Deadline: 27 March 2020
Fondation Botnar has launched a call for innovative proposals that aim to leverage data and frontier technologies to create rapid impact for and with young people in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).
Fondation Botnar is inviting for truly pioneering implementation project proposals that leverage this combined potential of frontier technologies, including artificial intelligence, innovative digital tools, and data-based platforms to advance the health and wellbeing of young people living in cities in low- and middle-income countries.
Funding Information
Proposals are expected to have a minimum funding volume of CHF 200,000 and a duration of between two to five years. The total available amount available for this call is CHF 10 million.
Thematic Areas
- Preventative and data-driven interventions that address the social, environmental, and behavioral determinants of health and wellbeing.
- Inclusive and participatory learning in the 21st century.
Principles
- Sustainable: The Foundation is interested in funding bold, sustainable and scalable proof-of-concept or pilot projects that can positively transform existing systems or catalyse new solutions using emerging technologies for the greater good.
- Human-centered: A mature understanding of human centered design of digital and datadriven solutions, existing workflows and ecosystems and their effective mutual integration needs to be shown in the application to qualify for a successful grant. A clear added value of the proposed use of technology towards the purpose of the project needs to be demonstrated in the application.
- Participatory: Young people need to be seen as active agents whose voice is strongly included in the design and implementation of the project. Context-relevant: All successful applications will need to be context relevant addressing a real need in the implementation geographies, driven or endorsed by local stakeholders.
- Pathway to impact: The applicants are expected to deliver a pathway to impact supported for example by a well-developed theory of change.
- Measurable: The applicants need to propose a solid Monitoring & Evaluation (M&E) framework, integrated within project design from the very outset. An assessment of a reasonable baseline for the project intervention is expected at the beginning. Innovative use of technology to support M&E and aid continuous improvement of the proposed intervention will be favourably considered.
- Integrated: Interoperability with existing and relevant actors in the ecosystem will be considered important for any proposed project and all technology solutions are additionally expected to respect digital development principles as far as possible.
- Collaborative: Applicants are also encouraged to consider partnering with cross-sectoral public and private stakeholders relevant to their projects and bringing required local & global expertise for a successful execution before applying to improve the chances of a successful grant application.
- Co-funded: Projects with any part self-funding or co-funding from other sources are preferred. In-kind contributions will be acknowledged.
Geographical Focus
- Geographical focus areas for this call are urban environments in Romania, Ghana, Senegal, Egypt, Morocco, Tanzania, India (Rajasthan or Odisha), Vietnam, Colombia, Ecuador or Indonesia.
- Projects having multiple implementation sites should have at least 50% of the budget dedicated to implementation in one or more of the above countries or states. Projects targeting implementation in rapidly growing secondary cities will be preferred.
Eligibility Criteria
- The lead applicant should be registered as a not-for-profit organisation, a public institution or a reputed academic university or research institution in the country of implementation and should partner with technology, regulatory, government and other implementation partners, as required
- They encourage for-profit startups, social enterprises and institutions, and NGOs not registered in the country of implementation to apply in a service provider, advisory, implementation research support and capacity enhancement role to the lead applicants.
- Applicants pooling required expertise in a consortium (for example a publicprivate partnership) are welcome to apply and will be preferred.
How to Apply
Applicants can use the link of application system and registers on the platform. After the registration is completed, the applicant can initiate the application process for a specific grant type and will then be directed first to the exclusion criteria with the checklist.
If none of the exclusion criteria apply to the organisation or the project, the applicant will be redirected to the short application.
For more information, visit https://www.fondationbotnar.org/fit-for-the-future-call/