About UCPH-DERG

The Development Economics Research Group (DERG) promotes quality research in development economics, leading to robust and sustainable development policy to end poverty in all its forms. Everywhere.

We contribute to the strategy of the University of Copenhagen (UCPH) in the shared search for solutions to complex global challenges as articulated in the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) approved by the UN General Assembly in September 2015.

We work at the nexus of research, policy and practice and strive to stimulate ideas, subjecting them to in-depth analysis, generating evidence, mobilizing action and building capacity.

Professor Finn Tarp (former Director of UNU-WIDER) coordinates UCPH-DERG in close collaboration with Professor John Rand, who is member of the UCPH Global Development Network. The UCPH-DERG team includes staff at all academic levels from research assistants to professors, and we pursue a wide range of thematic and country focused research projects and activities at micro, sector and macro level.

Our affiliates include world-leading academics, the UN, and think tanks, government staff and university colleagues in a diverse range of settings, especially in Europe, Africa and Asia. We are in addition to our global, regional and crosscutting work presently active in a number of countries, including for example Bolivia, Ethiopia, India, Kenya, Mozambique, Tanzania, South Africa, and Vietnam.

Founded in 1996, UCPH-DERG has received core and project funding from a wide range of sources including for example research foundations (Independent Research Fund Denmark), DANIDA, international organizations (AERC, IFPRI, UNU-WIDER, World Bank), national governments and donors (Denmark, Finland, Mozambique, Norway, South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland, Tanzania, UK, Vietnam) and consultancy companies (COWI, Oxford Policy Management).