External Funding Opportunities

Apply Now: $500,000 for Your Humanitarian Crisis Solutions

Information and communication technology solutions have the potential to greatly enhance and amplify the impact of efforts to address pressing global challenges in the humanitarian space. ICT4D can greatly improve the speed, efficiency, and impact of international development efforts, helping organizations to better serve communities in need, particularly for people who are marginalized or living in remote areas.

WFP Humanitarian Innovation Accelerator Programme

The World Food Programme’s Humanitarian Innovation Accelerator is now accepting high-impact innovative solutions that strive to enhance emergency management and solve humanitarian challenges faced by vulnerable populations and humanitarian actors.

Sign Up Now for More Funding Leads

Humanitarian Innovation Accelerator seeks innovations that leverage new technologies, new approaches, and new partnerships to improve and reduce risks in emergency management, enhance emergency preparedness, response, recovery, and prevention through the use of the following technologies or approaches in humanitarian contexts:

Artificial Intelligence and Data Science
Satellite Technology
Digital Health
Supply Chain and Logistics

All solutions need to be based on the humanitarian principles of humanity, neutrality, independence, and impartiality. Selected ventures will participate in WFP Innovation Bootcamp and will be considered for the WFP Sprint Program, a twelve-month acceleration program with equity-free funding access to up to US$500,000 in the Scaling workstream and up to US$130,000 in the Early Stage workstream.

Apply Now! Deadline is March 1, 2023

More Funding Opportunities

Do you want to apply for USAID grants for humanitarian aid projects? Get startup investments for a technology business? Or learn how to win more contracts? Then please sign up now to get our email updates. We are constantly publishing new funding opportunities like these:

The post Apply Now: $500,000 for Your Humanitarian Crisis Solutions appeared first on ICTworks.

Are you interested in presenting at the 2023 Supply Chain Research Summit in June?

If so, you only have two weeks left to submit your paper abstract.

We encourage you to consider presenting whether you are planning to attend the conference in person in Accra, Ghana, or virtually. And your paper can be on the conference theme or another supply chain topic.

Learn more about the Summit Call for Papers

The deadline to enter the PhD Dissertation Award competition is also in two weeks. The top three finalists will get to present their research at the summit and be recognized with a certificate and stipend.

Even if you’re not a finalist, you can receive invaluable feedback on your dissertation proposal. Apply now!

Learn more about the PhD Dissertation Award competition

April 14 is the deadline to apply for the pre-conference Paper Development Workshop. This workshop is open to faculty and senior doctoral students planning to attend the summit in person.

If selected, you will meet with and receive professional advice from a senior supply chain scholar on your submitted academic research paper. Apply today!

Learn more about the Paper Development Workshop

Please share this email with colleagues and students who may be interested. We look forward to reviewing your submissions and seeing you at the summit in June!

Nathaniel Boso
CARISCA Director and Research Co-Lead

Adegoke Oke
CARISCA Senior Technical Advisor and Research Co-Lead

About CARISCA
The Center for Applied Research and Innovation in Supply Chain – Africa(CARISCA) is a partnership between the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) and Arizona State University (ASU) with support from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

CARISCA’s key objective is to support higher education institutions in building the capacity necessary to provide best-in-class research, degree programs and training; facilitate research translation and utilization; and engage stakeholders in best practices and policy changes that strengthen supply chains.

Sustainable Development Solutions Network Opportunities

Below is a wide range of open funding opportunities. This list is courtesy of the Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN Global).

Grant-making opportunities

5. Call for Applications: The EcoHeroes Initiative 2022/2023 (see link for eligible countries)
Apply for up to USD 500 Grant, Mentorship & Skill Acquisition to innovate & implement green growth projects on Sustainable Energy, Climate change & Sustainable aviation.
Funding information: Less than USD 1,000
Deadline: Jan 22, 2023

6. Grow Further invites Proposals from Agricultural Researcher (see link for eligible countries)
Grow Further invites agricultural researcher to submit proposals for funding, and in some cases also management assistance.
Funding information: USD 10,000 to USD 100,000
Deadline: Jan 31, 2023

7. (New) Van Tienhoven Foundation announces Small Grant Program (see link for eligible countries)
The Van Tienhoven Foundation for International Nature Protection has announced the Small Grant Program for the protection of threatened species and key ecosystems across the globe.
Funding information: USD 10,000 to USD 100,000
Deadline: Jan 31, 2023

8. Call for EKOenergy Climate Fund Projects (see link for eligible countries)
The EKOenergy is pleased to announce an open call for the Climate Fund Projects.
Funding information: USD 10,000 to USD 100,000
Deadline: Feb 10, 2023

9. (New) Wildlife Acoustics Scientific Product Grant Program (see link for eligible countries)
The Wildlife Acoustics has launched the Scientific Product Grant Program to support the advancement of animal biology research, habitat monitoring and environmental conservation, that provides scientists with products and software to help further their research into the study of bats, birds, frogs and other vocal wildlife.
Funding information: USD 10,000 to USD 100,000
Deadline: Feb 15, 2023

10. Digital Freedom Fund to Support Strategic Litigation on Digital Rights in Europe (see link for eligible countries)
The Digital Freedom Fund is now open for applications to support strategic litigation on digital rights in Europe that contributes to advancing human rights in the digital context.
Funding information: USD 100,000 to USD 500,000
Deadline: Feb 28, 2023

11. Call for Research Proposals: Targeting Diagnoses and Policy Interventions (see link for eligible countries)
The Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo (BID) has announced a call for research papers to deepen knowledge on trade and the environment in LAC, in order to generate relevant information and analysis for decision-making in the public and private sectors of countries in the region.
Funding information: USD 1,000 to USD 10,000
Deadline: Feb 28, 2023

12. Mohamed bin Zayed Species Conservation Fund(see link for eligible countries)
The Mohamed bin Zayed Species Conservation Fund (MBZ) is now open for applications to provide targeted grants to individual species conservation initiatives, recognize leaders in the field and elevate the importance of species in the broader conservation debate.
Funding information: USD 10,000 to USD 100,000
Deadline: Feb 28, 2023

13. Request for Proposals: West Africa Regional Hub Small Grants Fund (see link for eligible countries)
Le Centre de Recherche et d’Action pour la Paix (CERAP), EGAP’s West Africa Regional Hub, is soliciting proposals for quantitative field studies on the theme of democracy, conflict, and polarization.
Funding information: USD 1,000 to USD 10,000
Deadline: Mar 5, 2023

14. EC: Programme Level Collaboration between National R&I Policy-Makers (see link for eligible countries)
The European Commission (EC) is inviting applications for the Programme Level Collaboration between National Research and Innovation (R&I) Policy-Makers under the Horizon Europe Framework Programme (HORIZON)
Funding information: USD 500,000 to USD 1,000,000
Deadline: Mar 9, 2023

15. (New) Open Call for Bio-based Solutions for Humanitarian Applications (see link for eligible countries)The European Commission (EC) is calling for proposals for Bio-based Solutions for Humanitarian Applications.
Funding information: USD 500,000 to USD 1,000,000
Deadline: Mar 28, 2023

16. Open Call: Restoration of Deep-Sea Habitats (see link for eligible countries)
The European Commission (EC) is calling for proposals for the Restoration of Deep-Sea Habitats.
Funding information: USD 500,000 to USD 1,000,000
Deadline: Mar 28, 2023

17. Open Call for Strategies to Prevent & Reduce Plastic Packaging Pollution from the Food System(see link for eligible countries)
The European Commission (EC) has launched the Strategies to prevent and reduce plastic packaging pollution from the food system under the Horizon Europe Framework Programme (HORIZON)
Funding information: USD 500,000 to USD 1,000,000
Deadline: Mar 28, 2023

18. Animal Behaviour and Cognition Funding Opportunity(see link for eligible countries)
The National Geographic Society is launching a rigorous global effort to find three of the best scientists doing field research on animal behavior and cognition.
Funding information: USD 500,000 to USD 1,000,000
Deadline: Apr 12, 2023

19. (New) Grants for Improving Rural Future through Better Territorial Governance and Rural-urban Synergies (see link for eligible countries)
The European Commission (EC) is calling for proposals for improving Rural Future through Better Territorial Governance and Rural-urban Synergies.
Funding information: USD 500,000 to USD 1,000,000
Deadline: Apr 12, 2023

20. PTES Conservation Insight Grants 2023(see link for eligible countries)
The People’s Trust for Endangered Species (PTES) is now accepting applications for the 2023 Conservation Insight Grants program.
Funding information: USD 10,000 to USD 100,000
Deadline: Aug 6, 2023

21. Global Impact Cash Grant Program for NGOs and NPOs (see link for eligible countries)
Cisco welcomes applications for Global Impact Cash Grants from community partners around the world who share their vision and offer an innovative approach to a critical social challenge.
Funding information: USD 10,000 to USD 100,000
Deadline: Ongoing

22. Roddenberry Foundation’s Catalyst Fund (see link for eligible countries)
The Roddenberry Foundation is accepting applications for its Catalyst Fund from anyone, anywhere in the world who has an early-stage idea.
Funding information: USD 10,000 to USD 100,000
Deadline: Ongoing

23. Global Youth Mobilization
A movement of young people taking action to improve their lives now and in a post-COVID-19 world. Have an idea for a solution to overcome a challenge created by the COVID-19 pandemic? Want to support your local community? Campaign for change in your local area?
Funding information: individual young people or informal groups can apply for either USD 500 or 1,500. Youth-led grassroots organizations can apply for either USD 3,000 or 5,000.
Deadline: Ongoing

24. Global Innovation Fund (see link for eligible countries)
A social impact-first investment vehicle that works with mission-aligned development agencies, philanthropy, and other funders to find and fund evidence-based innovations with the potential to positively impact the lives of millions of the world’s poorest people.
Deadline: Ongoing

25. Microsoft announces Climate Innovation Fund (see link for eligible countries)
Funding information: Microsoft is pleased to announce an open call for the Climate Innovation Fund to accelerate technology development and deployment of new climate innovations through equity and debt capital.
Deadline: Ongoing

26. Call for Proposals, Social Science Research Council (see link for eligible countries)
A call for proposals for The Mercury Project, a $10M+ research consortium investigating the impacts of health misinformation and evaluating interventions to prevent its spread in the United States, Africa, Asia, and Latin America.
Deadline: Ongoing

27. Call for Applications, Daily Grant Program, The Pollination Project
Micro grants 365 days a year to grassroots global change agents who seek to spread compassion in their communities and in the world for the benefit of all. To contribute to the creation of a more just, sustainable, and compassionate world for all.Funding information: total cost for the immediate project for which you are requesting funding from TPP must be less than USD 40,000
Deadline: Ongoing

28. Expedition Grants, Explorers Club and Discovery, Inc.
To foster scientific understanding for the betterment of humanity and all life on Earth and beyond, including our commitment to mitigate climate change, prevent the extinction of species and cultures, and ensure the health of our lands, oceans and all that inhabit them.Funding information: grants generally range from USD 25,000 to 40,000.
Deadline: Ongoing

29. Call for Applications, Fund for International Development, OPEC (see link for eligible countries)
To provide financial assistance to developing countries, particularly low-income countries, in support of their economic and social development efforts.Funding information: amounts of up to USD 100,000, OPEC Fund’s contribution to a stand-alone project should not exceed 50% of the total cost of the said project
Deadline: Ongoing

30. Rapid Response Fund, Open Technology Fund
Aims to facilitate the digital emergency response community to resolve threats in a timely and comprehensive manner for individuals, communities, and organizations whose free expression has recently been repressed.
Funding information: total value of support cannot exceed USD 50,000. Average support amounts are between USD 5,000 and 25,000.
Deadline: Ongoing

31. Fund for Innovation in Development Grant Program
A new initiative to support innovation that contributes to reducing global poverty and inequality. Through flexible grant funding, FID enables innovators and researchers to test new ideas, build rigorous evidence of what works, and scale the highest-impact and most cost- effective solutions.
Deadline: Ongoing

32. Global Innovation Fund (GIF)This program seeks to invest in social innovations that aim to improve the lives and opportunities of millions of people in the developing world. Open to funding innovations in any sector as long as they can demonstrate their innovation improves the lives of those living on less than USD 5 PPP per day.
Range: USD 50,000 to USD 15,000,000
Deadline: Ongoing

Fellowships and other opportunities

1. Scholarship for Displaced Students, Columbia University
Supports displaced students from anywhere in the world who are unable to complete their higher education. These students will receive full tuition, housing, and living assistance while pursuing undergraduate or graduate degrees across all 18 Columbia schools and affiliates. Scholarship aims to shift the global dialogue surrounding displaced persons, from one that views them as a burden to one that recognizes them as vital contributors to global innovation and prosperity.

2. 2023 Energy Globe Award for Sustainability (see link for eligible countries)
Nominations are now open for 2023 Energy Globe Award to present successful sustainable projects to a global audience and to demonstrate that for most of their environmental problems feasible solutions are already available. The best projects will be honored as part of a ceremony that will be broadcast worldwide as well as featured in the international media. International winning projects for the award categories of Earth, Fire, Water, Air, Youth and Sustainable Start-Ups will also each receive a cash award.Funding Information: USD 1,000 to USD 10,000

[IDWG] FSN-IL RFA Now Open: Concept Notes due Jan. 20th!

The Food Systems for Nutrition Innovation Lab (FSN-IL) has just released their first RFA titled “Actions to support Storage, Packaging and/or Cooling Innovations for perishable foods in target geographies.” They are currently requesting that eligible institutions submit a concept note by January 20th, 2023. Selected applications will then be invited to submit a full proposal. All applications must be led by a U.S. based academic institution and include at least one partner from a focus country. The FSN-IL will award a total of seven awards through this RFA. The budget ceiling per award is $700,000. Given that each research inquiry is likely to have a different timeline, the FSN-IL will allow for budgets for up to a 3-year period.

The Food Systems for Nutrition Innovation Lab (FSN-IL) is pleased to announce that the first stage of our Request for Applications (RFA) titled “Actions to support Storage, Packaging and/or Cooling Innovations for perishable foods in target geographies” is officially open for applications. The RFA process will consist of two stages: concept note and full proposal. Only selected concept notes will be invited to submit full proposals.

The Food Systems for Nutrition Innovation Lab (FSN-IL), a five-year activity managed by Tufts University and supported by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Bureau for Resilience and Food Security (RFS), is seeking applications from eligible institutions focused on questions of cost-effectiveness and delivery of innovations (technologies, products, processes, practices and/or policies) to support food systems transformation for nutrition in target geographies. The focus of the response should be on actions to support storage, packaging, and/or cooling innovations to reduce loss and waste of nutrient-dense perishable foods, primarily in Malawi, Mozambique, Nepal, or Bangladesh.

The deadline for the first stage of the application process, submitting a Concept Note, is January 20, 2023.

Click Here to Apply!

Application Instructions

All applicants are required to submit an application via Piestar to be considered. To submit an application, please follow the instructions provided:

Download the Request for Application (RFA) Form outlining all the necessary components for this RFA concept note.
Start your application by clicking on the Piestar Application Portal. Please note that you must first create an account in order to access the application. Once you have created an account, you can click on the “opportunities” tab and “apply now” to begin your application.
Download the Concept Note Template (Word) and begin completing your application. Our application portal, Piestar, will ask you to upload this form.
Download the Preliminary Budget Template (Excel) and begin completing your budget. Further guidelines are provided in the Full RFA form. Our application portal, Piestar, will ask you to upload this Excel sheet.
Upload all other forms indicated in Piestar, including CVs and Letters of Support

RFA Focus Topical Areas

The focus in FSN-IL’s first round of calls for applications is on identifying actions to support storage, packaging, and cooling innovations to reduce loss and waste and ensure food safety of nutrient dense perishable foods in target geographies. Priority will be given to high quality proposals that further our understanding of:

Policy actions to enable and regulate scaling of innovations
Business strategies and models to enable scaling of innovations
Determining the cost effectiveness of bundling of innovations around storage, packaging, and cooling

These topical areas are not mutually exclusive but should lead to actionable investments that support food systems transformation for nutrition in South Asia and Southern Africa. More information and examples within each of these topical areas can be found on page 4 of the RFA form.

A scoping review, conducted by the FSN-IL management entity and consortium partners, assessed the innovation landscape across the product life cycle from production to post harvest handling and processing to marketing and infrastructure, the food environment and, finally, consumer behaviors regarding around seeking healthy and sustainable diets. Findings of this review led to a prioritization of research questions linked to innovations around concerning storage, packaging, and cooling. Draft reports for these scoping exercises can be downloaded below.

» Theme 1 Scoping Exercise Report

» Theme 2 Scoping Exercise Report

» Theme 3 Scoping Exercise Report

» Theme 4 Scoping Exercise Report

Eligibility

All applications must be led by a U.S. based academic institution and include at least one partner from the selected focus country. The lead U.S. based institution will serve as the primary subawardee, issuing lower-tier subawards to other institutions as necessary. Applicants are encouraged to demonstrate past performance or history of collaboration among the proposed partners as well as to define clear roles and responsibilities for each partner.

The FSN-IL strongly encourages applications from, or partnering with, qualified Minority-Serving Institutions (MSIs) in the United States including, but not limited to, Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Predominantly Black Institutions, Hispanic-Serving Institutions, Tribal Colleges, and Universities, and Asian American Native Alaskan and Pacific Islander Serving Institutions.

Applicants must have a Universal Entity Identification (UEI) from the System for Award Management (SAM)[1] at the time of award. Awards will only be made to institutions with SAM UEIs, so if an institution does not have a SAM UEI, it is recommended that the process for obtaining the UEI be started as soon as possible. Invited applicants should note their UEIs in their application documents. If they do not have a UEI at the time of application, please state so and provide new UEIs when they are received.

For more on eligibility, go to page 7 of the RFA form.

[1] Check SAM status or request UEI at https://www.sam.gov/SAM

Number of Awards

The FSN-IL will award a total of seven awards through this RFA. The budget ceiling per award is $700,000. Given that each research inquiry is likely to have a different timeline, the FSN-IL will allow for budgets for up to a 3-year period.

Questions regarding this RFA should be submitted via Piestar or to foodsystemsnutrition@tufts.edu by December 22, 2022. Answers will be posted by January 6, 2023. Please share this announcement widely within your network and any interested parties!

Requests for Applications to conduct Horticulture Research

The Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Horticulture is excited to announce the release of three Requests for Applications (RFAs)!

The three RFAs are regionally directed – East Africa, West Africa, and South Asia.

Details on the RFAs can be found on these webpages:

Further details, including eligibility criteria for applicants, are included on both the webpages and in the PDFs of the RFAs found on the webpages.

***If eligible, we encourage applications! Also, please share these RFAs, as applicable with your networks. The closing date for applications January 10, 2023 5:00pm PST.***

Instructions on how to submit applications are included in both the webpage and the PDF of the RFA.

For funding opportunities offered by the Horticulture Innovation Lab, please follow our Funding Opportunities Webpage

Milken-Motsepe Prize Launch in Green Energy

Last week, during the 2022 Milken Institute Middle East and Africa Summit, the Milken Institute and the Motsepe Foundation launched the Milken-Motsepe Prize in Green Energy, a $2 million prize competition to reward entrepreneurs and innovators working to address one of the most pressing and immediate challenges of our time—access to green, renewable energy.

This is the second competition in the Milken-Motsepe Innovation Prize program, a series of multimillion-dollar prize competitions for entrepreneurial and technological solutions that accelerate progress toward the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Africa and globally. The first prize, the Milken-Motsepe Prize in AgriTech, was announced in 2021 and will be awarded in May 2023 at the Milken Institute Global Conference.

While this prize is focused on implementation in Africa, teams from anywhere in the world can register now and submit designs and business models. An independent panel of expert judges will select semi-finalist teams to receive $20,000 each to develop small-scale prototypes. In the final round, teams will demonstrate their entries in field tests which will be evaluated on their ability to:

Dramatically expand access to green, affordable, renewable energy
Reduce the exposure of vulnerable communities in Africa to the impacts of climate change
Stall and reverse greenhouse gas emissions

We want to invite you and USAID to share this opportunity with your networks and entrepreneurial contacts.

Please find more details attached, including a fact sheet and the official press release. Please find a social media toolkit for dissemination purposes here.

Call for Concept Notes – USAID Leading Through Learning

The USAID Leading through Learning Global Platform (Leading Through Learning) and its three Learning Networks, the USAID Education in Crisis and Conflict Network (ECCN), the USAID Global Reading Network (GRN), and the USAID Higher Education Learning Network (HELN), invite members to submit Concept Notes proposing tasks for implementation over the next year.

This Call for Concept Notes provides an opportunity for USAID Leading Through Learning to identify and develop tasks that build or strengthen the evidence and/or knowledge of USAID staff and partners, provide opportunities for professional development, or create opportunities for engagement with partners and staff. Please note that this is not a grant program, and no funding will be awarded to Concept Note applicants or organizations. Rather, Leading Through Learning—through its Learning Networks—will provide the platforms for members to co-create knowledge generation tasks and/or share knowledge with each other that can improve educational practices.

Submission Details

Leading Through Learning seeks concept notes that generate, capture, or disseminate knowledge that can be leveraged across a range of education stakeholders for the global good. In particular, Leading Through Learning seeks concept notes that share good practices from local researchers and practitioners and evidence that uses local knowledge to create successful educational experiences. Aggregation and synthesis of research and good practices across contexts and regions are also welcome. Concept notes must be aligned to one or more of the Learning Networks’ priorities, which can be viewed in the attachment and here.

Submission Process & Deadline

Concept notes may be submitted through the online Call for Concept Notes Submission Platform. All Concept Notes are due by Wednesday, June 15, 2022, at Midnight EDT. Visit EducationLinks for more guidance on the submission process.

Questions about the submission process can be posed to LTLGP_Proposals@edc.org or directly on the LinkedIn Group for each Learning Network. Questions and answers will be compiled weekly for sharing through the Call for Concept Notes webpage.

We encourage you to join our LinkedIn Groups and post questions there:

Gates Foundation and partner grant opportunity

Below are links to read about a grant opportunity under a new initiative launched by partners: the Novo Nordisk Foundation, Open Philanthropy, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Grant Opportunity

The Novo Nordisk Foundation, Open Philanthropy, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation have launched the Pandemic Antiviral Discovery (PAD) initiative to catalyze discovery and early development of antiviral medicines for future pandemics. This initiative’s first request for proposals (RFP) will focus on henipavirus, a subfamily of paramyxovirus that includes Nipah virus – a pathogen with an estimated fatality rate of 40% to 75%. Researchers from around the world are encouraged to submit proposals; the application deadline is May 5, 2022. Future RFPs will be announced on the initiative’s website.

Perspective on COVID-19

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation continues to work with the public and private sectors in the global response to COVID-19. To learn more about the foundation’s broader work and how COVID-19 is being addressed across the foundation, please visit the foundation’s website and media center, sign-up for The Optimist newsletter, and browse videos from the 2021 Grand Challenges Annual Meeting.

Grand Challenges Partnership Network

We invite you to read summaries of the grants awarded to date through Grand Challenges initiatives with the Gates Foundation as funder or co-funder and to explore an interactive world map of projects across the broader Grand Challenges funding partner network. This map is filling in over time, increasingly with locally led programs in the countries most affected by global health inequities.

And if you were forwarded this message, please sign up on our Grand Challenges website for email updates with the latest opportunities to apply for a grant.

Established nonprofits in the United States, India, and Morocco are invited to join a pilot, four-month, virtual program to scale their on-the-ground efforts to advance digital equity

The Digital Equity Accelerator from the Aspen Institute and HP Inc. will advance nonprofits working on the frontlines to close the digital equity gap and ensure connection for all. The Accelerator will supercharge organizations working to improve access, literacy, representation, and skills for marginalized and underserved populations, including:

women and girls;
ethnic, racial, and religious minority communities;
aging populations;
people with disabilities;
educators working with these groups.

Established nonprofits in the United States, India, and Morocco are invited to join a pilot, four-month, virtual program to scale their on-the-ground efforts to advance digital equity. Two participating organizations from each country will be awarded a $100,000 cash grant and innovative technology from HP.
Deadline is March 21, 2022

https://www.aspeninstitute.org/programs/digital-equity-accelerator/

Call for Applications – 2022 OWSD PhD Fellowships | Deadline: 15 April 2022

Call for Applications for the 2022 OWSD PhD Fellowships.

The Fellowship is offered to women scientists from Science and Technology Lagging Countries to undertake PhD research in the natural, engineering and information technology sciences at a host institute in the South.

Costs covered include travel to the host country, tuition fees, board, accommodation and living expenses, and a modest discretionary annual allowance. The programme is administered with funds generously provided by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) and is offered in partnership with host institutes throughout the developing world.

Two types of fellowship are available:

A full-time fellowship (maximum 4 years funding), where the research is undertaken entirely at a host institute in another developing country in the South.
A sandwich fellowship, where the candidate must be a registered PhD student in her home country and undertakes part of her studies at a host institute in another developing country. The sandwich fellowship is awarded for a minimum of 1 and a maximum of 3 research visits at the host institute. OWSD particularly encourages candidates to consider the sandwich option, which allows them to earn the PhD in their home country while accessing specialist researchers and equipment abroad, at the host institute.

The full Call for Applications is attached here, along with a poster which can be printed and distributed at your institutes or sent digitally. We are also attaching some tips for successful applications. We would greatly appreciate your help in spreading the word about this opportunity to your networks and to anyone you think could benefit.

Eligibility

All information regarding the fellowship, including full eligibility and selection criteria, required application materials, and the link to the application form, can be found on the OWSD website at:

https://owsd.net/career-development/phd-fellowship

All application materials are also available in French and Spanish at:

[French] https://owsd.net/bourses-de-doctorat

[Spanish]: https://owsd.net/becas-de-doctorado-owsd

Deadline

The deadline for applications for this fellowship is April 15, 2022.

Contact

Questions regarding the fellowship may be sent to fellowships@owsd.net.

USAID Higher Education Champions Opportunities

YouthPower 2 (YP2) Annual Program Statement

The YouthPower 2 Annual Program Statement (APS) provides a vehicle for engaging with youth-led and youth-serving organizations, among others, and systems to generate cross-sectoral, positive youth development outcomes. More specifically, the YouthPower 2 (YP2) APS is designed to provide a vehicle to engage with, among others, youth-led and youth-serving organizations and systems broadly and creatively, to support cross-sectoral, positive youth development outcomes
Current YP2 Call for Concept Notes: Through this Opportunity Youth Addendum, USAID/Dominican Republic aims to provide a vehicle for engaging with youth-led and youth-serving organizations, among others, and systems to generate cross-sectoral, positive youth development outcomes.
Learn more here | Deadline January 19

Private Sector Partnerships to Strengthen Higher Education Activity

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in Kosovo is seeking applications from qualified entities to implement the program entitled “Private Sector Partnerships to Strengthen Higher Education” which aims to strengthen partnerships between the private sector and academic institutions and support development of market-oriented and experiential learning approaches. While eligibility for this assistance award is not restricted, any application must include a partnership that, at a minimum, includes at least one U.S. Higher Education Institution (HEI) and at least one Kosovar HEI.
Learn more here | Deadline January 5

Open for Public Comment – American Schools and Hospital Abroad’s (ASHA’s) Fiscal Year 2022 draft Request for Applications (RFA) The American Schools and Hospital Abroad’s (ASHA’s) Fiscal Year 2022 draft Request for Applications (RFA) is available for Public Comment from December 6, 2021 until January 5, 2022 at 4pm EST on Grants.gov. Please submit comments to ASHAapplications@usaid.gov by January 5, 2022 at 4pm EST. Comments will not be accepted through the grants.gov portal.
Learn more here | Deadline January 6

Remember to check grants.gov and https://beta.sam.gov/ for additional funding and other opportunities. The Business Forecast is also an informational resource on potential funding and partnership opportunities at USAID.

FY22 ASHA RFA Out for Public Comment

The American Schools and Hospital Abroad’s (ASHA’s) Fiscal Year 2022 draft Request for Applications (RFA) is available for Public Comment from December 6, 2021 until January 5, 2022 at 4pm EST on Grants.gov. Please submit comments to ASHAapplications@usaid.gov by January 5, 2022 at 4pm EST. Comments will not be accepted through the grants.gov portal.

After ASHA receives and responds to public comments, the official RFA will be posted to grants.gov. The deadline for the Question and Answer period and Phase 1 applications will be listed in the official RFA.

Apply Now: $750,000 Digital Health Funding from Gates Foundation

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation sponsors Grand Challenges – a family of initiatives fostering innovation to solve key global health and development problems. Each initiative is an experiment in the use of challenges to focus innovation on making an impact.

Individual challenges address some of the same problems, but from differing perspectives. Which brings us to these two Grand Challenges that support digital health solutions:

https://www.ictworks.org/digital-health-funding-gates-foundation/#.Ya5vpy1h3Fw

Apply Now: $900,000 for African Natural Language Processing Projects

The ability to communicate and be understood in one’s own language is fundamental to digital and societal inclusion. Natural language processing techniques have enabled critical artificial intelligence applications that facilitate digital inclusion and improvements in numerous fields, including: education, finance, healthcare, agriculture, communication, and disaster response, among others.

Many advances in both fundamental and applied NLP have stemmed from openly licensed and publicly available datasets. However, such open, publicly available machine learning datasets are scarce to non-existent for many African languages, and this means the benefits of NLP are not accessible to speakers of these languages.

Sign Up Now for more grant funding opportunities

Where relevant datasets do exist, they are often based on religious, missionary, or judiciary texts, leading to outmoded language and bias. There is a need for openly accessible text, speech, and other datasets to facilitate breakthroughs based on NLP technologies for African languages.

African Natural Language Processing Grant Funding

Lacuna Fund Expressions of Interest seeks qualified organizations to develop open and accessible training and evaluation datasets for ML applications for NLP in sub-Saharan Africa. Especially datasets that would create significant impact regardless of the number of speakers of the included language, as well as the need for multi-lingual datasets.

EOIs may include, but not limited to:
Collecting and/or annotating new data;
Annotating or releasing existing data;
Augmentation of existing datasets in all areas to decrease bias
Creating small, higher-quality benchmark data for NLP.

The datasets should enable better execution of core NLP tasks in African languages, as well as the assessment of systems performance in African languages, including:

Speech corpora, including for applications that allow illiterate or otherwise underprivileged groups to access technology tools, information, and/or services.
Labeled text corpora for use as training or benchmark evaluation data, including parallel corpora for machine translation or corpora to support other fundamental or downstream NLP tasks.
Unlabeled text corpora for language models that support multiple avenues of research or application.
Datasets related to code-switched text or speech that improve the performance of NLP tasks in such situations.
Domain-specific creation or augmentation of text and speech datasets, such as digit datasets, place names, or specific word pairs or sentences, that enable applications with significant social impact.
Multimodal and other innovative datasets, such as video or audio captioning or other image-text interactions.

The total Lacuna Fund pool available is approximately $900,000 USD with proposed budgets in the range of $10k – 100k for small to medium-sized projects and up to $200k for large, complex projects.

Apply Now! Deadline is December 1, 2021

Full message here.

Request for Proposals (RFP) Research and Innovation for Sustainable, Evidence-Based Nutrition (RISEN)

The USAID Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance (BHA) is seeking to build upon lessons and momentum achieved through its previously funded Food Assistance Quality Review (FAQR) awards. This effort will require continual learning, dissemination of accrued knowledge, corresponding adjustment, an adaptation of food assistance that will require ongoing attention and commitment. Three generations of FAQR awards have contributed meaningfully to the delivery of food assistance and the continuous refinement of USAID/BHA programs to meet the nutritional needs of affected populations through improvements and innovations in products and processes.

The Research and Innovation for Sustainable, Evidence-based Nutrition (RISEN) award will re-emphasize the programming aspects of food assistance-driven nutrition programs while focusing on product innovation and process improvement. RISEN will assist USAID in coordinating disparate humanitarian, development, and private sector stakeholders across varied technical domains related to food assistance. RISEN will be leveraged to generate novel evidence, fill gaps in our collective understanding in the use of food assistance to improve nutrition outcomes, and improve the uptake and utilization of research and evidence to broadly improve the relative value of investment in research in this and related areas.

Details Here

More from USAID Higher Education Champions

Private Sector Partnerships to Strengthen Higher Education Activity

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in Kosovo is seeking applications from qualified entities to implement the program entitled “Private Sector Partnerships to Strengthen Higher Education” which aims to strengthen partnerships between the private sector and academic institutions and support development of market-oriented and experiential learning approaches. While eligibility for this assistance award is not restricted, any application must include a partnership that, at a minimum, includes at least one U.S. Higher Education Institution (HEI) and at least one Kosovar HEI.

Learn more here | Deadline January 5

Bridge to Middle School – Morocco

The main purpose of Bridge is to build the capacity of the Ministry of Education (MEN) in Morocco to implement new, student-centered curricula in Arabic and selected STEM subjects (grades 4-9) as well as English (grades 7-9), in ways that have measurable impacts on learning outcomes.

The goal of the program is to improve the performance of MEN central directorates, education academies (AREFs), provincial directorates (DPs), and schools in employing evidence-based pedagogies that promote continuous learning in select content areas, emphasizing strengthened critical thinking skills.

Learn more here | Deadline November 15

USAID Feed the Future (FTF): PREMIER – Promoting Innovative and Resilient Agriculture Market Systems

USAID Feed The Future (FTF): Promoting Innovative and Resilient Agriculture Market Systems (PREMIER) program, a project to stimulate systemic change by addressing the root causes of poor agriculture system performance, targeting leverage points for catalytic change and working through market actors to facilitate technical and financial assistance to broaden and deepen market engagement, thus increasing incomes and creating employment opportunities, especially for youth and women.

This project will support producers and SMEs in agriculture to increase their profitability, access to markets and financial services using a market systems development approach, while increasing their resilience to climate change along the Nacala Corridor, which is located across Nampula Province in northern Mozambique, and stretches into northern Zambezia, southern Niassa, and southwestern Cabo Delgado provinces.

Learn more here | Deadline November 15

Request for Information: Youth & Private Sector Engagement

USAID is seeking to connect with private sector companies to provide employment and/or entrepreneurship opportunities for adolescent girls and young women. Partnering with USAID’s DREAMS program in sub-Saharan Africa and Haiti provides businesses with an opportunity to access new talent that already have many of the financial, interpersonal, and job readiness skills needed for successful employees.

Learn more here | Deadline December 10

Remember to check grants.gov and https://beta.sam.gov/ for additional funding and other opportunities. The Business Forecast is also an informational resource on potential funding and partnership opportunities at USAID.

USAID Higher Education Champions – Funding Opportunities

HELIX Annual Program Statement

Higher Education for Leadership, Innovation, and Exchange (HELIX) Annual Program Statement (APS) aims to improve partner country higher education individual, institutional, and organizational capacity for change by supporting opportunities for partnerships, scholarships, exchanges, fellowships, internships, apprenticeships, work-based learning, research, communities of practice, and other relevant forms of capacity development and change management. The aim of this APS is to support solutions that will create meaningful change at the individual, institutional, and/or system level, with, in connection to, or through higher education.

Current HELIX Call for Concept Notes:

The purpose of the USAID/Nepal Agriculture Higher Education Activity is to strengthen the capacity of the Nepal Agricultural and Forestry University’s (AFU) to contribute to Nepal’s agricultural development by improving the quality of agricultural higher education, increasing agricultural graduates’ employability, and contributing to research and extension activities that play a central role in Nepal’s agricultural and economic transformation. It is anticipated that direct work with AFU will in turn also create system-level change in the overall higher education system in Nepal.

Learn more here | Deadline December 10

USAID Higher Education Global Evidence Summit

I’m pleased to announce that proposal submissions for the inaugural Higher Education Global Evidence Summit are now being accepted through December 9, 2021. Join members of the research community, development practitioners, and USAID staff to expand the higher education evidence based around three interrelated themes: Employability, Innovation, and Private Sector Engagement in support of the USAID Higher Education Learning Agenda.

The inaugural USAID Higher Education Global Evidence Summit will take place virtually over three weeks in May 2022: May 3 & 4, May 10 & 11, and May 17 & 18. Event programming consists of two half-days over the three weeks, with four hours of programming each day (start and end times forthcoming). Learn more and register here.

The Summit offers a unique opportunity for academics, researchers, donors, and practitioners to showcase emerging research, new data, trends, and promising practices as they relate to higher education in a global forum. As part of our goal to diversify participation in the Summit, we are explicitly seeking knowledge from individuals in developing country contexts and research and evidence that thoroughly engages local knowledge to support best practices in solving local problems. Proposals from individuals in USAID partner countries will be given special consideration; however all academics, donors, practitioners, and students are encouraged to submit proposals. Find out more in the Call for Proposals.

Please feel free to share this call for proposals widely in your internal and external networks!

Samantha Alvis, Ph.D. (Pronouns: she, her, hers)

Higher Education Senior Advisor

Bureau for Development, Democracy and Innovation | Center for Education (DDI/EDU)

U.S. AGENCY FOR INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT (USAID)

Office 8.016, 1717 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20006

T 202-712-1236 | salvis@usaid.gov | USAID.gov | @USAID

Apply Now: Middle East and North Africa Call for Innovations

This call by the Middle East and North Africa Regional Innovation Hub (MENA RIH) will support up to 20 organizations based in Algeria, Iraq, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestine, Sudan, Tunisia, and Yemen.

Eligible companies, nonprofits with a for-profit program, and other orgatizations should have a technology or business model that works to provide sustainable water or energy solutions for agriculture. Up to 20 companies will be selected companies to receive customized support in the form of technical assistance, investment facilitation, and grants ranging from $25,000 USD to $300,000 USD.

To learn more about the Call for Innovations and get your questions answered, please RSVP to the October 27th webinar.

Information: https://we4f.org/apply-mena

Apply Now: South and Southeast Asia Call for Innovations

This call by the South and Southeast Asia Regional Innovation Hub (S/SEA RIH) will support up to 20 organizations based in Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Laos, Nepal, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Timor-Leste, and Vietnam.

The hub is looking for companies, nonprofits with a for-profit program, and other organizations who have innovative technologies and business models to provide sustainable water or energy solutions for agriculture. Up to 20 organizations will be selected organizations to receive customized support in the form of technical assistance, investment facilitation, enabling ecosystem support, and grants up to $200,000 USD.

Missed out on attending for the Q&A webinar? The recording is now available.

More Info: https://we4f.org/apply-ssea

PEER COVID-19 research grant opportunity

The Partnerships for Enhanced Engagement in Research (PEER) program is focused on effects of and innovations in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. You can find information on the cycle on the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine home page and you can find the RFA here.

Here is some information you can share with your grantees and/or potential applicants:

Summary

USAID and the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine are pleased to announce that a call for new proposals for the Partnerships for Enhanced Engagement in Research (PEER) program is now open. This cycle will focus on sourcing locally-led research projects from researchers in USAID partner countries that aid in our understanding of how shocks, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, affect key sectors in our partner countries and test approaches to help communities and sectors respond to and mitigate the effects of COVID-19 or similar future shocks. Find the full request for applications here.

For this funding cycle, PEER will distribute awards of up to $70,000 for one year research projects.

Dates
Pre-proposal deadline: October 22, 2021
Applicants invited to submit full proposal: November 22, 2021
Full proposal (by invitation only) deadline: January 28, 2022
Awardees announced: April 29, 2022

Eligible applicants must:

Hold a research or teaching position at a higher education institution in a PEER eligible country (see eligible country list in RFA);
Be citizens or permanent residents of a PEER-eligible country
Be living and working in the country from which they are applying
Have a US-based research partner who is funded by an eligible US government agency (USDA Agricultural Research Service, USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture, USDA Forest Service, NASA, NIH, NOAA, NSF, Smithsonian, U.S. Geological Survey)

Applicants with questions are encouraged to consult National Academies for Sciences, Engineering and Medicine (the implementers of PEER) program staff at peer@nas.edu prior to submitting their pre-proposal.

One innovator can change a community. A network can change a continent.

The #AfricaPrize awards commercialisation support to ambitious African innovators developing scalable engineering solutions to local challenges. Does this sound like you? Apply now: https://t.co/LVjL485ZtY?amp=1

Remedial Education Activity in Zambia

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is seeking Concept Notes on innovative solutions to support remedial instruction in grades three to five, thereby contributing to improve learning outcomes and expand access to quality basic education in Zambia.

Subject to the availability of funds, USAID may allocate up to $10 million over a period of performance of five years. Priority will be placed on supporting the most promising approaches to the objectives described herein. USAID reserves the right to fund any or none of the application(s) submitted. All terms and conditions of the FY2021-2022 STIP APS apply. Issuance of this notice of funding opportunity does not constitute an award commitment on the part of the United States Government nor does it commit the U.S. Government to pay for any costs incurred in preparation or submission of comments/suggestions or an application/Concept Note. Applications are submitted at the risk of the applicant. All preparation and submission costs are at the applicant’s expense.To be eligible for award, the applicant must provide all information as required in this NOFO and meet eligibility standards of this NOFO. This funding opportunity is posted on www.grants.gov, and may be amended. Potential applicants should regularly check the website to ensure they have the latest information pertaining to this notice of funding opportunity.

It is the responsibility of the applicant to ensure that the entire NOFO has been received from the internet in its entirety and USAID bears no responsibility for data errors resulting from transmission or conversion process. If you have difficulty registering on www.grants.gov or accessing the NOFO, please contact the grants.gov Helpdesk at 1-800-518-4726 or via email at support@grants.gov for technical assistance.

Please send any questions by the due date to the point of contact identified in section VI of the notice. Responses to questions received prior to the deadline will be furnished to all potential applicants through an amendment to this notice posted to www.grants.gov. Thank you for your interest in USAID programs.

Link to Additional Information:

https://www.grants.gov/web/grants/view-opportunity.html?oppId=332014

Grantor Contact Information:

If you have difficulty accessing the full announcement electronically, please contact:

Charles Nyanoka
Assistance Specialist
Phone 0211-357033

USAID taking proposals for new food systems lab

USAID is accepting concept notes to implement the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Food Systems for Nutrition program.

The Food System Innovation Lab will design, lead and implement a program of nutrition-sensitive food-system research and capacity-building aimed at addressing opportunities and challenges, and will serve as a resource to the Bureau for Resilience and Food Security (RFS), missions and their partners on the role of food systems in inclusive economic growth, nutrition, food safety, and a nutrition-sensitive approaches, gender-sensitive and youth-inclusive development, and resilience.

The Food System for Nutrition Innovation Lab is expected to help implement and communicate impact pathways from nutrition-sensitive food systems research to development outcomes through partnerships with USAID mission-supported value chain programs, national partners, private companies and associations, community-based organizations and other donors and their programs.

The Innovation Lab will deliver on this vision by a) strengthening the capacities of select country and regional research institutions to undertake research that is relevant and sound, to communicate findings in ways that are more likely to influence government partners, policy makers, and practitioners, while b) implementing an integrated country, regional and global research agenda.

Only U.S. colleges and universities are eligible for the award, which is $25 million to $39.9 million. The deadline to submit concept notes is March 8. Go to https://www.grants.gov/web/grants/search-grants.html and search for Funding Opportunity 7200AA21RFA00007.