FUTURE LABS: CO-DESIGN AND INCUBATION OF YOUTH-LED INNOVATIVE IDEAS – GRANT COMPETITION

Source: Kolba Lab

 

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 youth-lead innovative ideas. The call will aim at mobilising a critical cohort of young innovators in generating and testing future-oriented ideas.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The call is open to Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) from Armenia. The selected solution will receive potential funding of up to USD 20,000 for pilots in Armenia to be implemented within 12 months.

The deadline for submissions is December 5, 2020. 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 particular, UNDP will initiate specific actions to engage young user groups through the Dream Labs, which is a scenario-based foresight approach of collecting citizen-driven expectations to what the future holds. Kolba Lab will support the generated scenarios and ideas through incubation and seed funding. The component will be implemented in partnership with local civil society organizations.

 

PROGRAM OBJECTIVES

UNDP is seeking partnership with local civil society organizations for ideas that contribute to a better future for Armenians and that can be matured and further developed through ideation and incubation. The component should be implemented with the active participation of youth (targeting at 14 to 30 year-olds) and should have at least the following components: a) youth mobilization; b) ideas generated through scenario-building; c) co-design of specific innovative solutions that contribute towards the desired future; d) incubation of ideas into viable products, processes and projects. The applicants are expected to suggest a tailored methodological approach for each step.

PRIORITY THEMES

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

• Armenia for the Youth: youth aspirations; new skills and jobs; education; civic activism; public spaces for youth; museums, libraries and alternative educational frameworks; life-long education; etc.
• Resilient Armenia with relevant civic protection: addressing shocks and uncertainties; environmental and man-made disasters; peer support in civic protection; etc.
• Science and R&D-based Armenia: youth-friendly learning; research and development in new era; most requested science domains; space and time; alternative methods in science education; etc.
• Creative Armenia at scale: creative industries, new media; visual arts; arts and crafts; history and culture; arts and technologies; etc.

PROJECT ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA:

• The challenge will be open to civil society organizations from Armenia. Prior experience with youth 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 work that has not been previously submitted to other challenge events will be preferred. All entries will be subject to integrity checks during the competition to ensure the originality of the work.
• Funds will be disbursed through the UNDP Innovation Grants scheme.

THE PROJECT SELECTION PROCESS:

Submission

• All entries must be submitted on or before December 5, 2020, with a deadline set at 17:00. Applications must be submitted through the following form. The following content must be provided:
• 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 only per team member).
• Questionnaire: Answers need to clearly articulate a) identified challenge; b) suggested solution, describing the methodological approach to implementation of main project objectives (above). It should include 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 4 CSOs will be selected for further financial support. All finalists will be notified by December 15, 2020, at 17:00.

All proposals will be judged based on the following criteria:

1. The relevance of the solution to a clearly defined challenge and the rationale of the suggested solution – 30%
2. Operational and technical feasibility, scalability, and sustainability of the project – 25%
3. Innovation – 25%
4. Qualification, capacity, and experience of the organization/team – 20%

The selected CSOs will receive potential funding of up to USD 20,000 for projects in Armenia to be implemented within 12 months.

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

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This initiative was created with the financial support of the European Union. Its contents are the sole responsibility of UNDP Armenia and do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Union.