Title: Georgetown and London School of Economics Award High-Impact Research in Joint Partnership

Georgetown and the London School of Economics (LSE) have selected the first recipients of a new seed fund that drives high-impact research collaborations between the two schools.

The LSE–Georgetown University Research Seed Fund, launched in March 2025, supports Georgetown and LSE faculty who are partnering to develop solutions to some of the world’s most pressing issues.

Seven Georgetown faculty are among the fund’s inaugural recipients. They are partnering with LSE faculty on five projects that range from monitoring everyday air pollution exposure to examining the impacts of withdrawn U.S. foreign aid. Each project team will receive approximately $25,000, with equal contributions from both universities.

“We are thrilled to congratulate the inaugural recipients of the LSE-Georgetown joint research grants. These successful projects will give us fascinating insights into vital areas of research and hopefully deliver lasting impacts,” said Susana Mourato, LSE vice president and pro-vice chancellor of research. “Cooperation and collaboration, particularly on an international scale, are critical for us to face up to the numerous challenges in the world today.”

This inaugural fund marks the beginning of a collaboration designed to foster academic excellence and spark change. The partnership stemmed from both institutions’ shared commitment to address key global challenges by engaging with policy and international organizations in Washington, DC, and London. 

“The selection of this year’s award winners reflects the power of the Georgetown-LSE collaboration to harness the complementary strengths of our two globally respected institutions in advancing innovative, interdisciplinary solutions to some of the world’s most urgent challenges,” said Jeffrey Urbach, vice provost for research at Georgetown. “We were very pleased to see the wide range of compelling collaborative projects proposed for this competition.”

Learn more about the research projects and the Georgetown faculty members behind them.

The Impact of Cancelled U.S. Aid

Who: Jennifer Tobin, associate professor of public policy at the McCourt School of Public Policy at Georgetown; and Ryan Jablonski, associate professor of political science at LSE.

What: Earlier this year, the U.S. government pulled the majority of its funding for international development and global public health. LSE and Georgetown researchers are collecting on-the-ground data from at least five of the countries hit hardest in Sub-Saharan Africa to understand some of the distributional impacts of the change and how governments, NGOs and local communities are adapting. They hope to provide policymakers and academic communities with a deeper understanding of the institutional, political and individual effects of the withdrawn U.S. aid.

Air Pollution Exposure in Real-Time in London

Who: Arik Levinson, professor of economics in the College of Arts & Sciences at Georgetown University; and Sefi Roth, associate professor of environmental economics at LSE; Lutz Sager, assistant professor in the ESSEC Business School and a visiting fellow in LSE’s Grantham Research Institute.

What: Air pollution is pervasive across the world — and can be deadly. In major cities like Washington, D.C., and London, it disproportionately affects low-income communities and communities of color. Most evidence on individual pollution exposure relies on stationary monitors that are outdoors or inside homes or workplaces. But less is known about people’s daily exposure as they go about their day. The research team will equip 100 London residents across socio-economic groups with portable sensors to track their locations and pollution levels minute-by-minute. They’ll then assess if and how certain participants respond to new information about their exposure levels — and how these changes can reduce their exposure.

Medical Treatment Decisions in Developing Countries

Who: Jishnu Das, Distinguished Professor of Public Policy at the McCourt School of Public Policy and the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown; and Mylène Lagarde, associate professor of health economics at LSE.

What: Many countries with low- and middle-income populations have made strides in expanding access to health care. Improving the quality of care, however, has not matched these rates. Georgetown and LSE researchers will analyze more than 12,000 clinical interactions around the world to examine the variations in how doctors diagnose and treat patients — and what that reveals about gaps in quality that governments face.

Building Support for Renewable Energy

Who: Erik Voeten, Peter F. Krogh Professor of Geopolitics and Justice in World Affairs at the School of Foreign Service and the Department of Government; Stephanie Rickard, professor of political economy at LSE; and Sarah Brooks, a professor of political science at Ohio State University.

What: As many countries shift from relying on fossil fuels to renewable energy, a group of scholars is studying who bears the environmental brunt of this transition and whether compensation could shape public support of these projects. The researchers will analyze what types of compensation are or aren’t effective in building long-term support for policies and actions crucial for the energy transition — focusing on communities affected by impacts like land usage, water pollution, and other contamination due to mining, industrial solar plants and wind farms and other activities. 

The Effects of Digitizing Public Services in India

Who: Irfan Nooruddin, the Hamad bin Khalifa Professor of Indian Politics at the School of Foreign Service; Bhumi Purohit, assistant professor of public policy at the McCourt School of Public Policy; Pavithra Suryanarayan, associate professor at LSE; and Aliz Tóth, assistant professor of political science at LSE.

What: India has digitized many of its public services in recent years, including the delivery of welfare payments, health care, legal and land transactions. While these digitization efforts can improve efficiency and access to data, they also carry risk — and can exacerbate the digital divide between the 600 million Indians without internet access and those who do. The research team will map how public services have been digitized across Indian states to understand variations in adoption and implementation as well as how citizens interact with these programs and their perceptions of the state.