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 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 non-governmental organizations from Armenia. The selected solution will receive potential funding of up to USD 8,000 for pilots in Armenia to be implemented within 4 months.

The deadline for submissions is June 22, 2021. The applications should be submitted online through the following form.

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:

  • Future of Youth: Educated and R&D-based Armenia: youth aspirations; new skills and jobs; education; public spaces; open spaces; museums, libraries and alternative educational & scientific frameworks, research and development in new era, life-long education; spaces for ideation and cooperation, youth-friendly learning; research and development in new era; most requested science domains; space and time; alternative methods in science education; etc.
  • Resilience and civic protection: addressing shocks and uncertainties; environmental and man-made disasters; peer support in civic protection; etc.
  • Creative Industry: Creative Armenia at scale: creative industries, new media; visual arts; arts and crafts; history and culture; arts and technologies; etc.
  • Talent hub Armenia; Attraction points; talent creation, attraction, and retention: What we need to attract talent (co-working & co-living; entertainment; open spaces, public spaces, events, etc.)

Project eligibility criteria: 

The challenge will be open to non-governmental organizations from Armenia. A prior experience of 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. Fund will be disbursed based on UNDP Innovation Grants skim.
The project selection process:

Ø  Submission

All entries must be submitted on or before June 22, 2021 with a deadline set at 23:00. 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 on a) identified challenge; b) suggested solution, describing 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.

Ø  Evaluation

All submissions will be evaluated and up to 3 CSOs will be selected for further financial support. All finalists will be notified by July 10, 2021 at 17:00.

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%

The selected CSOs will receive potential funding of up to USD 8,000 for projects in Armenia to be implemented within 4 months.

If any questions, please contact to UNDP/Kolba Lab Task Lead Hovhannes Yeritsyan via email (hovhannes.yeritsyan@undp.org)

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This initiative is implemented in the framework of Future Today: Empowering women, youth and children for deepening democracy in Armenia project, financed by the European Union.