RFP: Human Trafficking Research Initiative Grant

The Human Trafficking Research Initiative (HTRI), funded by the U.S. Department of State’s Program to End Modern Slavery, aims to enhance evidence on impactful anti-trafficking programs through rigorous research. HTRI seeks proposals for small research pilots, seed money for developing research ideas, and grants for data work using existing datasets. Funding ranges from $10,000 to $75,000, depending on the project type, focusing on evaluations that demonstrate potential impact in the field.

HTRI is funded by the Program to End Modern Slavery (PEMS) at the U.S. Department of State’s Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons. The primary focus of HTRI funding is to strengthen the evidence around potentially impactful programs using rigorous research methods. HTRI will consider human trafficking research projects that fall under any or all of the four Ps (Prevention, Protection, Prosecution, Partnership).
All research proposed under these seed grants should be in service of examining data or research plans or piloting studies that lead towards impact evaluations (randomized control trials or quasi experimental studies). Research that is primarily qualitative or descriptive will NOT be considered for funding under HTRI. For more information on impact evaluations, please visit https://poverty-action.org/rigorous-research.
In this round, HTRI will consider proposals that include:
Small research pilots of promising interventions: These are grants that would fund the cost of pilot research to assess the feasibility and value of a larger research project. These grants are intended to be the first step of formal research for promising interventions and anti-trafficking activities. Programs with monitoring and evaluation data, administrative data, and/or sound theories of change that indicate promising impact would be a good fit for this grant. Awards for pilot studies are between $10,000 to $75,000 per pilot.Seed money for a travel grant or staff time to build on nascent research ideas: These grants are to develop preliminary research ideas and help researchers develop subsequent proposals for pilots or full randomized evaluations. Activities may include travel, relationship development, descriptive analysis, observational analysis, and data development or collection. These grants are primarily meant for junior faculty, PhD students, and other researchers who do not have other sources of funding for travel and exploratory work. We anticipate funding between $10,000 and $30,000 per award.Small grants for data work using existing sources to examine program impact: These are small grants that will support researchers to use a partner’s administrative data or other existing data sets, conduct desk research to deepen previous research analysis, or create new analysis to help inform research project design and viability. We expect to see applications either explain how existing analysis could be improved or potentially be used to draw additional conclusions. Preference will be given to applicants who chart how their results can influence future research (specifically impact evaluations). We anticipate funding awards of up to $15,000.