Deadline: 31 May 2017
The Government of Australia and other partners (including the World Bank) are seeking applications for its “Water Data Challenge” with an aim to improve the access to information that is so crucial to ensuring that farmers thrive especially in lower-income settings and water resources are managed well.
The Challenge is looking for innovations that are sustainable (financial, institutional, environmental, technological, and social); use participatory and context-specific processes; are scalable in resource-poor settings; and that can be monitored and evaluated for impact and learning.
Focus Areas
The Challenge seeks breakthroughs in the following three areas:
- Water Data Solutions: To identify, develop and test data-led, highly cost-effective solutions, which satisfy the information needs of farmers male and female, or the extension agents who support farmers, to reduce farmer’s water-related risks and costs.
- Water Data Investments: To apply new approaches to facilitate and foster investments in the implementation of innovative data solutions, such as institution building, stakeholder platforms, public-private knowledge sharing methods, or mobilizing innovative financial mechanisms (e.g. insurance schemes).
- Capacity Development for Impact: To promote the capacity development of farmers/small farming communities, extension agents, or data-provider operations/services ensuring user-centered solutions that result in higher production/yields or more efficient use of water.
Award Information
- Group of experts will select key innovations to receive planning grants of US $10,000 to be announced by July of 2017.
- Some applicants selected on May 31st will be asked to submit full proposals, and will be eligible for early-stage awards up to US $250,000, and ready-to-scale awards up to US $1million.
Eligibility Criteria
- Applications accepted from innovators, entrepreneurs, start-ups, researchers, and government agencies.
- Applications from women-led organizations and organizations located in low or low-middle income countries are encouraged.
- The Challenge is interested in proposals that have a partner from a low or low-middle income country. (Note: Please provide supporting information on partners/prospective partners, as well as team leadership and make-up.)
How to Apply
Applications must be submitted online via given website.
Eligible Countries
Low Income Countries: Afghanistan, Gambia, Niger, Benin, Guinea, Rwanda, Burkina Faso, Guinea-Bissau, Sierra Leone, Burundi, Haiti, Somalia, Cambodia, Korea, South Sudan, Central African Republic, Liberia, Tanzania, Chad, Madagascar, Togo, Comoros, Malawi, Uganda, Congo, Mali, Zimbabwe, Eritrea, Mozambique, Ethiopia, Nepal.
Lower-Middle Income Countries: Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, American Samoa, Angola, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Belarus, Belize, Benin, Bhutan, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Brazil, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cambodia, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, China, Colombia, Comoros, Congo, Congo, Rep., Costa Rica, Côte d’Ivoire, Cuba, Djibouti, Dominica, Dominican Republic , Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Fiji, Gabon, Gambia, Georgia, Ghana, Grenada, Guatemala, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Jamaica, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kiribati, Korea, Kosovo, Kyrgyz Republic, Lao PDR, Lebanon, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Macedonia, Madagascar, Malawi, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Marshall Islands, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mexico, Micronesia, Moldova, Mongolia, Montenegro. Morocco, Mozambique, Myanmar, Namibia, Nepal, Nicaragua, Niger, Nigeria, Pakistan, Palau, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Romania, Rwanda, Samoa, São Tomé and Principe, Senegal, Serbia, Sierra Leone, Solomon Islands, Somalia, South Africa, South Sudan, Sri Lanka, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Sudan, Suriname, Swaziland, Syrian, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Thailand, Timor-Leste, Togo, Tonga, Tunisia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Tuvalu, Uganda, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Vanuatu, Vietnam, West Bank and Gaza, Yemen, Zambia, Zimbabwe.
For more information, please visit The Water Data Challenge.