The records in this series are the official project files maintained by the office of the Research Administrator and predecessor units for research projects funded wholly or in part from the Research Support Budget (RSB). Research proposals were received from the Regions, Sectors, and from DEC or earlier Economics and Research Staff (ERS) units. Research proposals dealt with development policy and planning, finance and trade, capital markets, rural development, industry, infrastructure, poverty and socialwelfare, labor markets, education, environmentally sustainable development including environmental economics, energy, agriculture and natural resources, private sector development, regional development, and population.
The series is arranged in five parts, the first four of which cover overlapping time periods from 1981 to 2000. The fifth segment consists of a single research project file for the 1995-1997 period maintained by a project manager. The bulk of the files in this series include: a project proposal; memoranda to project proposal reviewers for projects that exceeded the cost ceiling for approval by the Research Administrator, reviewers' evaluations of the project proposal; the project manager's response to the reviewers' evaluations; Research Advisory Staff (RAD) memoranda to members of the REPAC [Research Projects Approval Committee] or the Research Committee (RC) subcommittee selected to review the proposal; comments from subcommittee members; the project manager's response to the subcommittee's comments; minutes of the REPAC or RC meeting at which the proposal was discussed; intra-RAD memoranda discussing the project; RAD's memorandum to the project manager conveying approval and funding of the project; Back-to-Office Reports (BTOs) from missions connected to the project; correspondence between the project supervisor and the Research Administrator that may include requests for an extension of the project completion date or for additional funds; budget tracking reports; a project completion report on a standardized form; and copies of the publications and papers that constituted the output from the project. Not all of the files contain completion reports. Some files include status reports and comments on the proposal from Regional organizations.
Among the earlier files in the series are four files for research projects associated with the Living Standards Measurement Study (LSMS) (RPO file nos. 673-22, 673-38, 674-17, and 674-19). Some of the files in the series that predate 1990 relate not tospecific research projects but to administrative matters relating to research: authorizations for the transfer of funds from the RSB (RPO 671-99); costs for the World Bank Economic Review (RPO 673-570), the Research Observer (RPO 673-61), and the World Bank Research News (RPO 673-71); RAD costs for the First Annual World Bank Conference on Development Economics (RPO 674-82); and routine authorizations for the transfer of funds from the RSB for consultants, project proposal reviewers, etc. (RPO 671-99). The Research Policy Council (RPC) approved funding for the three previously mentioned publications.
Beginning in 1991; the records within each project file were divided into five categories, each with a separate tab: proposal; reviews; correspondence; budget; and completion. Filed under the proposal tab is the formal project proposal sent to RAD and correspondence between the RAD staff and the project manager. Under the review tab are RAD's correspondences with referees who agreed to comment on the proposal, the referees' comments, and the project manager's responses to RAD regarding issued raised by the referees. The items under the 'correspondence tab include a wide range of records: intra-RAD memoranda regarding a project proposal; reports from the Research Committee subcommittee that reviewed the project proposal; notices that the project manager and/or the managing unit had changed; replies from the manager to specific questions from RAD staff; requests for deadline extensions; BTOs from missions connected to the project; copies of book reviews of publications resulting from a research project; and handwritten notes of RAD staff. Correspondence under the budget tab generally includes a copy of the RAD memorandum to the project manager indicating the proposal had been approved and explaining how the budget should be managed. In addition, there may be requests from the project manager for additional funds or for an extension of the completion date, and a copy of RAD's instructions as to how to handleproject funds remaining at the end of the fiscal year. Not all of the files for 1991 and later contain a project completion report under the completion tab. Some files contain copies of publications resulting from the research output or a RAD memorandum requesting an overdue project completion report under this tab. A small number of the project files created after 1991 are for funding conferences and workshops, expenses connected with the Bank's Visiting Research Fellows program, and the production of avideo of the slide presentation used as the keynote to a conference. The file for Symposium/Workshop on Accelerating Native Forest Regeneration on Degraded Tropical Lands (RPO 677-67) contains only the materials distributed to workshop attendees and a note indicating that no file for the project could be found.
Project Manager John Nash's file (fifth part of series) for the research project Regulating Technology Transfer: Impact on Technical Change, Productivity and Incomes covers the years 1995-1997 andincludes a request for RSB funding for the project; a response to the review of the research project; expense/budget reports for the project; Terms of Reference for missions connected to the project; a copy of a consultants BTO report for December 1995 visits to Malawi, Zimbabwe, Kenya, and Ghana in connection with project; and Nash's correspondence with consultants associated with the project. The official file for this research project is also in this series.
Project evaluation reports are not in the files in this series, but, in most cases, the project completion report, when present in the file, has been annotated to indicate that the evaluation was completed.
