobón Zapata.
By eschewing conventional grantmaking methods in favor of its champions approach – identifying and directly funding researchers in low- and middle-income countries – TWCF is building local capacity for global challenges.
“We don’t always know what threats exist to the extent that champions do,” says Farquharson. “They have a good sense of the regions in which they work or live, so we rely on their expertise and networks to help identify emerging researchers and areas of study that, historically, have had less visibility.”
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