The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) is seeking nominations for the First Award for Excellence in Research on economic and social development in Latin America and the Caribbean. The Award will consist of a monetary payment of $50,000. It will be announced in January 2006 and presented in a ceremony held during the IDB Annual Meeting in April 2006.
The objective of this Award is to publicly recognize and disseminate the contribution of the selected researcher and provide an incentive for researchers interested in topics relevant to the economic and social development of Latin America and the Caribbean.
The nomination process will begin on September 1 and will close on October 31, 2005. Eligible for nomination are all researchers under the age of 50 who are citizens of an IDB member country and who are not, or who have not been, staff (or related to staff) of the IDB in the last 10 years. Individuals interested in nominating a researcher should do so by using the electronic form available at www.iadb.org/res/idbaward.cfm.
The winner will be selected from among all the nominated researchers by a five-member committee composed of three IDB staff members and two external members. The IDB members will be Mr. Guillermo Calvo (Chief Economist and Manager of the Research Department), Mr. Carlos M. Jarque (Manager of the Sustainable Development Department), and Ms. Nohra Rey de Marulanda (Manager of the Integration and Regional Programs Department). The two external members will be Mr. François Bourguignon (Chief Economist and Senior Vice President for Development Economics, The World Bank) and Mr. Sebastian Edwards (Henry Ford II Professor of International Economics, University of California Los Angeles).
The committee will prepare a report documenting the criteria utilized in the selection process. This document will be made public on the IDB internet page (www.iadb.org) after the winner is announced.
The Inter-American Development Bank is the oldest and largest regional development bank. It is the main source of multilateral financing for economic, social and institutional development projects as well as trade and regional integration programs in Latin America and the Caribbean.