Call for Applications: 2025 CFI Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) Research Grant — Up to $40,000 in Funding

Illustrative Image: Call for Applications: 2025 CFI Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) Research Grant — Up to $40,000 in Funding
Image Source & Credit: Startupnews

Ownership and Usage Policy

The Center for Financial Inclusion (CFI) invites researchers, institutions, and cross-sector collaborators to apply for the 2025 Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) Research Grant Program. This initiative offers up to $40,000 USD per grant to support innovative and policy-relevant research focused on the development, governance, and impact of digital public infrastructure globally.

🌐 What is Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI)?

Digital public infrastructure refers to the foundational digital systems that enable essential services such as digital identity, payments, and data exchange. DPI includes open, inclusive, and interoperable platforms that support service delivery in finance, health, education, and beyond. Well-implemented DPI can foster economic inclusion, innovation, and governance transparency—but it also raises complex questions around equity, sustainability, accountability, and trust.

The 2025 CFI DPI Research Grant seeks to generate timely, evidence-based insights that help shape resilient, inclusive, and trusted DPI ecosystems in diverse country contexts.

🔬 Research Focus Areas

CFI is particularly interested in research projects that:

• Evaluate User Outcomes: Investigate how services delivered via DPI platforms impact end-users, particularly in terms of accountability, consumer protection, trust, value creation, and innovation.

• Sustainability & Scalability: Explore how DPI systems can evolve from donor-supported pilots to financially sustainable and institutionally embedded infrastructures that remain open and transparent.

• Governance & Accountability: Analyze how emerging governance models — especially those involving the private sector — influence system interoperability, innovation, accountability, and public trust.

• Consumer Protection & User-Centric Design: Highlight innovations that ensure user rights are protected, including grievance mechanisms, feedback loops, and user-centric monitoring tools.

• Impact on Services Delivery: Assess the effects of DPI on the delivery of financial and non-financial services, and explore how it influences market dynamics, competition, and inclusion.

• Comparative Insights: Draw lessons from advanced DPI implementations in countries like India and Brazil, using comparative methodologies to analyze adoption, governance, and impact.

• Beyond Financial Access: Study how DPI drives broader socio-economic outcomes, extending the focus beyond financial inclusion to its role in education, healthcare, and social welfare systems.

✅ Eligibility Criteria

• Open to independent researchers, academic institutions, think tanks, research organizations, and multi-stakeholder partnerships.

• Encourages joint proposals and cross-institutional collaboration.

• Projects must be country-focused, with a preference for:

  • Fieldwork or case studies in low- and middle-income countries.

  • Locally grounded research with strong policy relevance.

  • Comparative or multi-country studies with clear added value.

Researchers based in the Global South or proposing work in these regions are especially encouraged to apply.

💼 Grant Benefits & Support

• Up to $40,000 USD in funding per research project, based on scope and methodology.

• Research must be completed within six months of grant award.

• Grantees will benefit from:

  • Opportunities to share findings with global policymakers, practitioners, and DPI stakeholders.

  • Participation in consultative gatherings, policy dialogues, and expert convenings.

  • Access to CFI’s platform for collaborative inquiry and international visibility.

📩 How to Apply

Interested applicants can [CLICK HERE TO APPLY] through the official application portal.

For those passionate about shaping the next generation of inclusive and resilient infrastructure systems, this is a powerful opportunity to influence global practice through rigorous, field-informed research.