Humanitarian Innovation Fund: 2nd Call for proposals is now open

Today sees the second call for proposals for the ‘large grant facility’ which provides funding to projects up to £150,000 and supports the development, implementation and testing of innovation. The ‘small grant facility’ offers project funding of up to £20,000 and is open to proposals at any time.

Four successful projects selected by the independent panel of experts in the first round of grants are already well underway introducing innovative solutions to long standing challenges in delivering humanitarian aid. These include the Danish Refugee Council’s project to utilise web and mobile phone technologies and social media to circumvent ongoing security challenges in Somalia.

Jess Camburn, ELRHA Director, said:
“We have learnt a huge amount from the first call for proposals and are expecting even more game-changing innovations to be funded this time around. We will particularly be looking for evidence of fresh thinking and are very aware that novelty is not the same thing as innovation.A striking feature of the last round of grants was the extent to which the strongest applications where those which employed a collaborative approach and partnerships between multiple organisations.”

Full details of the Humanitarian Innovation Fund, the call for proposals and the different types of funding available can be found on the HIF website. To help humanitarian innovators better understand how the application process works, there is now an instructional video available in English on the website. A video in French will be available next week.

The HIF team will be answering questions in a live Q&A session on the website on Wednesday 27th July 2011, 12:00 - 13:00 BST.

Large grant applicants are required to submit an expression of interest by 28th of August 2011; shortlisted applicants will then be invited to complete a full application by 16th October 2011.