Call for Proposals for Research Projects in the Fields of Money, Banking and Financial Economics

The Banque de France Foundation for Research is pleased to announce its call for proposals for research projects. The total amount earmarked for the call may reach EUR 120,000, allocated to a maximum of four projects. The amount of the research grants will be determined by the project financing plans.

The objective is to attract academic research projects that lead to topical papers in the field of monetary, financial and banking economics. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, theoretical or empirical work in the following areas:

• Monetary policy and prices (including asset prices): monetary policy strategy and uncertainty, interaction with financial variables, micro data and nominal rigidities, interaction with fiscal policies, exchange rate policies, unconventional monetary policies and normalisation.
• Potential growth: productivity, rigidities, structural reforms.
• Financial stability: competition, liquidity, pro-cyclicality, macroprudential regulation; risk assessment (systemic or micro-level), financial crises, financial regulation.
• Financial institutions and financial markets: green finance, financial innovation, corporate finance, balance sheet structures.
• International macro: global imbalances, international coordination, globalisation and growth.

Projects should result in a research paper suitable for submission to a major international journal. Laureates must commit to presenting their work at a seminar organized by the Foundation in the two years following the grant. In addition, a member of the research team should commit to visiting a research centre (university, research lab, etc.) located in France or at the Banque de France, for a minimum of one week, during the research period or on the occasion of the above-mentioned seminar.

Who can apply?

The Foundation is committed to equality and diversity. To ensure that its sponsorship reflects the diversity of today’s world, the Foundation ensures that its selection procedures guarantee equal opportunities, treatment and access to all candidates, regardless of their sex, race, colour, ethnic or social origins, genetic features, language, religion or belief, political or other opinion, membership of a national minority, wealth, birth, disability, age or sexual orientation. The concrete steps the Foundation has taken to turn equal opportunities and diversity into a working reality include:

• The Foundation seeks to ensure that committees and councils are balanced, so as to limit the risks of discrimination or subjectivity. To this end, it appoints members from diverse backgrounds and seeks to ensure a balance in terms of nationalities, languages and gender.
• It reminds the members of the committees and councils in charge of assessing the applications about the values of equality of opportunity and equality of treatment.
• In order to support mixed teams comprising both women and men, as well as teams of young researchers, the Foundation strives to ensure that when comparing equal projects, projects proposed by mixed teams and/or young researchers are given priority (see pre-selection below). A mixed team is taken to mean a team comprising both male and female researchers. A team of young researchers is taken to mean a team whose most experienced member defended his/her Ph.D. thesis less than six years ago.

The Foundation aims to fund at least one project proposed by a team of young researchers. In order to support international cooperation, especially cooperation within the European Union (EU) as well as cooperation between the EU and non-EU countries, applications are restricted to teams with at least one member whose primary affiliation is with an institution based in the EU.

The same researcher cannot be awarded more than three research grants by the Foundation over a ten year moving period.

Schedule

8 December 2019: deadline for submission.

Mid-January 2020: pre-selection of about eight research projects for the selection seminar. Pre-selection is performed by the Evaluation Committee based on the following eight criteria, each one receiving an equal weight on a 1-3 scale.

• Is the research agenda clear?
• Is it relevant?
• Is it realistically feasible?
• Is it innovative?
• Is it an international collaboration?

Applications are restricted to teams with at least one member whose primary affiliation is with an institution based in the EU. Among eligible teams, a grade of 3 is allocated to multi-country teams with at least one member based in France, a grade of 2 is allocated to teams comprising only researcher(s) based in France or other multi-country teams, and a grade of 1 is allocated to eligible teams with all members in the same country and which country is not France.

• What are the team's credentials with regard to the subjects proposed?
• Is it a mixed team comprising both women and men?

For this criterion, a grade of 3 is allocated to teams comprising both male and female researchers, as well as to teams made up of only one researcher, and a grade of 1 is allocated to teams involving several researchers of the same gender.

• Does the team comprise young researchers?

For this criterion, a grade of 3 is allocated to teams whose most experienced member defended his/her Ph.D. thesis less than six years ago, a grade of 2 is allocated to teams comprising at least one researcher who defended his/her Ph.D. thesis less than six years ago, and a grade of 1 is allocated to teams that do not meet the two preceding conditions.

Between end-January 2020 and mid-February 2020: selection seminar (45 minute presentation of the project to the Evaluation Committee, video-conference is possible).

Between mid-February 2020 and mid-March 2020: The Board awards the research grants based on a proposal by the Evaluation Committee.

How to apply?

The submission form is available on the Banque de France Foundation’s website https://fondation.banquefrance.fr, (page on sponsorship/research grants). Application forms should be sent by email by 8 December 2019, to fondation.rech@banque-france.fr The Banque de France Foundation will acknowledge receipt of the applications at the earliest opportunity.