The MERC Funding Process
MERC projects are selected on their technical merit, development potential, ability to build research capacity in the region, and strength of Arab-Israeli cooperation.
 Teams composed of both Arab and Israeli researchers submit 6-page pre-proposals to describe their proposed work. The pre-proposal describes the technical work, how it is relevant to the region, plans for cooperation and the budget. The MERC office receives between 50-100 pre-proposals each year. Download pre-proposal application guidelines [PDF, 85KB].
 Pre-proposals are reviewed by technical experts within USAID. They report to a MERC Committee consisting of USAID technical staff and State Department personnel. This committee judges the pre-proposal on technical merit, development potential, capacity-building, and Arab-Israeli cooperation. The MERC Committee votes whether or not to invite the pre-proposal authors to submit a full proposal.
 Full proposals contain detailed information about the experimental plan, plans to build research capacity in low-income countries/communities, the investigators themselves, and outreach activities to put research project results into practice. Usually 15-20 full proposals are invited.
 To assess the research presented in full proposals, USAID recruits peer-review panels of American scientists and engineers. Each reviewer must be active in the type of research proposed. Between three and five lead reviewers read the proposals and meet to discuss their assessments with a larger panel of scientists composed of lead reviewers of other proposals in the same technical field. They suggest changes to the research as needed and vote to grade the proposal. They also vote for or against funding the proposal.
 Using the peer-review panel’s recommendation, the MERC Committee meets again to discuss each proposal’s technical assessment along with the other MERC requirements. The proposals are graded and ranked; the MERC Committee then decides which proposals move on to grant negotiation. The teams submitting these successful full proposals are notified as to the changes required by the peer-review panel or MERC Committee. Once the changes have been made, the negotiation must go through an authorized grants and contracts official before the final award is made.
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