The purpose of this initiative, a partnership between SEEDS, ADRRN Tokyo Innovation Hub (ATIH) and Elrha’s Humanitarian Innovation Fund (HIF), is to support the development of local solutions to humanitarian challenges. SEEDS is seeking to support local innovation to address challenges relating to heat waves and cold waves in India.

The innovation process enables people to take a step-back from their day-to-day jobs and think about how traditional approaches to disaster risk management might be improved. It is about complementing and reinforcing ongoing planning efforts at varying levels by supporting different actors to come together and consider the challenges to effective resilience and response from the ground up.

Innovation is about more than new technology. While technology often drives innovation, SEEDS believe that innovation is a process of defining problems, adapting and developing new context based solutions, and taking them to scale. Good innovation has clear problem definition at its heart and requires us to reassess our basic assumptions, and commit to collaboration, learning and the generation of evidence.

The Opportunity & Funding Available

• SEEDS invite applications from groups/teams that hope to gain a better understanding of a problem that they are trying to tackle, in order to develop new and improved products and services for disaster risk management.
• This application process is to participate in a series of online workshops, which comprise the first phase of the initiative. SEEDS are looking for 10 groups to participate in the workshop process. The workshops are designed to guide participants through a process of understanding problems and developing potential solutions.
• Following the workshops, there will be an opportunity for each of the participating groups to apply for funding up to £20,000 (per group) to further explore their ideas over a 9-month period. Funding will be awarded to up to 4 groups with the most promising and achievable idea.

Eligibility & Evaluation Criteria

• Applications will be assessed against the following criteria:
  • The lead applicant must be a legally registered national NGO or social enterprise based in India.
  • The team must include a good spread of relevant skills and experience (e.g. interest in innovation, expertise in disaster risk reduction, humanitarian response, and experience/ expertise related to the problem identified and articulated in the proposal).
  • The team must demonstrate close links with the communities whose problems they are seeking to address.
  • Applications submitted by a consortium of organisations will be looked upon favourably.
  • Must be available to attend all the online workshops.
• The proposal should:
  • Focus on a problem that is relevant to the thematic focus outlined in this document (Extreme climatic events – heat waves and cold waves)
  • Demonstrate an understanding of the impact of the problem on stakeholders
  • Demonstrate an understanding of the expertise required to address the problem articulated
• The application process includes submitting an application form, accompanied by the following supporting documents:
  • Certificate of Registration
  • PAN Number
  • Acknowledgement of Receipt of Income Tax Return for the last financial year
  • FCRA Certificate, if applicable

For more information, visit SEEDS.