PARTNERSHIPS FOR ENHANCED ENGAGEMENT IN RESEARCH (PEER) OPPORTUNITY TO SUPPORT GRADUATE STUDENT RESEARCH ON LAND AND RESOURCE GOVERNANCE   PROGRAM OVERVIEW PEER is a competitive awards program that invites researchers in developing countries with a USAID presence to apply for funds to support research and capacity building activities on topics of importance to USAID. The projects funded under this special call for proposals must be conducted by graduate students and postdoctoral fellows, working in close partnership with university-based research mentors. Through PEER, the Lab leverages investments, data and methodologies funded by USAID and other USG-supported agencies in order to enhance evaluation and learning, which in turn can lead to improved development programming. USAID’s development approach is committed to building local capacity on the Journey to Self Reliance. This includes fostering locally-driven research capacity and training the next generation of practitioners. This PEER funding opportunity solicited applications from research mentors based at universities in the countries listed below for small, high-quality, one-year awards to support graduate students whose research will rapidly investigate critical gaps in the land and resource governance sectors in Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, Tanzania, or Zambia. In the review and selection process, priority was given to research topics capable of rapidly and rigorously generating data for informing policies and USAID programs. On May 15, 2020, PEER announced the selection of six outstanding projects for funding, which were selected from among the 36 proposals received for the call. (Unfortunately, the institution where one of the selected projects was based was unable to sign the funding agreement, so the project did not proceed.) Below is a list of the new projects and their participants, with links on the project titles leading to pages with additional details on the planned work.  FUNDED PROJECTS   Ethiopia - Project 4: Sustainability of the land registration information system in Ethiopia: Levers for access to credit and sustainable landscape investment Mentor: Feyera Wakjira, Addis Ababa University Mentee: Shewakena Abab Ghana - Project 1: An assessment of land governance and its effects on socio-economic empowerment of gender Mentor: Benjamin Doe, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Kumasi Mentee: Valentina Nyame Tanzania - Project 3: Essays on land governance and agricultural productivity in Tanzania Mentor: Onesmo Selejio, University of Dar es Salaam Mentee: Fatma Ibrahim Tanzania - Project 5: Land tenure in Tanzania: Economic loss experienced from exclusion of women and youth in land security Mentor: Emmanuel Mwang'onda, Institute of Rural Development Planning US Partner: Jessica Rudder, University of California, Davis Mentee: Deodatus Lubinga Zambia - Project 6: Effects of land rights formalization on land tenure security and land investments in informal and rural areas of Zambia: Evidence from Lusaka and Chipata, Zambia Mentor: Bridget Bwalya Umar, University of Zambia Mentee: Lawrence Siloka