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Fellowship Overview

The Grassroots Development and  Policy Research Fellowship seeks to place young professionals at the forefront of public policy and development research, community involvement, action research and program implementation, and corporate social responsibility activities. Fellows will contribute to existing and new development programs, perform evidence-based research, and contribute to devising and executing innovative policy and development solutions.

Fellows will gain new skills and dexterity in public policy research, have the opportunity to engage directly with the community, and receive personalized mentoring for research-driven solutions to real-world development and policy concerns.

Fellowship Objectives: 

• Encourage youth participation in participatory, community-centric public policy research and development strategies.
• To provide high-caliber, aspiring policy professionals with hands-on experience in translating community needs into actionable policy recommendations.
• Bridge grassroots realities by conducting field research, consulting stakeholders and co-creating development and policy strategies.
• Generate high-quality, evidence-based outputs that can support innovation and decision-making processes in government,  among corporates and civil society organizations.

 

What Fellows will Gain:

• Practical, one-on-one guidance from the GRAAM research team or project team on methodology, data analysis (quantitative and qualitative) implementation and academic writing.
• Will be able to access GRAAM’s capacity building courses.
• Official GRAAM Grassroots Policy Fellowship Completion Certificate.
• Two exceptional fellows  will receive full sponsorship to participate in GRAAM’s annual 12-day Intensive Public Policy and Program Evaluation Course (3PE).

 

Financial Benefits:

• Monthly Stipend: ₹30,000/
• Travel and field allowance as per GRAAM policy for project-related travel.

 

Fellowship Structure:

The fellowship seeks highly motivated young professionals of Indian Citizenship who are passionate about governance and policy. 

Feature	Details
Duration	9 months
Number of Fellows	Five(05)
Base Location	Bengaluru or Mysuru, Karnataka, with required travel to field sites as per project needs.
Start Date	15th March 2026 onwards

 

Key Responsibilities:

• Support development of research questions, theories of change and analytical framework.
• Review literature, policy documents, and secondary datasets relevant to assigned research themes.
• Support to design and administer primary data collection tools.
• Examine policy design, implementation process, and policy and program outcomes using empirical evidence.
• Managing and analyzing qualitative and quantitative data from the field.
• Support design and implementation of impact assessment frameworks (baseline, midline, endline, or post-intervention studies).
• Design and implement participatory action research(PAR) initiatives in collaboration with communities.
• Undertake targeted field visits to validate findings and contextualize analysis.
• Facilitate community consultation,surveys, focus groups discussions and reflective sessions.
• Support community capacity to understand, interpret and use data for local advocacy.
• Draft and co-author evidence grounded policy briefs, working papers, analytical reports and issue notes.
• One publishable Policy/Research Paper mentored by the GRAAM team.

 

Eligibility

1. Post Graduate in Public Policy, Development Studies, Economics, Statistics, Social Sciences or related field.
2. Data analysis skill and good proficiency in Excel and SPSS/R/Python. Conduct qualitative analysis using NVivo / Delve.
3. Good proficiency in data visualization using Tableau/Power BI.
4. Demonstrated ability in analytical writing and report writing.
5. Prior experience in primary research or the MEL system is preferred.
6. Prior work experience in think tanks, consulting firms, CSR or NGOs is preferred.