Deadline: 26 June 2020
WIOMSA has announced an inaugural call to support innovative actions (demonstration and pilot projects), through the Innovation for Sustainability Grant programme, to address modern-day marine sustainability challenges.
The grant programme supported by both MASMA and C&C project, is established to bridge the gap between marine research and innovation. In this call, WIOMSA aims to provide competitive grants that drive innovation for a sustainable marine environment.
The goal of the Innovation for Sustainability Grant programme is to support the development and testing of transformative, paradigm-shifting concepts, and approaches that address and enhance understanding of marine and coastal environmental issues.
This grant seeks to support projects that use cost-effective, replicable and innovative methods to design, implement and/or evaluate existing solutions to contemporary issues or areas in need of improvement in the way marine and coastal environmental problems in the region, are addressed. Overall, projects should inspire the development and implementation of sustainable solutions to maintain the functioning of marine and coastal ecosystems.
The Innovation for Sustainability Grant programme will support a portfolio of innovations that collectively improve the sustainability of the coastal and marine environment. It encourages collaboration between different actors, including researchers, communities, government authorities and the private sector, to coinvest in ideas that can generate greater impact in the planned and on-going management efforts in coastal cities and the coastal and marine environment at large. It is envisaged that through this initiative, peoplecentered innovative solutions will be identified and tested, and the lessons learned from their results will contribute to bringing about more sustainable behavioural and social/environmental changes. It is also hoped that this program will accelerate the introduction of innovation into coastal and marine science and management in the WIO region.
Scope of Work
- This call aims to inspire experts in the WIO region to come up with innovative solutions (demonstration and pilot projects) to address the most pressing problems facing coastal cities and the marine environment in the WIO region.
- Through this call, WIOMSA hopes to identify existing and/or new innovative solutions that need to be supported. Innovative solutions are business unusual approaches and creative ways that aim to address social, economic and environmental needs in a holistic way to drive change.
- Innovative solutions for marine environment challenges are modifications or creative solutions applied to ecosystem services, products, processes, market approaches and organizational structures which lead to enhanced sustainability, productivity and socio-ecological and economic benefits.
- Innovative solutions call for life-cycle thinking while incorporating all aspects of sustainability: economic, social and environmental and fostering partnerships. Example of marine environmental challenges that can be addressed through innovative solutions include- pollution, waste, loss of biodiversity, food insecurity, unsustainable utilization etc.
- The proposal should aim at (but not limited):
- identifying, promoting and supporting new and alternative livelihood opportunities for coastal communities e.g. adapting successful fishing techniques from one community to another
- identifying and testing innovative technical solutions to address pressing management challenges in the coastal and marine arena. Development of low-cost technologies to deal with plastic waste challenges is one such example.
- developing innovative strategies that could minimize damage and mortality of critically endangered marine species and ecosystems in the WIO region e.g. development of selective fishing technologies to reduce the problem of by-catch.
- Improving on the use of technologies to support marine and coastal management – e.g. using apps to increase sharing and dissemination of knowledge among coastal communities and managers.
Duration
- WIOMSA will identify and support between 3 and 5 projects annually.
- Grants will be awarded for a duration of a maximum of 2 years to support the development, upscaling and up-taking of innovative actions and solutions.
Eligibility Criteria
The proposals should be submitted by an institution or a consortium of institutions. In the latter case, the lead institution should submit the proposal on behalf of the consortium. For this call, institutions are defined as government departments, research and academic institutions, NGOs, CBOs, and private companies. Members of the project team should meet the following eligibility criteria:
- The Principal Investigator/s should have demonstrated experience related to or relevant to the focus of the proposal.
- The grant is specifically intended for institutions from the WIO region. However, consortia of institutions may involve other institutions or researchers from outside the region as appropriate and cover their costs from the grant funds applied for. The involvement/participation of practitioners from outside the region may not exceed three person-months annually.
- The Principal Investigator/s should be a practitioner from the WIO region and be employed by an institution based in the WIO region.
- Proposals developed in collaboration with the private sector will be given special consideration.
For more information, visit https://blog.wiomsa.net/2020/04/28/innovation-for-sustainability-grant-calls-for-submission-of-concept-notes/