CFAs: Structural Transformation of Agriculture and Rural Spaces Fellowship Program 2025

The program aims for publication of resulting research findings in high quality, peer-reviewed journals. In addition, Cornell and its partners will provide Fellows with professional development training, build Fellows’ international research networks, and aid in their participation in scientific and policy conferences.

Upon selection, mentorship and collaboration begin immediately with a series of launch workshops involving the fellows, mentors and STARS leadership. A period of regular remote collaboration follows, with weekly or biweekly virtual meetings. During this period, training workshops are held at relevant points in the teams’ research process. Training workshops are designed to assist in fellows’ professional development and supplement their technical skills. Topics may include but are not limited to: coding and data management skills; reproducible research processes; technical writing; presentation skills; time management; grant writing; navigating peer review; and research ethics.

Objectives

• The core objectives of the program include:
  • Build and reinforce an effective policy research culture among early-career researchers that can help build and sustain research capacity at their institutions beyond the STARS program.
  • Provide mentorship to early-career researchers by Cornell University and other affiliated institution faculty and researchers.
  • Conduct professional development activities to supplement the research process, including trainings, seminars, and feedback sessions.
  • Create an active network of equipped, policy-engaged, collaborative researchers, connected to leading global authorities in the development research space.
  • Heighten the exposure and rigorous analysis of high-quality, publicly available data, such as LSMS-ISA data and other micro-level panel data sets.

Topics

• STARS research broadly encompasses topics relating to the structural transformation of agriculture and rural economies in low and lower-middle income countries. More specifically, topics include:
  • Dynamics of agricultural inputs use, technological change, and productivity growth.
  • Rural factor (e.g. credit, labor, land) and product market performance.
  • Agri-food systems and value chains.
  • Food security, nutrition, health, and education linkages.
  • Poverty dynamics, risk management, and resilience against shocks.
  • Sustainable natural resources management.

Thematic Areas

• Prospective STARS Fellows are invited to develop proposals in the following thematic areas for empirical work on low- and lower-middle income countries:
  • Dynamics of agricultural inputs use, technological change, and productivity growth
  • Rural factor (e.g., credit, labor, land) and product market performance and links to urban markets
  • Agri-food systems and value chains, their performance and evolution
  • Food security, nutrition, health and education linkages
  • Poverty dynamics, risk management and resilience against shocks
  • Sustainable natural resources management
  • Gender and marginalized groups

Eligibility Criteria

• Early career researchers, either Ph.D. students in their final year prior to degree completion or those who completed their Ph.D. no earlier than 2019
• Familiarity with and demonstrated access to data sets in your research proposal. STARS does not provide funding for new data collection.
• Strong working knowledge of appropriate software, typically Stata and/or R, and an interest in econometric analysis of high-quality data sets. Knowledge of Stata and/or R will be assessed at the finalist stage.
• Priority given to:
  • Researchers who have earned at least one degree from an institution in a low- or lower-middle income country
  • Researchers planning to work professionally in low- and lower-middle income countries in the future
  • Proposals relating to one or more of the research themes indicated above
  • Qualified female researchers

For more information, visit Cornell SC Johnson.