Deadline: 13 March 2020
The Knowledge Management Fund is the Knowledge Platform’s instrument to financially support activities arising from its network. The small-scale grants awarded by the Fund offer a low barrier to entry for innovative, agile and experimental proposals.
The aim of proposals is to diversify thinking and evidence in the Security & Rule of Law (SRoL) field, particularly in Fragile and Conflict-Affected Settings (FCAS).
The 2020 KMF Thematic Headline is Harnessing Potential, with subthemes focused on Change & Learning Processes and Examining & Improving Policy. The Thematic Headline and the subthemes are provided to help KMF applicants frame their proposals and focus on outcomes. They also reflect the specific added value of the KMF: addressing emerging priority areas, seizing opportunities to strengthen SRoL policy and practice, and feeding research outcomes and original ideas into the SRoL sector. They are purposefully broad to leave as much scope as possible for applicants to generate knowledge in their specialist thematic and geographic areas.
Examine & Improve Policy: There is an increasing demand for evidence and research in SRoL policymaking. While new research is being generated every day, there are still many assumptions underpinning SRoL policy that could be supported or nuanced by evidence. These might include the assumed positive effect of particular SRoL interventions or policies. There are also opportunities to put forward new policy ideas, for example, more nimble policy responses to the increasing evidence on the role of non-state security and justice providers. This subtheme encourages applicants to identify opportunities to make an impact on such issues, by seizing important junctures in policymaking, convening key players and thinkers, capitalizing on building trends, and shedding light on new policy options. Projects could focus on (inter alia):
- generating new evidence or identifying ‘what works’ within the SRoL policy field
- promoting existing evidence, demonstrating its applied potential to a wider audience
- digging deeper into an encouraging, potentially impactful emergent research finding
- seizing an opportunity to inform a policy-formation process with compelling evidence
Such projects should identify clear opportunities within a specific SRoL policy or policy area and, where possible, produce findings that, if applied, could lead to improved policy impact.
Change & Learning Processes: This subtheme focuses on harnessing the potential for how change and learning happens in the field of SRoL. Specifically, projects will be assessed according to how compellingly they demonstrate their potential to galvanize, scale up, or institutionalize the mechanisms by which SRoL actors, organizations and institutions learn and adapt. This can happen in various ways: between organizations, within programs, through feedback loops between practice and policymaking, or by focusing on how insights gained or knowledge generated is identified and subsequently applied. Example areas for action might include (but are not limited to):
- opportunities to pilot, accelerate or scale up a promising new SRoL practice
- bringing more attention to an exciting area of SRoL learning and innovation
- enabling people or organizations to practically diverge from conventional practices
- allowing research methods or partnerships to adapt more effectively to fragile contexts
- overcoming barriers to embrace more adaptive programming approaches
Projects under this headline should produce new practices, test ideas or generate knowledge about change and learning processes relevant for and shareable with the wider KPSRL community.
The KMF is divided into three strands: Events, Research, and Innovation. This helps applicants maintain focus on the method by which they try to achieve their aim of seizing opportunities, harnessing potential, and producing original insights to improve the quality and use of knowledge in SRoL programming and policy.
Priority Areas
- The KMF is particularly interested in bringing wider and more diverse perspectives and sources of evidence into SRoL policy and programming.
- Applications are open to any consortium or individual with the ambition to improve policies, programs or knowledge in the field of security and rule of law in fragile and conflict affected settings. Think-tanks, (I)NGOs, academics, universities, private sector organizations, government institutions, journalists, independent researchers or innovators, local governance authorities, and data specialists are all welcome to submit proposals.
- Partnerships between individuals and organizations and across the range of sectors within the network are highly encouraged. In particular, the KMF welcomes partnerships that link people from different regions of the globe.
- Preference is given to those projects focused on the Dutch MFA policy priority regions: the Middle East and North Africa, the Horn of Africa and the Sahel.
Funding Information
The KMF is a €300,000 annual fund that awards grants for 6-month projects of up to €15,000 for events, research ideas and other initiatives that contribute to improving the quality of knowledge generated by the SRoL field, and its subsequent uptake.
Eligibility Criteria
- Applications are open to any consortium or individual with the ambition to improve policies, programs or knowledge in the field of security and rule of law in fragile and conflict affected countries.
- Thinktanks, (I)NGOs, academics, universities, private sector organizations, government institutions, journalists, independent researchers or innovators, and data specialists are all welcome to submit proposals.
- Partnerships between individuals and organizations and across the range of sectors within the network are highly encouraged. In particular, the KMF welcomes partnerships that link people from different regions of the globe.
How to apply
Interested parties will be asked to submit a brief Expression of Interest form via given website.
For more information, visit https://www.kpsrl.org/knowledge-management-fund