Deadline: 25 December 2019
Wipro Foundation has announced Urban Ecology Small Grant Programme. This edition of the ecology grant program is for initiatives and ideas around Urban water in two cities – Bengaluru and Chennai.
Wipro is particularly interested in applications from committed individuals and organisations who have a good understanding of the issues and bring in the maturity and will to engage with diverse stakeholders (councilors, resident welfare associations, researchers, communities, civil society organisations, among others). They should have a clear plan to implement of ideas on the ground at some scale – lakes, micro-watersheds, wards, institutes within a timeframe of 9-12 months. They also have opened a call for applications in the area of Solid waste management in Bengaluru.
Themes
- Urban Water- Bengaluru
- Urban Water- Chennai
- Solid Waste- Bengaluru
Objectives
The Programme’s objective is to select capable & committed individuals and teams and facilitate their long-term and effective engagement with water and waste related issues, by helping them set up stable organizations; and to do this at some scale i.e. providing grant to 10 organizations/year.
- Action and Outcome orientation: The program will support individuals or teams who demonstrate an understanding and commitment of sustainability practices, as well as serious commitment to work on the ground and implement in the selected area. Pure research or academic projects will not be selected.
- Community engagement: The program aims to facilitate implementation of initiatives that engage with communities and diverse stakeholders.
- Replicability: The ideas should have replicability. In a way, they should attempt to address problems that are common in other areas of the city or across cities.
- Focused Approach: As opposed to developing general frameworks or tools, they would like to see that the proposed idea is as specific as possible in terms of what it wants to implement and working in a specific 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.
- Balanced Teams: For the project to be effective, is important to have balanced teams of partners/co-owners who on one hand have allied sensibilities and interests (solutions/technology, scientific approach, community engagement, socio-political) and on other are able to provide constructive feedback to each other and complement each other’s strengths and weaknesses.
Wipro’s Urban Ecology Grant Programme has 3 Stages:
- Select: Selecting capable and committed individuals is a key focus of the programme; and it does this primarily through a network of partnerships with academic institutions & fellowship programs and their alumni.
- Grant: Foundation provide grant for a period of around one year to teams/organizations that have up to 3 founding members. The financial support would be provided from the date on which the MoU is signed and maximum grant amount provided will be Rs. 5 lacks. If it is an individual, it will be administered as a fellowship for a maximum of 3.6 Lakhs. 80% of the funds will be disbursed before the start of the project and the remaining after the submission of project report and utilization of grant (depending on the idea and its requirement, exceptions can be made).
- Support: An effective support structure, foundation believe, is critical for the learning, effectiveness and sustenance of early stage organizations. They endeavor to provide this around organizational aspect.
Eligibility Criteria
- Urban Water- Bengaluru
- Individual citizens, citizen groups, students or institutions can apply.
- Action and outcome oriented projects will be given higher priority
- Pure research or academic projects will not be selected
- Working with multiple stakeholders is encouraged
- Project geography is limited to Bengaluru and its peri urban areas It should be a community/commons project proposal
- Urban Water- Chennai
- Applicants can look at the below potential categories and examples of projects for Chennai. These are only indicative. Please feel free to submit :
- Water as a factoe tool of Urban planning
- Water as an adaptation tool for future
- Water as the bedrock for resilience building
- Water-A metropolitian commons heritage
- Applicants can look at the below potential categories and examples of projects for Chennai. These are only indicative. Please feel free to submit :
- Solid Waste- Bengaluru
- The teams and organizations should :
- Demonstrate an understanding and commitment to sustainable practices of waste management. The program supports teams or organizations who have already demonstrated an understanding of the sustainable practices of waste management.
- Demonstrate capacity to scale based on organizational requirement
- Demonstrate existing social networks or ability to develop social networks
- Be able to carry out stakeholder engagement
- Be sensitivity to Livelihoods
- The teams and organizations should :
For more inforamtion, visit http://www.wipro.org/ecology-grants/