Opportunity from Kolba: Co-Design and Incubation Of Citizen-Driven Innovations: Grant Competition

Within the EU-funded “FUTURE TODAY: Empowering women, youth and children for deepening democracy in Armenia” project  UNDP Armenia’s Kolba Lab opens a special call for proposals seeking partnership with Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) around co-design and incubation of citizen-driven innovative ideas. The call aims at mobilising a critical cohort of innovators in identifying, developing and testing (1) bottom-up citizens proposals on how to improve participatory governance at local and national levels; (2) and ideas related to alternative connectivity, social networking, peer-to-peer support and mobilization.

 

 

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

 

 

The call is open to the CSOs from Armenia. The short-listed 8 applicant organizations will be invited to the Rapid prototyping booth camp (3 days); top 3 selected teams will receive funding of up to USD 5,000 for pilots in Armenia to be implemented within 5 months.

 

The deadline for submissions is July 25, 2021. The applications should be submitted online by the following form.

 

 

BACKGROUND

 

The FUTURE TODAY project is designed to enhance democracy in Armenia through the empowerment of women, promotion of gender equality, strengthening youth and adolescent participation, ensuring inclusive engagement in all sectors of society and further expanding government accountability and transparency mechanisms. The project is designed to build on the unique momentum of the emerging citizenry and to nudge new quality and value of participatory governance – the right of every woman and man, as well as marginalized groups, to participate in the democratic decision-making process both at local and national levels, towards good governance and equitable development.

 

In this context, UNDP initiates tailored actions to generate citizen-based ideas related to (1) user-driven innovations in areas like alternative connectivity, social networking, peer-to-peer support and mobilization and (2) bottom-up citizens proposals on how to improve participatory governance at local and national level. Kolba Lab will support the generated ideas through rapid prototyping Booth Camp and seed funding.

 

 

PRIORITY THEMES

 

 

In the framework of the overall future vision, the CSOs are expected to submit proposals tailored around the following directions:

• Innovations in areas like alternative connectivity, social networking, peer-to-peer support and mobilization
• Proposals on how to improve participatory governance at local and national level.

 

 

PROJECT ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA:

 

 

The challenge will be open to CSOs from Armenia. A prior experience of similar work will be an advantage.

 

• All entries must focus on solutions that can be implemented in Armenia, but possibly rolled out in the region or globally.
• Applicants submitting original proposals that has not been previously submitted to other challenge events will be given priority.
• All entries will be subject to integrity checks during the review process.

 

Fund will be disbursed based on UNDP Innovation Grants scheme.

 

 

THE PROJECT SELECTION PROCESS:

 

 

Submission

 

All entries must be submitted by the deadline of July 25, 2021, 18:00. Applications must be submitted through the following form. Please ensure to include:

Team Profile: Please submit the following information: team name, assigned team leader and the names of all team members alongside a short bio of each member of the team (100 words per team member).
Questionnaire: Answers need to clearly articulate on a) identified challenge; b) suggested solution, describing methodological approach to implementation of main project objectives (above), information on the technical capacity of the team to advance the further development of the solution.

Evaluation

All submissions will be evaluated and up to 8 CSOs will be shortlisted for Rapid prototyping booth camp (3 days);  top 3 teams will receive funding of up to USD 5,000 for pilots in Armenia to be implemented within 5 months. The shortlisted organizations will be notified by August 10, 2021.

All proposals will be judged based on the following criteria:

• Relevance of the solution to a clearly defined challenge and the rationale of the suggested solution – 30%
• Operational and technical feasibility, scalability, and sustainability of the project – 25%
• Innovation – 25%
• Qualification, capacity, and experience of the organization/team – 20%

 

 Technical questions

 

The Booth Camp will be organized during the second half of August or the first half of September 2021. During the first two days of the Booth Camp, specific workshops on Idea Validation, Stakeholder Analysis, Customer Research, E-Governance and Open Government Partnership will be conducted. On the third day of the Booth Camp teams will pitch their updated ideas to a professional jury.

 

All the costs related to the accommodation and transportation to the Venue and back will be covered by the organizers.

 

Maximum 3 people per team will be invited to the Booth Camp. Teams will be asked to bring with them 1 laptop to work on the final presentations.

 

If any questions, please contact to UNDP/Kolba Lab Task Lead Hovhannes Yeritsyan via email ([email protected])