FYI
Olivia Mitchell
The TIAA-CREF Institute & Pension Research Council Partnership
Call for Proposals
Proposals Due April 17, 2015, 5:00 p.m. EST
The TIAA-CREF Institute has made an investment to drive its thought leadership position by partnering with the Wharton School's Pension Research Council/Boettner Center at the University of Pennsylvania, to fund innovative research on retirement policy and practice. This year we are happy to announce a new call for research proposals on retirement plan design and policy, with a particular focus on the decumulation or payout phase of the life cycle.
Eligibility: Any faculty or researcher with an active appointment at a U.S. institution of higher learning is eligible to submit a proposal. Junior faculty members are encouraged to apply and special consideration will be given to their applications.
Priority Areas: We seek proposals to undertake research and analysis of the following priority research topics:
Plan Design
* What factors do (and should) drive the menu design of retirement plan distribution options?
* How can guaranteed income products be effectively and efficiently integrated into retirement accumulation and distribution patterns over the life cycle?
* How can Target Date Funds be designed to help retirees manage their plan assets throughout the retirement period?
Retirement Security
* What are the pros and cons of deferred annuities in enhancing retiree wellbeing?
* How much risk can and should retirees hold in their retirement portfolios?
* How should retiree decumulation patterns change if capital markets continue underperforming benchmark expectations set in the past several decades?
* Can deferred annuities protect against Social Security, Medicare, and tax reform risk?
* What are alternative ways to finance and provide retiree health care, and the implications for financial decumulation patterns in retirement?
* What are the pros/cons of including qualified default distribution options in retirement saving plans?
Financial Literacy
* How can inherently complex income products be better explained to both active and retiring workers?
* What are the key roles for financial education, guidance, and advice in retirement?
* What are the pros/cons of financial education and advice versus behavioral "nudges" during the decumulation phase?
* How can the lessons from behavioral finance be applied to retirement income decisions?
Anticipated Outcomes:
* Innovative research to inform academics, industry, and policymakers as they look to reforms of the U.S retirement system;
* Strong thought leadership at dissemination events highlighting findings;
* Encouraging new researchers to study the decumulation or payout phase of the life cycle.
How to Apply: Please submit all proposal materials as per the detailed instructions below, in one integrated file, as an e-mail attachment to:
Ms. Irene Shaffer ishaffer_at_wharton.upenn.edu<mailto:ishaffer_at_wharton.upenn.edu>
Ms. Marilyn Grande mgrande_at_tiaa-cref.org<mailto:mgrande_at_tiaa-cref.org>
The proposal deadline is April 17, 2015 5:00 p.m. EST.
Specific instructions for preparation of proposals are as follows:
Proposals should follow NIH-style formats which can be found at: (
http://grants.nih.gov/grants/funding/phs398/phs398.html)
1) Face Page, NIH-style:
http://grants.nih.gov/grants/funding/phs398/fp1.pdf
2) Abstract (150 words)
3) Proposal Narrative (3-5 pages):
a) Title of proposal, name of investigator(s) along with full contact information
b) Research Question(s)
c) Project Motivation and Goals
d) Research Plan/Methodology
e) Analytical framework
f) Data sources (if any)
g) Planned sensitivity analysis (if any)
h) Potential Practical Implications and Likely Conclusions
i) Timeline for Deliverables (not part of page count; see below for more information)
j) List of References cited in the Proposal (not part of page count)
4) Bio-sketch, NIH-style:
http://grants.nih.gov/grants/funding/phs398/biosketch.pdf
5) Proposed Budget and Budget Justification, NIH-style:
http://grants.nih.gov/grants/funding/phs398/fp4.pdf
Note: This grant program will support only the direct costs of research and does not fund overhead or indirect costs. Proposals must include a detailed and complete budget, separately itemizing costs for at least the following expenses:
* Personnel, including salary and benefits for the principal investigator and any co-investigators or research assistants (each separately itemized);
* Travel for research-related purposes;
* Equipment, materials, and other expenses, including the itemized costs, if any, of data, postage, and/or printing.
6) Complete resumes/C.V.'s of the primary investigator(s)
Deliverables:
* Interim and Final Reports on research and financials (see targeted timeline).
* Working Paper: The working paper from the project must be suitable for posting as a TIAA-CREF Institute Research Dialogue on the Institute's web site, and a Working Paper to be posted on the Boettner Center/PRC's website.
* Non-Technical Report and Executive Summary outlining the intuition and main findings of the research project. The non-technical report should be 3-5,000 words in length, and the executive summary approximately 300 words. The report should be suitable for posting as a TIAA-CREF Institute Trends and Issues note.
* One oral presentation of the research may result if requested by the TIAA-CREF Institute. Funding for any necessary travel to this event will be provided by the TIAA-CREF Institute.
Targeted Timeline:
* Research to be conducted from June 1, 2015 through August 31, 2016
* Interim Reports: Narrative to be submitted October 5, 2015 and narrative and interim financial report to be submitted February 5, 2016
* Final Reports: Narrative and financial reports to be submitted September 30, 2016
* Possible Researcher Workshop Fall 2016
Recipients of a TIAA-CREF/Boettner award will be expected to comply with the following conditions:
1) Throughout the project, the PI(s) must obtain IRB approval if using human subjects, along with human subject certification training (CITI) and sponsor approval requirements if required by their institution (e.g., foreign clearance). If human subjects are being used, a copy of an IRB letter of approval or exemption must be submitted to the Boetter Center prior to project funding to be released.
2) PI's are required to acknowledge the grant support received for this research on all papers and presentations stemming from research conducted with this financing. Please use the statement below:
"The project described received funding from the TIAA-CREF Institute and Wharton's Pension Research Council/Boettner Center. The content is solely the responsibility of the author(s) and does not necessarily represent official views of the above-named institutions."
Received on Tue Mar 31 2015 - 16:34:15 EDT
