International Centre For Tax And Development (ICTD) PhD Scholarships 2023-2024

Deadline: March 15, 2023

The ICTD will fund up to four PhD students from countries in Africa and South Asia to start in September 2023.

The International Centre for Tax and Development (ICTD) is a research center aiming to improve tax policy and administration in lower-income countries through collaborative research and engagement. The ICTD’s primary base is the Institute of Development Studies (IDS), at the University of Sussex in Brighton (UK). The ICTD is funded by the British and Norwegian governments and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Scholarship

Students will receive full scholarships including university fees, a stipend in line with UK research council funding (currently 17,668 GBP per year), and other benefits such as funds to attend conferences, cover visa costs, and part of relocation expenses.

Eligibility

To be eligible for funding, PhD projects should focus on taxation in African and/or south Asian countries. Within the broad area, candidates can focus on any issue of their own interest.
While projects do not need to fall within one of our existing research programmes, candidates may find it helpful to review the research portfolio of the ICTD and its individual Fellows on the ICTD website. The ICTD is a multidisciplinary center: as such, suitable proposals can take any disciplinary or interdisciplinary approach, including those coming from economics, political science, and anthropology, amongst others. We expect this scholarship to be very competitive.

Evaluation Criteria

The academic quality of the research proposal: Some of the elements that the reviewers will consider, amongst others, are: is the topic relevant to policy and research? Is it sufficiently linked to existing knowledge? Are the methods appropriate and robust? Is the proposed study feasible?
Candidates’ profiles, including skills and experience: Preference will be given to candidates with relevant work experience. A good result in a Master’s degree is also essential for admission to the PhD programme at Sussex/IDS.
Fit with supervisors’ and ICTD’s research interests: Availability of supervisors with relevant research interests and knowledge of relevant methods. We will also consider how projects complement ICTD’s research portfolio.

To be considered, both the applicant’s nationality and the main focus of the project should be countries in Africa or south Asia, though it is not necessary for projects to have a single-country focus.

Application

Applications for the ICTD scholarship should be submitted using the dedicated form by 15 March 2023 (deadline 23.59 BST). Applicants are not required to have submitted an application for a PhD place at the University of Sussex before applying for the ICTD scholarship, nor to have identified a potential supervisor. Shortlisted candidates will be encouraged to do so between 31 March and 8 May 2023.