Submitted by Women Mobilize Women | 10/2026
RIDE, the FCDO-funded Research on Infrastructure in Developing Economies programme, has opened a call for research proposals on women’s economic empowerment in transport. The call is managed by RIDE’s Partnership Pillar, led by GIZ, and its Research Pillar, led by WRI, in partnership with Women Mobilize Women and the Global Alliance for Feminist Transport.
Transport systems in low- and middle-income countries are often designed without women’s economic lives and safety in view. Women make up only 12% of the global transport and storage workforce and fewer than 18% of the most cited transport researchers. The call funds research that treats women’s economic empowerment as the central subject rather than a secondary lens, with a focus on evidence that leads to concrete change in transport policy, services, infrastructure or operations.
Proposals should address one of two themes:
- Violence against women and girls in transit, including how harassment, violence and social norms shape women’s travel choices and what this costs them in income, jobs and opportunity;
- Climate resilience, including how climate-related disruption to transport translates into economic loss for women and when that loss becomes permanent.
Research teams and consortia at universities and research institutes anywhere in the world can apply, provided the research focuses on one of RIDE’s partner countries:
- Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, Ethiopia, Kenya, Nigeria and Tanzania (Group 1)
- Ghana, Indonesia, the Philippines, South Africa and Vietnam (Group 2)
Partnerships with institutions based in low- and middle-income countries are strongly encouraged, as are applications led by women researchers and by researchers based in Africa, South Asia and Southeast Asia.
At least two projects will be funded, each with a duration of up to 15 months. A clear uptake plan carries the most weight in the evaluation, and should name the decision-makers and policy windows the project aims to influence, involving them from the start of the research.
Applications are due by 6:00 pm Central European time on Friday, 20 November 2026.