Deadline: 10-Aug-2020
The Public Diplomacy Section of the Palestinian Affairs Unit (PAU-PD) of the U.S. Department of State is inviting U.S. Higher Education Institutions (HEIs), U.S. Not-for-Profit Organizations, and Palestinian universities to submit proposals to jointly design and implement a project that will further internationalize their institutions and better prepare students to become globally empowered citizens while also advancing the PAU-PD mission to advance peace and the development of a prosperous, stable, and transparent Palestinian society, economy and system of governance through substantive engagement with American people, institutions, ideas and ideals in order to improve American-Palestinian relations and create greater opportunities for mutually beneficial partnership and cooperation.
This project should advance the PAU-PD objective to support elements of Palestinian civil society working to strengthen their communities in line with American values.
Program Objectives
All proposed projects must aim to advance the PAU-PD mission goals stated above, a partnership between American and Palestinian institutions, and achieve at least one of the following specific objectives:
- Internationalization: Supports Palestinian universities’ global and regional integration and prepares students to become globally-empowered citizens.
- Relationships: Reinvigorates or builds upon existing partnerships or brings a new U.S. university or education sector partner to the Palestinian higher education landscape. The partnership agreement should delineate a well-defined purpose and objectives that align with the objectives of the respective institutions. Given the unique conditions of the global pandemic, it is not required that such partnership agreement be finalized at the time of proposal submission but a letter of intent from each institution to complete such an agreement should be included if a full agreement is not.
- Sustainability: the proposal should clearly demonstrate how both institutions will successfully sustain the relationship after the end of the U.S. government-funded award and how this partnership will be embedded within the institutional framework of both organizations.
Successful proposals should incorporate the following elements:
- The proposal should establish a partnership and joint activities that support the development of a substantive and long-term linkage between the cooperating American and Palestinian educational institutions to encourage collaboration; engagement at the administrative and faculty level (and student level as appropriate); and the sharing of knowledge and expertise.
- The proposal should explain the importance of the area of collaboration for both higher education institutions and how it aligns with their priorities; provide details about the proposed internationalization model and how it will operate; and clearly show how the expected results will help the partnering organizations achieve their objectives.
- The proposal should contain clearly stated, measurable goals and objectives and specific indicators of success along with a plan for measuring those indicators to evaluate the project’s success in achieving its goals and objectives.
- While there are no requirements about specific subject matter/fields of collaboration, the PAU hopes to fund a partnership with this award that is not purely focused on English language capacity building, since the U.S. government has many other resources supporting this field. They understand and expect that English language will be a critical and necessary element of most partnership proposals. Yet, the goal of this call for proposals is to focus on other subjects and fields.
Funding Information
- Total available funding: Award will be capped at a maximum of $200,000
- Length of performance period: Up to 3 years
Participants and Audiences
- Primary participants in the engagement will be academic faculty and administrators at the Palestinian and American higher education institutions. Students at the institutions should also participate in and benefit from the project as appropriate.
Priority Region
- Jerusalem, the West Bank, and Gaza
Eligibility Criteria
- Eligible primary applicants for grant funding must be U.S. Not-For-Profit Higher Education Institutions, U.S. Not-For Profit Organizations that develop and manage higher education programs, and/or Palestinian Not-For-Profit Universities.
For more information, visit https://www.grants.gov/web/grants/view-opportunity.html?oppId=327854