Call for Summer Grants Proposals, 2022
The
NET Institute will fund a number of scientific research projects in the area of network industries, including wired and
wireless networks, “virtual networks,” platforms, two-sided markets, electronic
commerce, credit and debit card networks, telecommunications, and the Internet,
including artificial intelligence and cloud computing. Proposed research may be
either theoretical or empirical and may have public policy and antitrust
implications. The deadline for proposals is May 25, 2022. Decisions will be announced by June 30, 2022. The expected output of funded
research should be available by September 30, 2022. There
is a strong preference for young researchers. It is expected
that funded research will eventually be published in top academic research
journals.
The topics of research include theoretical or empirical research on telecommunications, including technologies such as voice over Internet Protocol (“VOIP”), the Internet and related issues, cable networks and digital convergence, market structure in industries with network effects, “virtual networks,” platforms and two-sided markets, financial networks and B2B and B2C exchanges, credit and debit card networks, pricing in the presence of network effects, pure and mixed bundling in markets with network effects, incentives for vertical integration and effects on social welfare in markets with network effects, dynamic competition and pricing in markets with network effects, the choice of technical standards and interoperability, quality and variety competition in the presence of network effects, security and reliability of networks including the Internet, electronic commerce, and competition policy issues in network industries. We also encourage submissions on research in artificial intelligence (AI) and cloud computing related to these industries.
Additionally, the NET Institute strongly encourages proposals that model the effects of entry and potential entry in markets with network effects. Of particular interest is the interaction of innovation and entrepreneurship with entry.
Proposed research need not be limited to the topics above, but should be in the general area of networks, “virtual networks,” platforms, electronic commerce, and telecommunications
The NET Institute grants are exclusively for new work and cannot be used to reward researchers for complete or nearly complete work. Hence, we will consider only proposals for genuinely new research and will not consider proposals of completed or nearly completed work.
Proposals should include the following:
(i) A description of the proposed project, including
a. an executive summary, up to two pages;
b. a clear description of the objective(s) of the project;
c. a clear description of the expected output of the project;
d. the scientific techniques expected to be used in the proposed project; including models and modeling techniques;
e. a detailed outline of the steps necessary to reach the expected conclusions; many successful applications have included a detailed description of the proposed research, including conjectures, preliminary results and attached past relevant research; no page limit. The limit of this outline is 30 pages. Outside links to previous publicly available papers are sufficient and these papers should not be attached.
f. an assessment of the likelihood that the research will be accomplished in the time allocated. If an acceptable working paper is not submitted on time, the author forfeits the second payment of the grant.
g. A detailed discussion of the motivation and how the current research adds to the scientific literature. For theoretical papers, the proposal should include a detailed description of the model, preliminary analysis that shows that the model is likely to yield interesting results, and a clear discussion on how the researcher plans to proceed: what kind of results are planned to be derived and what kind of extension are planned. For empirical work, the proposal should include a detailed description of the data, summary statistics, and detailed discussion of the kind of data analysis the researcher expects to do, including the equations to be estimated, and identification issues.
(ii) a curriculum vitae of the researcher, indicating
a. relevant previous scientific work; and
b. educational background.
(iii) for graduate students, a recommendation
letter from the advising professor on general ability of the student, as well
as the ability of the student to complete the task on time.
Proposals and all supporting materials must be submitted electronically to submissions@NETinst.org in either (i) Acrobat pdf format; or (ii) MS-Word format. Submit all the relevant materials together in one file in the following order: executive summary, proposal, CV, and any other materials. Name the file as: LastName_FirstName_2022.ext, where “ext” refers to the format file extension. Remember the page limits, set above.
Each funded proposal will receive up to $15,000 of financial support from the NET Institute. Successful proposals will receive 1/3 of the awarded funds when the project is approved for funding by the NET Institute and the remaining 2/3 of the funds upon successful completion of the project and delivery of the output of the research. Payment of any portion of the grant is contingent on successful completion of the project and submission of the working paper version of the research by the deadline above.