Deadline: 28-Aug-23
The OIC Accelerated Blue Economy Edition call for proposals is calling all qualified innovators seeking technical and management mentoring, communications and promotions support, and connections to capital for future upscaling in the OIC Incubator.
UNDP, in consultation with donor partners, established a new SDG14 Ocean Innovation Challenge (OIC) dedicated to spur action by identifying and financing a suite of pilot initiatives that demonstrate highly innovative approaches to ocean sustainability, cutting across most of the SDG14 targets and associated sustainability challenges.
The overall objective of the OIC is to accelerate progress on SDG14 by catalysing replicable and scalable innovations (technological, policy, economic, financial, etc.) that can be sustained and directly contribute to delivery of one or more SDG14 targets.
The OIC is in search of standout proposals that will stimulate socio-economic growth while restoring and conserving the coastal and marine ecosystems.
UNDP’s fourth call for proposals will focus on SDG 14 Target 7: “by 2030, increase the economic benefits to SIDS and LDCs from the sustainable use of marine resources, including through sustainable management of fisheries, aquaculture and tourism.”
Innovations must be technically feasible, truly innovative, replicable, scalable, poverty reducing, livelihood creating, gender mainstreaming, youth empowering and potentially transformational.
This could include approaches that create new and additional blue economy opportunities, such as:
- Innovations to improve fisheries and aquaculture management and associated value chains;
- Creative ecotourism opportunities and collaboration with tourism industry to restore and to conserve marine and coastal ecosystems and actively engage coastal communities;
- New digital financial technologies to support coastal communities use of marine resources;
- Inventive indigenous and sustainable uses of marine resources empowering local coastal communities to share common resources and encourage circular economic models (e.g. multi-tropic aquaculture).
Funding Information
- In addition to the hands-on support and mentoring from the OIC Incubator, selected innovators will receive up to $40,000 USD as a deliverable based contract to pilot their innovation within a period of maximum six months. These innovations must be administered in and benefit a coastal least developing country (LDC) and/or small island developing state (SIDS).
Eligibility Criteria
- All eligible entities (private, NGO, etc.) should have an established legal basis in the least developed country/ies (LDC) and/or small island developing states (SIDS) wherein they are based. A proof of business registration will be required upon the online submission of the proposal.
- Upon completion of the contract, innovators will be equipped with new skills and experience and positioned to engage with bigger venture capital investors. The successfully implemented innovations will be part of the UNDP’s catalogue of proven ocean solutions with transformational socio-economic impacts that can be rapidly upscaled and replicated in other SIDS, coastal LDCs and beyond.
- Organizations with legal identity and operating locally in a coastal least developed country (LDC) or small island developing states (SIDS), classified as any of the following below, are eligible to apply:
- Small or medium sized Enterprises (SME)
- Start-up Company
- Non-Governmental Organization (NGO)
- Community Based Organization (CBO)
- Academic Organization (no research grants please) Individuals are not eligible.
For more information, visit UNDP.