Applicant FAQs

1. The Fellowship will be for the second annual cycle (Program Cycle III, 2019-2020) the EIB-GDN Program in Applied Development Finance (hereinafter referred to as “the Program”).
2. The effective term of the Fellowship will be between 01 October 2019 to 30 September 2020, both inclusive, or from the date of assignment of a project by GDN to you for evaluation to be finished in 12 calendar months thereafter, whichever is later.
3. The recipient of this Fellowship will be entitled to call himself/herself EIB-GDN Fellow in Applied Development Finance upon receiving certification as such jointly from EIB and GDN after completion and validation of all program requirements.

1. GDN may, at its discretion, provide the Candidate Fellow with coordination, administrative and logistical support as may be required for conducting the evaluations.
2. b. GDN will provide the Candidate Fellow with an email ID that s/he must use for the purposes of this Fellowship and for no other purpose whatsoever, either personal or professional, except with express written approval of GDN.
3. c. All communications in relation to the work to be performed under this Agreement shall be made using the email ID provided by the GDN.

1. The Candidate Fellow will be assigned an Expert Advisor (EA) who will provide him/her with guidance, mentoring and review of his/her research on a periodic basis for the duration of the Fellowship.
2. In addition to the personalized mentoring, the Candidate Fellow will also be entitled to solicit comments from the group of EAs on an open and collective basis.
3. In addition to such personalized support from the EAs, the Candidate Fellow is encouraged to work in close intellectual collaboration with the coordinating Program Manager assigned to him/her by GDN.
4. Such interactions will be organized and facilitated by GDN through electronic means.

1. Insofar as the Fellowship is of a non-resident nature, the Candidate Fellow is entitled to maintain residence at the location of his/her current employment or otherwise of his/her choosing, provided such choice does not interfere with the duties and obligations specified.
2. In assigning a project to the Candidate Fellow for evaluation, GDN and EIB will make every reasonable effort, but cannot make a commitment, to match the residence and methodological and subject matter interests of the Candidate Fellow to the geography and nature of the project.
3. The Candidate Fellow, if working jointly with one or more Candidate Fellows, will be required to agree to the additional terms and conditions of joint-research.
4. In exceptional circumstances, the project assignment can change during the Term of the Agreement.

1. In accepting this Research Grant, the Candidate Fellow understands that he/she is henceforth a brand ambassador for GDN and EIB and is to conduct himself/herself as befitting and for enhancing the high reputation and public stature of the two organizations.
2. The Candidate Fellow commits to execute his/her assignment to the best of his/her abilities and in accordance with the highest professional, academic and ethical standards, and to follow all rules and procedures as mandated by GDN.
3. The Candidate Fellow shall familiarize himself/herself with the nature of EIB and GDN operations, the nature and objectives of the IFE and the main aspects of the projects to be evaluated under the Program, on the basis of material that GDN will make available to him/her.
4. The Candidate Fellow commits to make best efforts, with the assistance of the coordinating Program Manager, to strengthen his/her methodological and subject matter expertise in evaluation and impact assessment by means of the resources and benefits of the Fellowship made available to him/her.
5. Notwithstanding the mentoring and related support, the Candidate Fellow is expected to execute his/her assignment by exercising his/her own initiative, independence and resourcefulness.
6. The Candidate Fellow undertakes to take all necessary precautions to prevent or end any conflicts of interests. Such conflicts of interest may arise in particular as a result of economic interest, political or national affinity, family or emotional ties, or any other relevant connection or shared interest. The Candidate Fellow commits to report to GDN, avoid and end all economic, political, national, social, familial, emotional, or other conflicts of interests that may or can plausibly be said to arise in the course of the Fellowship. The Candidate Fellow shall inform GDN without delay of any situation constituting or likely to lead to any such conflict of interest during the period of implementation of the Fellowship.
7. The Candidate Fellow commits to maintaining accurate and systematic record of all expenditures related to the performance of his duties under this Agreement and to provide the same to GDN for monitoring purposes when requested.
8. The Candidate Fellow commits to strengthen the initiative by working with other Fellows in a spirit of cooperation and collaboration, and by facilitating outreach and linkages with wider evaluation, assessment and related academic and professional communities, in pursuance of creating a knowledge network in impact evaluation and assessment in the ACP region.
9. The Candidate Fellow understands that he/she must obtain, prior to undertaking his/her research work under the assigned project, all the required permissions or no-objection certifications from the relevant authorities of the Country where the Project is required to be executed. The Candidate Fellow further understands that it is his/her sole responsibility to obtain such permissions or no-objection certifications.

1. Unless otherwise decided between EIB, GDN and the EAs and duly notified of such decision, the Candidate Fellow may be asked to produce, as a sole author, one (1) “deep dive report” (DDR) on the project assigned to him/her for evaluation, or may be requested to contribute to a joint assessment with other Candidate Fellows.
2. Unless otherwise decided between EIB, GDN and the EAs and duly notified of such decision, the Candidate Fellow will be expected to adhere to the timeline below for producing the DDR:
   1. • i. Submit principal findings with supporting data and analysis in a “Preliminary Report” for review and comments by EIB and the EAs by 30 June 2020;
      • ii. Incorporate or otherwise address comments, feedback and suggestions from EIB and EAs in an updated “Draft Report” by 31 August 2020 and
      • iii. Submit an edited, proof-read and formatted “Final Report” by 30 September 2020.
3. The Candidate Fellow will, in addition, submit periodic progress reports on research and related activities following the schedule below:
   1. • i. One (1) Research Proposal with budget in template provided by GDN, due by 15 December 2019, to be reviewed by the Expert Advisor(s), with final approved version due by 31 January 2020;
      • ii. Monthly progress reports, except for December 2019, March 2020, and June 2020, due by last working day of month;
      • iii. Three (3) quarterly progress reports, due by last working day of December 2019, March 2020, and June 2020.
      • iv. One (1) consolidated annual report, due on 30 September 2020.
4. The progress reports must include a Statement of Expenses for the relevant time period.
5. The timeline specified will be relaxed by discussion between GDN, EIB and the EAs for unreasonable delay in assignment of a project to the Candidate Fellow
6. The submission of any report will be deemed to be complete as against the Candidate Fellow when it is put in course of transmission by him/her by email to the GDN Program Manager specified with a copy marked to EIB.2016@gdn.int.

The Intellectual Property Rights to any outputs, including but not limited to research papers, data and computer code, that may be produced by the Candidate Fellow, singly or jointly, while discharging his/her services under this Agreement, shall be vested in GDN and shall be guided by the relevant portions of the Contribution Agreement signed between EIB and GDN. The provisions of this Contribution Agreement shall, to the extent applicable or as required by the GDN from time to time be adhered by the Candidate Fellow, be communicated by GDN to the Candidate Fellow.

1. The Candidate Fellow shall consider all output, including but not limited to correspondence, data, research papers and documented or undocumented findings, produced in the course of provision of services under the terms of the Fellowship to be strictly confidential and will refrain from sharing with or disclosing to any third party without the express and written permission of GDN.
2. The Candidate Fellow shall consider all data, information or knowledge, explicit or implied, in documentary, electronic or any other form whatsoever, acquired from and about GDN, the European Investment Bank (EIB) or related parties, except as may have been acquired from publicly available sources, as strictly confidential and will not share the same with any third party without the express and written permission of GDN.
3. The Candidate Fellow will not, without express and written permission from GDN or as applicable EIB, use any confidential data, information or knowledge acquired for and during the course of the Fellowship, for use in the writing of academic papers, treatise or trade publications.
4. The Candidate Fellow, on finding prima facie evidence or otherwise reasonably suspecting instances of unethical behavior such as fraud, corruption, money laundering or financing of terrorism in relation to the project he/she is evaluating, must report such evidence or suspicion to GDN while exercising due care, caution and confidentiality.
5. The Candidate Fellow shall not be liable for the disclosure of such Confidential Information;
   1. • i. that is available in the public domain without the intentional and willful disclosure of the Party/Parties;
      • ii. that is required to be disclosed by the mandate of the law(s) of India and/or European Union and/or United States of America and/or any other Geography where the Project is being performed/Candidate Fellow resides in or is employed in;
      • iii. that is required to be disclosed by the mandate of the order(s) of a court of law, quasi-judicial authority, regulatory and/or administrative body in India and/or European Union and/or United States of America and/or any other Geography where the Project is being performed/Candidate Fellow resides in or is employed in.

The Candidate Fellow will undertake to adopt reasonable measures to ensure security of all data or research material, whether collected or generated by him/her or made available to him/her by GDN or EIB, in electronic or any other form, and shall, at a minimum:

1. Refrain from sharing or giving access to third parties, by commission or omission, of such data or material, or computer or storage systems in which such data or material may be stored;
2. Follow good practices in computer security such and password protecting computers, encrypting databases and storage devices, and keeping up to date all security and non-security software and working in sandboxed environments;
3. Follow good practices in data archiving such as keeping multiple copies of data in different locations;
4. Follow good practices for data in transit such as encrypting or password-protecting such data;
5. Under no circumstances store such data or material on cloud storages except as may be explicitly permitted and authorized by EIB.

1. The Candidate Fellow shall comply with all applicable law(s) of land where the Project is being executed, /where the Candidate Fellow resides or is employed in and/or the law(s) of India, the European Union, the United States of America.
2. Anti-Terrorism and Money-laundering: The Candidate Fellow will not use funds provided under this Fellowship, directly or indirectly, in support of activities prohibited by US, EU, Indian or international laws related to terrorism. The Candidate Fellow hereby acknowledges and agrees that he/she shall not directly, indirectly attempt to indulge in or indulge in or knowingly assist or shall be a party to or actually be involved in the use of funds provided under this Agreement for the support of any activities that may be considered to be in the nature of crime, unlawful activities, terrorist activities or money laundering activities including but not limited to activities that are:
   1. • i. Prohibited by the laws related to combating terrorism (including but not limited to) of India such as the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Amendment Act, 2008 and the Prevention of Money-Laundering Act, 2002 and the United States of America such as the Patriot Act and/or the European Union and/or prohibited by the laws, related to combating terrorism, of the country where the Project is being executed and/or Candidate Fellow resides in or is employed in;
      • ii. Related to countries or territories against which the United States of America and/or India and/or European Union and/or the country where the Project is being executed and/or Candidate Fellow resides in or is employed in maintains a comprehensive embargo, unless such activities are fully authorized by the government of United States of America and/or India and/or European Union and/or the other Country as abovementioned under applicable law(s) and are specifically authorized in writing by GDN and EIB prior to the commencement of such activities.
      • iii. The Candidate Fellow hereby agrees and warrants that the funds provided under this Agreement will be used for their intended purpose and will not be diverted to terrorists or to organizations associated with terrorism. To this extent, the Candidate Fellow will not use any GDN and EIB funds for the purpose of any payment to persons or entities, whether directly through its activities or programs, or indirectly through its support of or cooperation with, or for the import of goods, if such payment or import, to the Candidate Fellow’s knowledge or belief, is prohibited by the United States Executive Orders, by a decision of the United Nations Security Council taken under Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations, including under the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1373 and related resolutions, or other laws that prohibit the provision of resources and support to individuals and organizations associated with terrorism and the terrorist related lists promulgated by the Government of the United States of America and the United Nations i.e. related to persons named on the List of Specially Designated Nationals as per laws of the United States of America, published by the United States Treasury Department, available at: www.treasury.gov/sdn;

• Ethics and Anti-Bribery obligations: The Candidate Fellow shall commit to and be bound by the highest standards of ethical conduct and integrity in the performance of work under this Agreement and shall adhere to and shall be bound by the GDN and/or EIB’s Ethical Conduct and Anti-Bribery Policy (Policy), as may be notified by the GDN to the Candidate Fellow from time to time, outlining the Candidate Fellow’s position on promoting ethics and preventing and prohibiting bribery, in accordance with the applicable anti-corruption law(s) of India, the United States of America, the European Union and other applicable international law(s) related to anti-corruption. In particular,

1. • i. He/she will adhere to EIB’s Anti-Fraud Policy dtd. 17 September 2013.
   • ii. He/she shall adhere to EIB’S Anti-Money Laundering and Combating Financing of Terrorism Framework dtd. 12 October 2016.
   • iii. He/she will not offer or provide money, gifts, or any other things of value directly or indirectly to anyone in order to improperly influence any act or decision relating to the initiative.
   • iv. He/she may not use funds provided under this Fellowship to influence the outcome of any election for public office or otherwise influence legislative or administrative decisions. He/she hereby further agrees and warrants that the funds provided under this Agreement will not be used to influence the outcome of any election for public office or to carry on any voter registration drive, or used or in any way earmarked to support lobbying activities or to otherwise support attempts to influence local, state, federal or foreign legislation.
   • v. The obligations under this clause shall survive the termination or amendment of this Agreement.

1. This fellowship will terminate:
   • i. Ordinarily, at the end of the Term of the Fellowship; or
   • ii. With no costs either to the Candidate Fellow or to GDN, if for reasons beyond his/her control, the Candidate Fellow cannot continue with the Fellowship; or
   • iii. Extraordinarily, if GDN has conclusive evidence that the Candidate Fellow has violated the terms, or if his/her performance is held to be below acceptable standards by the EAs.
2. The Candidate Fellow must provide in writing a notice of no less than one (1) month if he/she wishes to terminate the Fellowship for reasons beyond his/her control u/s 19.
3. For extraordinary termination, the coordinating Program Manager mentioned in s. 16 shall issue a notice to the Candidate Fellow, supported by prima facie evidence of violation, by him/her, or a report from the EAs as to his/her unsatisfactory performance, requesting him/her to show cause within one month from the time of dispatch of such notice as to why this Agreement should not be terminated.
4. For failure to resolve the dispute regarding the alleged violation, the coordinating Program Manager and the Candidate Fellow will present the facts and circumstances of such dispute before the Advisory Committee of the Program, whose decision in the matter will be final and binding on the Candidate Fellow as well as on GDN.
5. Upon such extraordinary termination of the Agreement, GDN will stop further payments and reserves the right to recover in full the amount already paid to the Candidate Fellow.
6. In case of termination, the Candidate Fellow shall draw up a statement of expenditure already incurred to cover operational expenses during the Fellowship and shall submit the same to GDN with original receipts not exceeding the entitlement. GDN shall review the statement and the receivables/payables between the Parties shall be adjusted/settled based on the statement of expenditure (Annex 6) provided by the Recipient to be approved by GDN.
7. The Candidate Fellow shall not, in any circumstance, obligate any expenditure under the Project beyond the termination date, unless express written permission from GDN has been obtained.
8. Upon termination, all research material, tools and questionnaires intermediate reports, documents and any other research outputs shall be identified, listed/catalogued, and handed over by the Candidate Fellow to GDN.

1. EIB and GDN will exercise due diligence in assessing feasibility, safety, and security as to the scale and scope of the evaluation, location, activities or circumstances in assigning projects or tasks to the Candidate Fellow, who will have the right to refuse all assignments that may be considered infeasible by the standards of professional evaluation or unsafe by the standards of reasonable prudence.
2. The Candidate Fellow commits to exercising caution and judgment at all times, at all locations, and under all circumstances, in conducting activities pursuant to or otherwise related to the Fellowship.
3. Responsibilities of the Candidate Fellow; Indemnity and Insurance:
   • i. The Candidate Fellow shall be fully responsible for the acts, omissions or negligence of its employees, agents, representatives or contractors under this Agreement. GDN shall not be responsible for any losses, damages or injuries caused to any persons resulting from the acts, omissions or negligence of the Candidate Fellow.
   • ii. The Candidate Fellow shall hold harmless and indemnify GDN EIB at all times against any actions, claims, liabilities, damages, injuries, or expenses incurred by GDN as a result of, or arising from, the activities of Fellowship. The Candidate Fellow shall discharge GDN of all liability arising from any claim or action brought as a result of infringement of applicable laws, rules, regulations by the Candidate Fellow or as a result of third party’s rights.
   • iii. GDN and EIB shall have no responsibility for any insurance coverage for the Candidate Fellow or its property, or actions.

The funds being provided for this Fellowship are for new original work being undertaken by the Candidate Fellow; GDN regards plagiarism as a very serious offense. If any work undertaken to fulfill this Agreement is found to have been plagiarized either during or after the execution of this Agreement, GDN reserves the right to demand full repayment of any or all funds that have been disbursed to that point. Also, if the Candidate Fellow uses work performed all or in part for a previous or current research project, or uses work being done for another project to satisfy the terms of this Agreement, the Candidate Fellow may be required to return any and all funds provided by GDN. GDN reserves the right to withhold funds and/or request the return of any funds provided if in the judgment of GDN a satisfactory response is not provided to GDN’s inquiries.

1. The Candidate Fellow shall report to and be coordinated by Abhay Gupta, Consultant, for all matters and activities related to the Fellowship.
2. The Candidate Fellow shall send all communication to Abhay Gupta at his email ID abhayg@gdn.int and shall copyEIB.2016@gdn.int on all such communication.
3. The Candidate Fellow may communicate directly to Anindya Chaudhuri, Senior Economist – GDN (achaudhuri@gdn.int), marking a copy to EIB.2016@gdn.int, for any issue related to the reporting mechanism, or for any other concern that he/she may wish to raise.

1. The Candidate Fellow is an independent contractor and shall not be construed as creating a legal partnership, joint venture, or relationship of employer and employee, or principal and agent with GDN.
2. The Candidate Fellow shall under no circumstances, during or after the Term of this Agreement, make any commitments on behalf of GDN relating to the expenditure of [official development assistance] or any other official funds.
3. The fact that GDN has entered into this Agreement shall not be used by the Candidate Fellow as any form of endorsement by GDN of the Candidate Fellow’s organization.
4. The Candidate Fellow agrees not to associate GDN and EIB with any adverse comments he/she may make about any other organizations or governments or government agencies.

The Candidate Fellow shall make every effort to resolve amicably, by informal negotiation with GDN, any disagreement or dispute arising between them under or in connection with this Agreement. In doing so, the Candidate Fellow shall be guided primarily by the specific terms of this Agreement, and act in good faith, in a spirit of goodwill and cooperation. If the disagreement or dispute is not resolved by informal negotiation, the Candidate Fellow or GDN shall refer the disagreement or dispute for resolution to a single mediator or arbitrator selected by mutual agreement. The seat/place of mediation or arbitration shall be New Delhi. The proceedings of the mediation/arbitration shall be conducted in English language. The arbitration proceedings shall be conducted in accordance with the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 or any amendment or re-enactment thereof and the rules made there under.

The courts at New Delhi shall have exclusive jurisdiction for resolving any disputes arising out of this Agreement.