Call for Papers

Our mandate at the BUILD Research Network is to stimulate research into the factors that would accelerate growth, especially in the physical world—housing, transport, and energy. This project asks a specific question: Which additional infrastructure investments would be the most valuable? Can we identify those investments that would yield the most bang for the buck? And identify, too, the major impediments to making those investments?

Our goal is to produce an online series hosted on the BUILD webpage that addresses these questions from across the social science continuum, including but not limited to engineering, social science, law, and history. We are looking for final products that are 10 to 15 pages, written for a cross-disciplinary audience. These papers can answer the questions directly or, alternatively, propose a framework to help us answer the motivating questions. We encourage submissions that can bring new methods of thinking or analysis. To this end, BUILD will offer a $5,000 honorarium and will host an authors’ conference in May 2027. 

Topic Focus

We are interested in infrastructure broadly: energy, broadband, housing, transportation, water, sewer, and things we haven’t yet thought of, including invisible projects rarely raised as possibilities. We are looking for a focus on what we need to build and what we need to change to build it.

Conference & Compensation

To submit, write a one-page proposal that describes how you’d like to answer the question. If you have questions about whether your idea is a fit, please reach out to Nick Bagley (nbagley@umich.edu) or Leah Brooks (lfbrooks@gwu.edu).

Selected participants will be expected to submit a draft paper by April 16, 2027. Participants will review each others’ papers before the authors’ conference. The authors’ conference, which participants are expected to attend, will be in Ann Arbor, MI or Washington DC the evening of May 6 and the day of May 7.

BUILD will offer a $5,000 honorarium and will host an authors’ conference in May 2027.  If authors would like to write in a group, they can split the honorarium.