Deadline: 31-May-22
The Safe Online Initiative of End Violence in partnership with the Tech Coalition is pleased to launch the Tech Coalition Safe Online Research Fund to tackle online child sexual exploitation and abuse (CSEA).
This fund is focused on innovative research that produces actionable insights to impact product and policy development, with a priority given to research that can help inform the technology industry’s approach to combating online child sexual exploitation and abuse.
The objective is to advance the understanding of experiences and patterns of online CSEA for child and adolescent victims as well as offenders and potential offenders, and learn from effective efforts (behavioural, technological, educational) to prevent, deter and eradicate it. They are interested in innovative research that produces actionable insights that can impact product and policy development, with a priority given to research that can help inform the technology industry’s approach to combating online CSEA.
Areas of Interventions
Focus Areas
The research in these areas can include focus on any/all of the following:
- Key populations (eg potential and actual victims, survivors, potential and actual perpetrators, practitioners, etc.),
- Environment (eg tech platforms, geographies),
- And broader ecosystem (eg policy, legal, ethical, cultural, economic, etc.).
Priority will be given to research that has applicability to the technology industry. Opportunities for impact identified in defining the scope of this Open Call include:
- Research that addresses the given area(s) from cross-platform or cross-sector lenses for broader action ability and strengthening collaboration among all sectors working to end online CSEA. They encourage research to consider applications to industry with respect to safety-by-design, age-appropriate design and transparency considerations;
- Research that increases nuanced understanding of contextual factors and differential user-experience for improved efficacy and localization. This includes racial/ ethnic/ cultural/ gender/ geographic diversity in online CSEA prevention, detection and response. They encourage research in all areas to consider heterogeneity of childhoods and cultural diversity
Funding Information
The 2022 Tech Coalition Safe Online Open Call funding will be made available as grants from End Violence Safe Online. There are two streams of funding for awards under this Open Call:
Eligibility Criteria
The Tech Coalition Safe Online Research Fund is looking to provide project grants for research to non-profits as well as consortia with non-profits as the primary applicant. Only entities that fulfill these mandatory requirements will be considered eligible:
- Legally registered non-profit (ie research institutes and academic institutions, civil society organizations (CSOs), non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and international organizations)
- The research addresses one or more of the three areas of the 2022 Open Call, addresses a clear need/gap, does not duplicate existing research, and builds upon and/or interacts with existing research/practice
- All funding will be directed to an institution, not to individuals
- An individual may submit one proposal as research project lead
- At a minimum, the applicant organization should have demonstrated relevant prior expertise and/or research experience
- The organization complies with all relevant regulatory and ethical frameworks including having a safeguarding policy in place or willingness to develop a policy
- They are actively seeking submissions of Expressions of Interest (EOI) from non-profit organizations, such as research institutes and academic institutions, civil society organizations (CSOs), non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and international organizations. Consortia are also encouraged to apply; however, the organization submitting the application will be considered the main grantee, bearing all the contractual responsibilities vis-à-vis End Violence.
For more information, visit https://www.end-violence.org/tech-coalition-safe-online-research-fund-2022