The Funding Process

RERI's Request for Proposals (RFP) and grant selection procedures are updated on an annual basis. Beginning in June of each year, the Board of Directors and the Advisory Board meet to discuss the coming year's research priorities. Issues of topical interest as well as concerns requiring a longer-term commitment to research are vigorously debated. After a general consensus is developed around a broad expression of RERI's research priorities, an RFP subcommittee is appointed to craft the final language of the document. The sub-committee chairperson then coordinates with RERI's administrative staff at the Pension Real Estate Association to disseminate the RFP to the academic and professional communities.

Requests for Proposals are mailed to thousands of practitioners and academics in the fall of each year. Announcements of the research agenda and proposal process are additionally published worldwide in industry journals, newsletters and websites. Proposals are due the following February.

A second sub-committee is established to select the grant recipients. Members of this sub-committee, composed of a cross-section of the Board of Directors and the Advisory Board, including both academics and practitioners, read all proposals, score them according to a predetermined quantitative system, and vote affirmatively or negatively on each proposal. The chairperson of the sub-committee tabulates the results of all scoring and voting. Finally, the sub-committee presents its findings to both Boards in April. At the conclusion of this presentation, members of the Board of Directors vote to determine which proposals are selected for funding. A mentor is then assigned to each project to provide guidance to the researcher and to ensure that the project is completed on schedule.

Announcements of accepted proposals are made at the annual RERI Research Conference that is held in April. Projects are expected to be completed by the following January. Researchers may then be invited to present completed research papers at the following year's conference.