The Open Window funds quality impact evaluations of interventions aimed at improving social and economic development in low and middle-income countries. It accepts proposals on any theme, and there are no pre-established funding limits.

Open Window Round 3 is now closed. We received 366 expressions of interest in the first stage. Applications that passed the expression of interest stage were then invited to submit the full proposal/application.

The final results of the Open Window 3 Review have just been announced. Please note that the email notification has been sent to the contact person mentioned in the application. To receive notifications about the results and prevent emails going into the spam folder, please include the email addresses help@3ieimpact.org, noreply@3ieimpact.org and ow3@3ieimpact.org in your email contacts folder. 

Open Window Round 4 is scheduled for mid-2012. To receive updates on the next call for proposals and to subscribe to 3ie news, join the 3ie mailing list.

Preference is given for:

§ Impact evaluations of large-scale development interventions that have a high probability of influencing policy and include a clear communications strategy

§ Proposals with close partnership with the implementing agency

§ Proposals produced by developing country researchers/evaluators or through a partnership between developed and developing country partnership of research teams

§ Evaluation designs based on the theory of change underlying the programme with evaluation questions addressing the causal chain

Important guidelines to read 3ie Principles of Impact Evaluation and 3ie Impact Evaluation Practice.

For more information, click on Frequently Asked Questions

New Online Grant Application System

Register and log-in to the online application system: Online registration. Applicants will be able to follow the status of their applications throughout the process.

Review Process

Once you've submitted your expression of interest or application, you will receive an automatic message confirming that we have received it. If your expression of interest is accepted, you will be asked to submit a full application. You should expect a decision regarding whether the application has been accepted within three months of receipt of your application.

All applications are reviewed by one internal reviewer and three independent external reviewers. The average scores from these reviews will be used to prepare a shortlist of applications. A panel of policy makers will then review and rank the shortlisted proposals according to its policy relevance and potential policy impact. Final approval of awards is made by the 3ie Board of Commissioners. For further details on the review process, read the 3ie review process overview