[A Chance to Receive up to USD 50 000] Expo Live Innovation Impact Grant Programme

Deadline: 1-Mar-23

Applicants are invited to apply for the 6th cycle of the Expo Live Innovation Impact Grant Programme to support novel solutions that address pressing environmental/ climate challenges, with the promise of a brighter future for the planet.

The programme aims to provide much-needed funding to both developed and less developed markets, building a platform and opportunity for knowledge exchange and co-creation.

Objectives

Innovation: Make Expo City Dubai a hub for global innovations that both inspires, and acts as a catalyst for creative and scalable solutions
Partnerships: Establish a network for collaboration between nations, organisations, and innovators via shared environmental challenges
Impact: Create tangible impact that improves the lives of people around the world and the status of their planet, by supporting the development and application of new solutions
Engagement: Foster a community of agents of change by first sensitizing them to climate challenges, and then engaging with them to collectively create impact solutions

Focus Areas

While Expo 2020 Dubai may have come to a close, the spirit of “Connecting minds” lives on through the transformative initiatives that were highlighted during the event, Expo Live being an example. The programme and the impact work of Expo Live’s Global Innovators will continue as part of Expo City Dubai, with the aim of scaling and maximising impact.
A reflection of Expo 2020 Dubai’s – and now Expo City Dubai’s – long-term commitment to deliver positive social, economic and environmental change, the search marks the sixth edition of Expo Live since it was announced in 2013 as part of the UAE’s bid to host the World Expo. The criteria for Cohort Six will coincide with the upcoming COP28 – The Emirates Climate Conference with the UNFCCC, taking place at Expo City Dubai from 30 November to 12 December 2023.
In light of this, the focus areas of this cycle will draw on the overarching theme of Climate Resilience, thereby honouring the commitment of Expo 2020 Dubai and now, Expo City Dubai to understand and nurture the bond that connects people, society and habitats and to find new paths for prosperity that can lead to a viable future.
Innovative solutions are therefore geared towards tackling environmental challenges, with sectors ranging from renewables scaling, to water systems, waste management, nature and land use, and more.
Innovation can come from anywhere. The aim of Expo Live is to identify and support ideas that have the potential to benefit communities and the natural world by encouraging innovators and other solution-seekers to work together in novel ways.

Scope

Expo Live’s flagship Impact Grant Programme will award injection funds up to USD 50,000 to support the growth of social enterprises, start-ups and grassroots projects from around the world whose solutions generate social value in line with the legacy of Expo 2020 Dubai, and the ambition of Expo City Dubai.
Funding levels will depend on the stage of maturity and scalability of innovations, its intended duration, and the extent of its impacts among others. Beyond grant funding, successful grant recipients will also have access to networking and partnership opportunities, marketing and communications exposure, as well as additional funding enabling their solutions to be showcased during the 28th Conference of the Parties (COP28), hosted by Expo City Dubai Authority. The programme will also build partnerships with local business incubators, accelerators, mentors and investors in order to strengthen and promote active and productive ecosystems.
Expo Live Innovation Impact Grant Programme will fund projects that are beyond the ideation stage. The intent is to build a portfolio of projects that range from prototype stage (testing and validating a working model), implementation (in-market and continuous product or service improvement), to scale up (expanding the product or service to a larger scale).

Eligibility Criteria

Eligible applicant(s) are individuals and legal entities, including, but not limited to: governments, educational institutions, individual entrepreneurs, SMEs, NGOs, and corporations.
- Applicants submitting Projects related to youth empowerment and/or initiated by the youth are encouraged to participate through their institutional affiliations (e.g. schools and universities, or community-based organisations).
- In the case of individual innovators applying for grants, they must apply independently, meaning unaffiliated with an organization.
- The applicant may act individually or with co-applicants. Co-applicants must satisfy the same eligibility criteria as applicable to the applicant.
No individuals or organizations with questionable legal status or standing may apply Projects. These could include:
- Being convicted of an offence concerning their professional conduct by a judgment of a competent authority;
- Non-compliance with social security or tax payments in accordance with the legal provisions of the country in which they are established or those of the country where the contract is to be performed;
- Being in financial trouble, which may include, but not limited to, bankruptcy or suspended business activities;
- Being legally convicted for fraud, corruption, being involved in a criminal organisation, money laundering or any other illegal activity; and/or
- Misrepresentation in supplying the information required in this application process.