Deadline: 28-Feb-22
The Wipro Foundation is pleased to launch an open call for the Urban Ecology Small Grants Program to support organizations working on urban ecology challenges in Chennai.
The Foundation collaborates with capable and committed individuals and teams to help them implement on-ground community initiatives in water management in urban areas.
Over the past few years, they have tried to incorporate groundwater science-based decisions and tools in conservation, while keeping communities at the heart of knowledge sharing and facilitation. The knowledge partners BIOME Environmental Solutions and ACWADAM help facilitate community interventions on water.
The following are some of the projects they have supported over the past few years:
- Selaiyur Lake (Eco society): To enable people to understand the risk of denigration of water quality and to understand the ecosystem function of the lake for their wellbeing.
- Construction of Recharge wells (Rain Center): Select 40 locations in Chennai that are prone to stagnation or excessive runoff and construct public recharge wells
- People’s Eco-corridor along the Buckingham Canal, Chennai (Urban Circle): Addressing in-situ wastewater pollutants from low-income settlements
Guiding Principles
- Replicability: The ideas should be easily replicable to address the attempted problems in other areas of the city or across cities.
- Action and Outcome Orientation: The program will support individuals or teams who demonstrate an understanding of sustainability practices and a serious commitment to work on the ground and implement the measures in their respective regions. Academic/research projects will not be considered.
- Focused Approach: As opposed to developing general frameworks or tools, they prefer the proposed idea to be as specific as possible in terms of implementation details of the project work and development details in the particular context of a ward, ecosystem entity like a lake, etc. This is especially important since the duration of the grant is initially for one year only.
- Community Engagement: The program aims to facilitate the implementation of initiatives that engage with diverse communities and stakeholders.
- Balanced Teams: For the project to be effective, it is important to have a well-represented team of partners/co-owners who have allied outlook and interests around solution/technology, scientific approach, community engagement, socio-political grounds, to provide constructive feedback and complement each other’s strengths and weaknesses.
Criteria
- The Foundation strongly suggest recent graduates gain at least 2-3 years’ of full-time work experience in the social sector before setting up their own organizations.
- It will help them build personal capacities, forging networks, and better clarity on their long-term interest.
- However, if someone with limited formal work experience but a degree in Environment/Sustainability or similar fields is part of a team that consists of much more experienced co-founders, such applications may be considered on a case-by-case basis.
- While a degree in Environmental/Sustainability or a similar field is an added advantage, a formal degree in Environmental/Sustainability or a similar field is not mandatory.
- The Foundation considers sustained interest and commitment as essential elements to be an effective (co-) founder of an organization.
- Applicants with an educational background in other domains must have at least 2-3 years of prior engagement/experience in this space.
For more information, visit https://wiprofoundation.org/grants/urban-ecology-small-grant-program/