Deadline: 9-May-23
The U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor (DRL) announces an open competition for organizations interested in submitting applications for projects to strengthen the protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms online through an open, interoperable, reliable, and secure global Internet, with a focus on digital security.
Competitive proposals will develop and implement programs to provide protection to displaced communities and individuals in the Europe and Eurasia region (EUR) region, at-risk of, and vulnerable to, transnational digital attacks from actors in other EUR countries, including those from which they have been displaced.
Objectives
- Objectives may include, but are not limited to:
- Individuals and/or groups who are at risk of being targeted with transnational digital repression:
- Have up-to-date understandings of the ongoing and emerging transnational digital threats they may face;
- Are able to identify gaps in their expertise needed to respond to transnational digital threats they may face;
- Have an ability to implement effective defenses and mitigations in response to transnational digital threats they may face;
- Have access to timely incident emergency response support, which can reduce the impact of those threats and aid those affected by them in their recovery; and/or
- Are able to obtain evidence from transnational digital attacks and use it to understand the scope of the attack, identify the perpetrators, utilize statebased or non-state-based grievance mechanisms, and/or take individual and/or collective direct action to detect, prevent, and/or mitigate similar future attacks.
- Local and/or community-focused individuals and groups providing digital protection, support, and incident emergency response to those being targeted with transnational digital repression (protection providers):
- Are identifying, investigating, and taking action to effectively provide the digital protection, support, and/or incident emergency response services needed by at-risk groups or individuals who face transnational digital threats;
- Are identifying and exposing the tactics, techniques, and procedures used for transnational digital repression;
- Have the capacity to produce public reporting on such TNR digital attacks to spread awareness and expose the malign actors’ tactics, when appropriate and beneficial for supporting the security of communities under threat.
- Are developing and sharing threat intelligence, mitigations, and defensive strategies based upon the digital threats they have encountered with other local, regional, and/or community focused protection providers; and/or
- Are leveraging threat intelligence shared by other protection providers to prevent, identify, or mitigate similar transnational digital threats to the identified communities.
- Individuals and/or groups who are at risk of being targeted with transnational digital repression:
Funding Information
- Total Funding Floor: $ 1,450,000
- Total Funding Ceiling: $ 1,450,000
- Anticipated Time to Award, Pending Availability of Funds: 6 Months.
Eligible Projects
- Preference will be given to projects that:
- Demonstrate a strong understanding of the unique needs and challenges facing the targeted at-risk communities and/or local and community-focused protection providers serving these communities, such as barriers to their participation in project activities and how to safely mitigate these risks and challenges.
- Substantively involve members of the targeted at-risk communities and/or local and community-focused protection providers, focus on activities at the local and community level, and/or make grants or sub-grants to these groups where possible. Proposals that include sub-granting mechanisms to these groups for 30% or more of the proposed budget will be given greater preference.
Key Program Considerations: This list of considerations is provided as a guide to help applicants develop responsive, robust program strategies.
Competitive Programs Must
- Reflect a deep understanding of transnational digital attacks perpetrated by states in the EUR region and propose support strategies based on a deep technical understanding of these threats and their appropriate mitigations.
- Demonstrate a deep familiarity with, and experience providing support for, civil society actors vulnerable to transnational digital attacks in the EUR region.
- Include a robust sustainability plan that clearly articulates what actions the implementer will undertake during this project to ensure that resources and networks developed under the project will be available and beneficial far beyond the end of the project.
- Include a strong strategy for ensuring short- and long-term multi-lingual support for resources and networks developed under this project.
- Focus on cyberattacks, surveillance, and censorship impacting the exercise of fundamental freedoms of expression, privacy, association, and access to information, as well as the holistic security of vulnerable populations.
Eligibility Criteria
- DRL welcomes applications from U.S.-based and foreign-based non-profit organizations/nongovernmental organizations (NGO) and public international organizations; private, public, or state institutions of higher education; and for-profit organizations or businesses. DRL’s preference is to work with non-profit entities; however, there may be some occasions when a for-profit entity is best suited.
- Applications submitted by for-profit entities may be subject to additional review following the panel selection process. Additionally, the Department of State prohibits profit to for-profit or commercial organizations under its assistance awards. Profit is defined as any amount in excess of allowable direct and indirect costs. The allowability of costs incurred by commercial organizations is determined in accordance with the provisions of the Federal Acquisition
For more information, visit Grants.gov.