Deadline: 31-Jul-2020
The Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) has announced a call for Expression of Interest for Sustainable Mekong Research Network (SUMERNET) rapid response grants program. SUMERNET will award three grants in total over the period of its fourth phase under “SUMERNET 4 All” (2018-2023).
Fourth phase of SUMERNET (SUMERNET 4 All) has the main goal to reduce water insecurity for all in particular for the poor, marginalized and socially vulnerable groups of women and men in the Mekong Region.
In response to the fast-evolving situation of water insecurity across the Mekong countries, SUMERNET 4 All is launching a rapid response mechanism to fund rapid research projects that will provide evidence that directly contributes to ongoing planning or decision-making processes at national or regional levels, which address challenges being faced and help reduce water insecurities for the poor, marginalized and socially vulnerable groups of women and men in the Mekong Region.
The research priorities of this call are aligned with three research themes below:
- water access, rights and allocation in times of water insecurity;
- governance and management of water-related disaster risks;
- transboundary interactions with water systems.
Expedited timelines apply throughout process to ensure delivery meets rapid response needs. It is expected that contracting and start-up of successful project is equally expedited. Research project leader and team members are required to treat the award(s) arising from the call with utmost urgency.
Funding Information
Funding support will not exceed 400,000 SEK (approximately US$ 42,000) per each research grant, which will be completed within 6-12 months.
Successful applications will have to fulfil the following aspects:
- Addressing current challenges on water insecurity significantly important for the Mekong Region, in line with at least one of the research themes of SUMERNET 4 All.
- Directly contributing to ongoing planning or decision-making processes at national or regional levels to help reduce water insecurities for the poor, marginalized and socially vulnerable groups of women and men in the Mekong Region.
- Rapid response research covers whole of the Mekong Region or at least two Mekong countries as the study area.
- Use multidisciplinary research approach that includes gender and social equality, human rights, conflict sensitivity, and governance and poverty reduction as key targets.
- Engagement with a diverse group of team members in the project that represent diverse genders, ages, races and are at different stages in their research career is an advantage, specifically if the project has a female lead.
- End beneficiaries of this rapid response research are the marginalized and most vulnerable groups in the Mekong Region.
- Leading agency and Team Leader have extensive experience and proven capacity to manage the grant that engages with interdisciplinary experts in the water sector.
- Project team has proven experience and expertise to carry out the proposed rapid research.
- Providing letter of support or request from target user(s) of future research findings to certify that there is a real need for this research while not compulsory, will certainly be an advantage).
Eligibility Criteria
Lead Applicant (LA) needs to demonstrate that she/he has the skills, knowledge and support necessary to direct the proposed research and to be actively engaged in carrying the research through to its completion. The LA will need to show appropriate evidence of expertise and experience matched to the nature and context of research project. LA must be a formal SUMERNET network member. If the lead organization has experience in receiving the grant(s) from SUMERNET programme or other programmes of SEI, the application would be at an advantage.
At a minimum, SUMERNET Network members must:
- Be based primarily in one of the countries in or have the works conducted in the Mekong Region, namely Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, and the Yunnan Province and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region of China.
- Work in areas related to sustainable development; and
- Be involved in any of the following sectors: research, policy development, policy implementation activities, communications or influencing policy processes.
For more information, visit https://sei.submittable.com/submit/168010/sumernet-4-all-rapid-response-research-call-for-eoi