1.0 About the BICM Annual Research Grant (ARG) scheme
Bangladesh Institute of Capital Market (BICM) is a government funded national institution for imparting practical capital market education and training. In line with its core mandates, the BICM offers the Annual Research Grant (ARG) scheme from 2022 to facilitate high-impact research activities that help the institute to further its operation, financial market regulators (e.g., Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission) to formulate timely and informed policies and regulations, and market participants to make informed decisions.
2.0 Objective & Focus of the Research Grant
The broad objective of the research grant is to contribute to the overall development of the capital market in Bangladesh. To be more specific, BICM actively promotes research having longer-term implications, while encouraging scholarly exercises on issues that need immediate attention. The ARG would typically prefer multidisciplinary research areas or topics related to the capital market covering finance, accounting, economics, technology, social sciences, and business.
3.0 Types of Awards
BICM offers two types of awards: standard grants and urgent grants
Standard Grants
Standard grants (SGs) are to be of one-year duration normally but can be extended. Proposals will go through the standard evaluation process. The maximum limit for the size of a standard grant is BDT 2,000,000 except for exceptional cases as deemed by the Grants Committee. The standard grants shall be applied across two categories of research projects: (1) Regular research projects and (2) Case Development projects.
Urgent Grants
A proposal for a research grant may be submitted at any time for rapid consideration under the Urgent Grants procedure. This is permitted only in cases where the proposal has been prompted by an unexpected or sudden incident, event, or action that demands immediate research to be done.
4.0 Eligibility of Applicants
Proposals will be received in three categories: Independent Researcher (IR), Teams of Independent Researchers (IRT), or Research Organizations (ROs) based on the terms and conditions detailed by the BICM Grant Committee (GC). IR means a single independent person acting as a researcher, while IRT means two or more researchers comprising a research team. RO means a legal entity registered as an academic, research, or research-related consulting organization.
Proposals will be received in three categories: Independent Researcher (IR), Teams of Independent Researchers (IRT), or Research Organizations (ROs) based on the terms and conditions detailed by the BICM Grant Committee (GC). IR means a single independent person acting as a researcher, while IRT means two or more researchers comprising a research team. RO means a legal entity registered as an academic, research, or research-related consulting organization.
The PI must have a Ph.D. An experience of a minimum of 8 years in research or academia is essential to be eligible as a PI, in which at least 3 years of experience should be in leading research projects/activities. A PI ideally should evidence a track of high-quality research publications or project completion. Current employment must be at Associate Professor (or equivalent, e.g., Research Fellow) level or above.
A Ph.D. degree in the Co-investigator is normally preferred; however, a Master’s or MPhil is allowed. An experience of a minimum of 5 years in research or academia is essential to be eligible as a Co-I. Employment should be at Lecturer (or equivalent, e.g., Research Associate) level or above.
Eligible ROs should preferably have at least 3 years of record in executing research projects similar to the projects submitted for an ARG grant. In addition, each eligible ROs must be able to submit necessary business documents, such as VAT certificates, Tax returns, Certificates of Incorporation, and a Full Profile evidencing the strength, reputation, and ability to deliver the project proposed at BICM.
In the case of ROs, the PI must be employed by the RO submitting the proposal, or if not employed by the submitting RO, have an existing written formal arrangement with the organization that enables him or her to carry out research there and receives all necessary management and infrastructure support from the organization and that commits the RO to take full responsibility for the research and its proper governance.
BICM will not accept proposals from a PI or RO who has been sanctioned or facing any legal actions imposed by any external parties, such as academic institutions, research organizations, industries, and the government, on grounds of unethical practices in any form (research-related or else).
5.0 Proposal Assessment Criteria
Evaluations of a proposal will be carried out in three phases using a weighted scoring mechanism as given below:
The PEC evaluation in Phase – I will be based on the following marks distribution:
The expert reviewer evaluation in Phase – II will be based on the following marks distribution:
The Presentation evaluation in Phase – III will be based on the following marks distribution:
6.0 Submission Procedure
Proposals must be submitted with all required documents through the BICM website (https://bicm.ac.bd/arg2022/). To submit the proposal, an applicant needs to sign up and then log in to start his/her application. Following documents will be required to attach while a submission is made.
For Research Organizations (ROs)
- A completed application for a Standard or Urgent grant
- A complete and detailed research proposal
- Full organizational profile describing experience and ability to implement the proposed research
- Evidence of experience and ability to implement the proposed research
- Full description of the research team for the proposed research
- Full CV of the PI and the Co-Is evidencing experience and ability to implement the proposed research
- VAT and TIN certificates of the RO
- Copy of certificate of incorporation or registration from relevant government agencies
- Copy of evidence of employment or engagement with the PI and the Co-Is
For Independent Researchers (IR)/ Independent Researcher Teams (IRTs)
- A completed application for a standard or urgent grant
- A complete and detailed research proposal
- Full description of the researcher or research team for the proposed research
- Full CV of the PI and the Co-Is evidencing experience and ability to implement the proposed research
- TIN certificates of the PI and the Co-Is
- Evidence of employment and evidence of relevant experience
7.0 Submission timeline and contact
For Standard Grants, proposals must be submitted ONLINE no later than 11:59 PM Bangladesh Standard Time on 30 November 2022. For Urgent grants, proposals can be submitted anytime ONLINE throughout the year.
For any further clarification or queries, you may email S. M. Kalbin Salema at [email protected]