Challenges and prospects for ‘green’ industrial policy in the Global South Open call for research papers and summer school

The resurgence of industrial policy in the agendas of national governments, research centres, international development bodies, and philanthropic funding agencies worldwide marks a significant departure from decades of market fundamentalism. However, this renewed interest has primarily centred on policy strategies launched by the United States, Europe, and China, and analytical frameworks that fail to address most Global South countries’ distinct challenges.

As climate change accelerates and ecological breakdown threatens development prospects, there is an urgent need for industrial policy approaches that simultaneously address environmental sustainability, social justice, and economic development in social formations characterised to a large extent by institutional weakness, resource constraints, and complex and polarised political relations.

Industrial policy in the Global South must transcend conventional frameworks that prioritise aggregate GDP growth. As the Senegalese political economist and TNI Fellow N’dongo Samba Sylla notes, the primary objective of industrial policy should be refocused “on specific forms of production that are necessary to improve human well-being, meet ecological objectives, and achieve national development”. This perspective implies research approaches that recognise the colonial legacies, structural inequalities, and distinctive state-society relations that shape industrial development opportunities and constraints in the South. Most countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America and the Caribbean face pressures to balance industrialisation with decarbonisation demands, creating unique policy dilemmas that conventional research inadequately addresses.

In response to these challenges, in February 2025 the Transnational Institute (TNI), in collaboration with universities, research centres and civil society organisations from around the world, launched the Global Green Industrial Policy Lab (GGIPL), which has been conceived as an open, collaborative and non-extractive platform for knowledge production that will connect researchers, progressive government officials, trade unionists and civil society activists to work together to improve the design and implementation of democratic, ecological and just industrial policies in the Global South.

The GGIPL invites young and committed scholars from Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean to apply for this open call for research papers, which has the following objectives:

• To deepen knowledge and understanding of industrial policy's meanings, challenges and prospects in the Global South, supporting both collective and individual research proposals.
• To contribute to the creation or expansion of a critical mass of engaged researchers beyond the current narrow circle of (mostly senior) academics active in this field – fostering the next generation of activist-scholars.
• To disseminate research findings across regions through a summer school that will offer the opportunity to interact with policymakers, leading researchers and civil society organisations.
• To publish research outputs produced by young and committed researchers via digital and printed media.
• To establish the basis for the collaborative design of a broader research agenda on industrial policy in regions and countries of the Global South integrating fresh perspectives.

Research works may focus on a specific thematic area or a combination of more than one. Fourteen lines of research are proposed for this call, which are indicative but not exclusive:

1. Contextual significance: Analysis of industrial policy frameworks tailored to the diverse institutional configurations, resource constraints, and development challenges faced by Global South countries, beyond models designed for advanced economies in Europe, North America, and Asia-Pacific.
2. Environmental considerations: Analysis of the linkages between environmental sustainability and industrial development strategies, particularly on how green industrial policies can simultaneously drive economic transformation and ecological sustainability.
3. Developmental outcomes: Industrial policy frameworks that address climate change while creating decent jobs, reducing poverty, and building endogenous technological capabilities.
4. Just transition pathways: Regional, national, or sectoral approaches for industrial policy and the energy transition that address historical inequalities, promote democratic and publicly-owned energy systems and ensure that decarbonisation benefits the communities most affected by climate change and extractivism.
5. Technology transfer: Policy mechanisms for meaningful technology transfer, sharing and adaptation that overcome intellectual property barriers and build domestic innovation capacities rather than reinforcing technological dependence.
6. State capacity: Analysis of different state configurations in the Global South and their distinct abilities to design, implement and coordinate industrial policies across economic sectors and territorial scales.
7. Gender-responsive industrial policy: Feminist approaches that address structural gender inequalities in access to decent work, technology, and decision-making power while ensuring industrial development contributes to gender justice rather than reinforcing existing disparities.
8. Public ownership models: Examination of the role of state-owned enterprises and other forms of public and community ownership in strategic sectors that can advance democratic economic control, ensure equitable distribution of benefits, and prioritise social and ecological goals beyond market imperatives.
9. Comparative policy analysis: Lessons from past and current industrial development experiences across diverse Global South countries or regions, identifying transferable practices and processes.
10. Democratic policy design: Participatory methods for designing and implementing industrial policies that meaningfully engage civil society, trade unions, and local communities alongside government officials and researchers.
11. Political economy dynamics: National, regional or global power structures that enable or constrain effective industrial policy implementation, including the role and interests of domestic elites or other political or economic actors.
12. Geopolitical effects: Impacts of the Global North’s industrial, trade, investment and energy policies on the Global South’s industrial development paths and prospects.
13. Resource governance: Non-extractive models of resource management that challenge ‘green colonialism’ while supporting socially equitable industrialisation in resource-rich Global South countries.
14. Financial architecture: Innovative financing mechanisms, the role of public development banks, and fiscal frameworks that can mobilise adequate resources for industrial development while avoiding unsustainable debt burdens, particularly examining how countries with limited fiscal space can design and fund ambitious industrial transformation programmes.

Submission of proposals

• Proposals can be submitted by individual researchers or by teams.
• Published research will not be accepted. Proposals may be linked to ongoing research projects, but the final output should be original and developed within the period established by the call.
• The research proposal should consist of a brief outline of the text to be produced within the framework of this call, detailing the rationale, objectives and context of the proposed work.
• The research proposals may be submitted in English, Spanish, Portuguese, or French. [The final research paper, however, must be submitted in English.]
• The proposals must be sent to <chavez@tni.org>. The deadline for submission is 30 May 2025.

Support to be granted

• Up to 18 (eighteen) research proposals will be selected and distributed as follows: 8 (eight) from Sub-Saharan Africa, 4 (four) from North Africa, 4 (four) from Latin America and the Caribbean, and 2 (two) from Asia. This distribution by region is indicative and may change depending on the number and quality of proposals.
• The economic support for producing the research papers will consist of USD 2,000 (two thousand U.S. dollars or its equivalent in local currency) for each selected proposal.
• The GGIPL will publish the resulting final research outputs in printed and digital media, giving them wide publicity and dissemination. If necessary, the authors will be asked to make the necessary editorial revisions and adjustments so that the research papers can be published in different formats.
• The authors of the selected proposals will be invited to present their research at the Summer School on Industrial Policy in the Global South, which will take place in South Africa at the end of November 2025. The GGIPL will cover the costs of travel and accommodation.

Selection criteria

• In a first stage, the proposals submitted will be reviewed in their formal and administrative aspects to verify their compliance with the call’s rules. Proposals that do not comply with the established requirements will be rejected.
• The applications that pass to the next stage will be evaluated by an international committee composed of industrial policy experts. The committee will assess the quality and relevance of the proposals, which will be submitted under a pseudonym.
• If the applications received are not of sufficient quality, the call for proposals may be declared void or a smaller number of applications may be selected.

Follow-up process

• Selected applicants will be required to submit preliminary reports and the final document by the deadlines to be announced by the GGIPL.
• The authors of the selected proposals will be encouraged to participate in a series of webinars to be organised by the GGIPL. These webinars will create an epistemic community in which to share progress in the research process.
• Authors will cede the right of original publication to TNI. The GGIPL adheres to the principles of open science and open access to knowledge, therefore the published research will be easy to find, accessible, interoperable and reusable. Subsequently, it may be published in any other media. Authors will request express authorisation for publication by other means.

Characteristics of the research papers

• The selected authors will complete the research papers between June and November of 2025.
• Research papers should be between 8,000 and 11,000 words in length (bibliography aside), written in Times New Roman 12 font, single-spaced. This criterion is approximate and the GGIPL will allow exceptions if deemed appropriate. The structure of the text will be free, respecting the usual conventions for submitting articles to academic journals.