Can your technology contribute to a better environment and help reduce poverty? Do you want to explore a new market for your product? If yes, then apply for the Planning Grants program.

The Demo Environment programme, financed by The Swedish Agency for Development Cooperation (Sida) is seeking applications for its Planning Grants program to strengthen partnerships and explore new market opportunities for their technology or business model.

Focus Areas

• Climate change adaption/mitigation
• Ecosystem services
• Renewable energy
• Water and sanitation
• Urban development

Grant Information

The maximum amount you can apply for as a Planning Grant is SEK 350,000.

Eligibility Criteria

• Applicants must fulfill the following eligibility requirements:
  • The main applicant must be a company or organisation based outside one of the 14 countries, and its partner organisation (the potential customer) must be legally registered in the project country.
  • The partners must have signed a Memorandum of Understanding or similar agreement before applying.
  • As guiding principle companies or private organizations applying and their partners should have at least 3 employees and have been operating for about 3 years. They particularly encourage applications from small and medium-sized enterprises.
  • Both partners must exhibit sound finances and a reasonable turnover.
• Note that no organisation, private or public, is eligible for funds if it is involved in any of the following:
  • The manufacture of arms and/or their components
  • The tobacco industry
  • The alcohol industry

How to Apply

Interested applicants can apply online via given website.

Eligible Countries

• Africa: Kenya, Mozambique, Tanzania, Zambia
• Asia: Bangladesh, Cambodia
• Latin America: Bolivia, Colombia, Guatemala
• Western Balkans: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia
• Eastern Europe: Georgia, Moldova, Ukraine

Deadline: 4 March 2018

For more information, please visit Planning Grants.

The CFC is an intergovernmental foundation investing in organisations and enterprises pursuing SDG Agenda in commodity value chains in its member countries. Through a range of financial instruments, the CFC seeks to support business activities in the field of commodity development, including agriculture, minerals and metals in Developing Countries. CFC is an impact investor and expects proposals aiming to generate sound financial return, and provide for a measurable social and environmental impact.

Objectives

• CFC supports activities which promote the contribution of the commodity sector to achieving the SDGs in CFC member countries including the following aspects:
  • Social: Create employment (particularly for youth and women), provide sustained increase in household incomes, reduce poverty, and enhance food security.
  • Economic: Enhance production and productivity, achieve higher local value addition; improve competitiveness of producers, producer organisations and small and medium sized industries, support the financial sector development.
  • Environmental: Enhance production taking into account the environment and its long term possibilities for the same, or increased use of productive resources while maintaining or reducing the impact on the environment.
• The CFC supports implementation of activities along the value chain that:
  • are innovative, scalable and replicable,
  • are financially sustainable,
  • have a potential measurable positive socio-economic and environmental impact on the stakeholders in commodity value chains as compared to the prevailing baseline situation,
  • develop stronger connections with existing markets or create new markets along the value chain,
  • increase financial or other services available for commodity producers and commodity based businesses,
  • enhance knowledge generation and information dissemination, and
  • build effective and cost efficient collaboration between producers, industry, governments, civil society organisations and other stakeholders for commodity based development.

Eligibility Criteria

All legal public and private entities are eligible to apply under this Call for Proposals, provided they:

• operate in commodity value chains in CFC member countries (mentioned below) or provide financial services to micro, small and medium sized businesses operating in these value chains,
• have a proven relevant track record of sound financial operations in their current and / or proposed activities over a period of at least 3 years, which can be documented by means of (audited) financial statements, and
• share CFC’s values, including internationally recognized principles concerning human rights, labour, the environment and anti-corruption as reflected in the United Nations Global Compact.

How to Apply

Applicants can download the application form via given website http://www.common-fund.org/call-for-proposals/

Deadline: 15 April 2018

Due date : 2 February, 2018

Eligible applicants: Scientists, researchers, innovators or entrepreneurs resident in the eastern African countries of Burundi, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda and who are not current recipients of a BioInnovate Africa project grant.

Partners per project: Minimum 3 and maximum 5 from at least three (3) of the eligible countries.

Grant period: Up to 3 years (2018–2021)

Grant amount per project: US$ 750,000 for Category 1; US$ 250,000 for Category 2; and US$ 500,000 for Category 3.

                                                                      http://bioinnovate-africa.org

Organizations seeking funding to promote policy change and implementation to promote safer road users will be required to submit a short concept note for consideration. Please carefully read the call for proposals to determine if you are eligible before you apply. Note that applications will not be accepted from all BIGRS priority cities in Round 13. After you log on to our on-line system, select the CN Safer Road User_RD13.

Proposals to promote policy change on vehicle standards will not be considered in Round 13.

LAGOS, NIGERIA – Africa’s largest philanthropy supporting entrepreneurship – The Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF) is now accepting applications for business ideas that can transform Africa. 

To apply, complete the online application at application.tonyelumelufoundation.org.  The deadline is midnight (WAT) on 1 March 2018.

The Programme provides critical tools for business success, including:

• Training:12 weeks of intensive online training which guides creating and managing a business
• Mentoring:A world-class mentor to guide during the early transformation stages of the business
• Funding:$5,000* in seed capital to prove the concept, plus access to further funding
• Network:Access to the largest network of African start-ups and TEF’s own global contacts

The Programme, in its 4^th cycle, is TEF’s 10-year, $100 million commitment to identify, train, mentor and fund 10,000 African entrepreneurs by 2024.

TEF Founder, serial entrepreneur and philanthropist Tony O. Elumelu, CON said:

“When we launched the TEF Programme and committed $100 million to empowering Africa’s entrepreneurs, I knew we would create impact, but I never imagined it would be impact of this magnitude. We have unleashed a movement of African entrepreneurs — a force so strong, so inspiring, that I am confident they will collectively transform Africa. We need Africa’s best and brightest entrepreneurs to come learn, grow their businesses and build our continent.”

1,000 entrepreneurs will be selected based on the viability of their idea, including: market opportunity; financial understanding; scalability; and leadership and entrepreneurial skills demonstrated in the application.

Eligibility:

1. The business must be based in Africa
2. The business must be for profit
3. The business must be 0-3 years old
4. Applicants must be at least 18 and a legal resident or citizen of an African country

For more information or to apply, visit: http://www.tonyelumelufoundation.org/about-tef/application-process/

The MEASURE Evaluation project has announced a request for applications for its small grants program to increase the evidence base in routine health information systems (RHIS) in family planning and reproductive health (FP/RH). 

The small grants are intended to support primary and secondary data analysis – especially national and sub-national program or policy evaluation. The overall goal is to use the research findings to improve RHIS and advance FP outcomes. Small grant recipients are expected to produce a publishable manuscript and complete a data use activity.

Objectives

The three primary objectives of this program are:

• To build research capacity among local agencies
• To address research gaps in routine health information for FP/RH to inform policy and programmatic decision-making
• To increase use of research findings by providing an opportunity for the data to be disseminated to and used by local stakeholders

Funding Information

The base amount for a small grant is US$10,000, which is intended to cover basic research expenses for a twelve-month timeline.

Eligibility Criteria

• Eligible candidates include country or regional academic institutions or centers, non-profit and for-profit research organizations, parastatals, and research-focused NGOs or firms. Individuals representing themselves and not an institution/ organization, as well as those representing a regional/field office for an international NGO are ineligible for this funding opportunity. All candidates must be from a USAIDFP/RH priority country (listed below). Candidates must be seeking to build their research and/or data use capacity.
• Eligible proposals should be comprised of a team of three people (minimum), submitted on behalf of an NGO, university, etc. The team should have previous research experience, preferably in FP specifically, or RH in general, but need not be highly proficient in research techniques as technical and administrative assistance will be available to sub-grantees at all stages of the small grants program to build organizational research capacity.
• Eligible applications will use appropriate and rigorous methods to respond to a question of interest to stakeholders in the country or region being studied. Potential topic areas are listed at the end of the RFA. Applications should also include data use activities and/or products that help ensure the use of research findings by appropriate stakeholders, which may include: the development of a short briefing paper with recommendations and a presentation of the key actionable findings from the analysis; holding a workshop for policymakers and/or program decision makers to discuss key findings and the implication of these findings for policies and programs; organizing a meeting with national or regional level staff from the ministry of health to discuss the research findings and develop an action plan based on the findings; and so forth.

How to Apply

Applications must be submitted at the address given on the website.

Eligible Countries

• Caribbean: Haiti
• Middle East: Yemen
• Asia: Philippines, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Nepal, India, Bangladesh
• Africa: South Sudan, Ghana, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Liberia, Zambia, Rwanda, Mozambique, Nigeria, Senegal, Uganda, Mali, Democratic Republic of the Congo

For more information, please visit MEASURE Evaluation.

The United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS), the Global Drug Facility (GDF) through this Call for Proposals (CFP), is currently accepting proposals from qualified organizations interested in receiving grant support to develop and implement tools that will help improve GDF’s approach to quantification and forecasting of new drugs and regimens.

The objective of this CFP is to identify an organization with a proven track record working in drug-resistant TB, particularly with new drugs, which can develop tools to improve the quantification and forecasting approach to new drugs.

The scope of work of this grant aims to develop validated tools to improve quantification and forecasting for new drugs and regimens for drug-resistant TB over the course of one year.

Funding Information

Grant Proposals must not exceed USD 215,000, any amount over the ceiling must be co-financed by the selected organization.

Eligibility Criteria

The minimum eligibility criteria are:

• Not-for-profit international or national non-governmental organizations.
• Demonstrated experience and expertise in:
• • • Clinical management of drug-resistant TB with new drugs and/or new regimens;
    • Facilitating introduction of new tools for the diagnosis, prevention and/or treatment of TB; and,
    • Experience in coordinating multi-stakeholder technical inputs, consolidating, analysing and presenting results.
  • Presence and/or network to carry out the project activities in multiple countries, as needed
  • Good relationships with key stakeholders in the TB space, including but not limited to delivery agencies, funders, normative agencies, and regulatory bodies.
  • Administrative, financial, and technical capacity to carry out the project activities within the time frame required.

  How to Apply

  Applications must be submitted via email at the address given on the website.

  For more information, please visit Call for Proposals.

Here at The Varkey Foundation we believe in the power of new ideas to shape the future of education. But we know that taking a great idea off the drawing board and into the real world doesn’t just take hard work – it takes support. That’s why we created our Challenge Fund.

We believe every child deserves a good teacher. But we also know that the international community isn’t doing enough to make that happen. Global investment in education is falling and many schools around the world lack leaders and qualified teaching staff. Research by The Varkey Foundation has also found that the global status of teachers is very mixed – and few parents would actively encourage their children to join the teaching profession.
 
To help solve this problem, The Varkey Foundation will partner with other organizations to create a global change in the way teachers are trained, treated and perceived. Through our Challenge Fund, we will support partner organizations who are working on big new ideas for education – and to boost the status of teachers worldwide.
 
The Varkey Foundation Challenge Fund is aimed at supporting a small number of early-stage initiatives, with individual grants of up to US$50,000 available to help build the capacity of teachers and to strengthen the status of the teaching profession.

Apply for a grant

On the basis of our portfolio and areas of interest, The Varkey Foundation is particularly interested in receiving proposals which address the following:

• The recruitment and retention of teachers
• Influencing public policy and discourse about the teaching profession
• School leadership and management
• Support to teachers and school leaders in Fragile and Conflict States (FCAS) and emergency situations
• Teacher-related challenges 

Click here to read more about the Challenge Fund or here to apply.

When Tesla unveiled its Semi electric truck last week, everyone agreed that it looked cool, but some actual truckers weren't necessarily sold on its functionality. Most observers will be impressed with the pricing if it holds, though. Tesla has listed estimated price on its Semi website for the 300- and 500-mile versions of $150,000 and $180,000 respectively, less than some pundits predicted. The fancier Founders Series, with the top specs, will cost $200,000. Looking at the $180,000 model, it's still around $60,000 more than a diesel-powered semi truck. However, the Semi could cost around 20 percent less to run, Tesla estimates, putting savings over a million miles at around $250,000.

The Tesla Semi will improve the trucker experience with an Enhanced Autopilot (automatic emergency braking, automatic lane keeping and lane departure warning) that will improve safety for drivers and other vehicles. It also features jackknife protection, sensors and cameras meant to reduce blind spots. For a truck it'll also have crazy acceleration, which could be useful for hill-climbing and other chores.

Source: Engadget

The African Growth and Development Policy (AGRODEP) Modeling Consortium has launched a special call for membership. Applications from researchers engaged in trade policy analysis, value chain analysis, or agricultural transformation and investments, are strongly encouraged. Applications from female researchers and researchers from African countries which have low representation in AGRODEP are also encouraged.

AGRODEP seeks to build a dynamic research community that can respond to the emerging and long-term needs of the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme’s (CAADP) growth and poverty reduction agenda. The AGRODEP network currently includes 181 regular members from 27 African countries and 30 affiliate members who are either based outside Africa or work in international organizations in Africa.

Membership in AGRODEP is free and provides benefits to its members, including access to and training on state of the art economic modeling tools, better access to data for research and policy analysis, collaboration with leading African scientists and their peers outside Africa, and eligibility to apply for research grants.

To be considered for membership, applicants must:

• Be a citizen of an African country
• Be based in Africa
• Have obtained a Ph.D. within the last 15 years, be currently be pursuing a Ph.D. degree, or possess a Master’s degree in combination with technical skills and experience.

Application deadline: November 30, 2017
For the full call, including the application procedure, please visit the AGRODEP website.