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Call for Applications: Science and Technology – Capacity Building Program
The Harvard University South Asia Institute (SAI), the Tata Trusts and the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi are collaborating for a project with the overarching theme of Social Entrepreneurship and Livelihood Creation in India. The Science and Technology component of this project focuses on enhancing the contribution of science and technology, and innovation to enhance the lives of, and improve livelihood opportunities for, the poor and marginalized communities in India. [The target area of work is also often referred as inclusive innovation domain].
Click here for more information about the Science and Technology track.
The track aims to address the growth challenges faced by organizations working towards inclusive innovation via sustained interventions in the form of capacity building, funding and primarily networking support. Harvard SAI and its project partners, along with institutions and experts in India will strongly collaborate with the organisations to develop a capacity building curriculum aimed at generating and strengthening national capacity for social enterprises in this sector.
Curriculum
The capacity building curriculum will be designed as per the requirements of the participating organizations with the aim to equip them with practical skills, tools, and the knowledge they require to maximize the impact and scale of their work. The organizations participating in the workshop will also be eligible to apply for social innovation grants that will be awarded to those who demonstrate potential for innovation and impact. However, in addition to funding, the other major deliverable to the grantees is the mentoring from experts throughout the course of this project. The mentoring will be customized as per the specific requirements of each grantee.
This project is calling for applications from organizations across India who are interested in participating in this capacity building workshop. The workshop will be provided free of cost to all selected organizations.
Selection Criteria
The participating organization should qualify on all the grounds mentioned below:
- Legally registered and operating as a social enterprise (non-profit, for profit, or hybrid model) in India.
- Technology should be a core part of the innovation/solution proposed by the organization.
- The target group of beneficiaries should be the poor and/or marginalized communities.
- If the organization has multiple categories of beneficiaries, the poor/marginalized should be a major focus area.
- Must have developed an innovative practice or is working on an activity that has resulted in significant impact and has potential to expand activities.
Social Innovation Grants
The Program has earmarked a total sum of INR 10 lakh, to be disbursed among selected organizations. The exact amount granted to a project will be determined by a panel of expert judges. These grants will be available to participating organizations to fund innovations and learnings from the capacity building workshop. These grants will also enable them to implement initiatives to create a greater impact by either scaling existing initiatives or piloting new ones.
Note – Only those organizations that apply for the capacity building workshop are eligible to apply for the social innovation grants.
The amount of funding will depend on the requirements, scale of proposed impact, and the budget provided by the applicant. A budget has to be provided, as it will be an important assessment criterion for the grant. Over-budgeting and/or under-budgeting will be deemed a negative. Disbursement of funds will be done on a timeline that is determined on a case-by-case basis, depending on the proposed project plan and timeline provided by the organization. The selection committee shall reserve the right to decide the final grant amount for each organization.
If you have further questions please send an email to kundanmadireddy@fas.harvard.edu
APPLICATION DEADLINE:
Applications are due by 17th January 2016, 11:59 PM, IST.
Application Process
Kindly read the instructions carefully before you proceed to fill the application.
- The application consists of two parts:
- Part-A: Application for the capacity building workshop
- Part-B: Application for the social innovation grant
- Applying to the capacity building workshop is a necessary condition for the social innovation grant.
- Those who wish to apply for the social innovation grant will also have to fill Part-B of the application. Organizations that only wish to apply for the capacity building workshop do not have to fill Part-B of the application.
- Responses for boxes and questions with a ‘red asterisk’ beside them or explicitly mentioned as ‘Required’ are mandatory, without which the applications would not be accepted.
- The application for the social innovation grant (Part-B) requires you to make a three minute video pitch to tell us how your organization would benefit from the grant and the kind of impact it will create. Important instructions for the video pitch:
- The video should be recorded on a mobile phone. A video that has been professionally made or edited will not be considered.
- All videos longer than 3 minutes will not be considered.
- The video should be in MP4 format.
- Maximum file size should be 50 MB. Kindly compress the video if required to achieve a size of under 50 MB. Various offline and online tools are available for compression.
- The language used in the video should preferably be English.
- The following are areas that we would like to hear about:
- The uniqueness of your idea in the context of your larger organization goals
- Action plan for implementation
- Proposed impact