CSO-CGIAR Competitive Grants Program

The CGIAR and the Centers it supports work to maintain effective partnerships with civil society organizations, governmental agencies and the private sector which are critical for knowledge-sharing and fostering development for impact.

The CGIAR has launched a new competitive grants program designed to cultivate stronger relationships between civil society organizations and the CGIAR in agricultural research for development. This initiative is part of the building blocks for further expanding engagement with CSOs and sharing knowledge for impact.

What are the objectives of this new competitive grants initiative?

• Support innovative projects involving civil society partners and other stakeholders in agricultural research for development
• Promote partnerships between the CGIAR and CSOs that apply novel approaches for working together better
• Create new avenues by which a growing network of CSO and CGIAR partners can continue to learn one another through active knowledge sharing

Please click here for the CSO-CGIAR competitive grants guidelines which includes supported areas, eligibility criteria and conditions for participation (22 pages!)

Selection of projectes: Completed!

The first call for concept notes (CNs) for CSO-CGIAR competitive grants was a great success. In total the CGIAR has received 151 concept notes. After a first review for eligibility 58 concept notes were disqualified. Among the reasons are either no indication of CGIAR Center involvement or failing to meet the financial and /or template requirements in describing the project idea.

An external panel of four members reviewed the 93 eligible concept notes and assessed each concept note for the 5 criteria as described in the grant guidelines: Innovation, Sustainability, Envisaged Outcome and Poverty Impact, Relevance and Innovativeness of Partnership and Replicability. As a result of the assessment the panel identified 14 outstanding concept notes that were invited to develop a full proposal of their projects. Please click here to see the Top 14 concept notes.

As a next step 14 full project proposals were received and assessed by an external evaluation panel of three members using the same criteria as above. Given the fact that the total amount of funding available for all projects does not exceed US$1 million, only the top 4 full project proposals can be selected for funding. Please click here to see the project proposals selected for funding in this pilot phase.

For all selected full proposals, the project leader of the CSO partner institution as well as a Center representative are invited to attend a start-up workshop that will take place in Washington DC on October 10-11, 2007.

The objectives of the workshop are:

• Set the stage for project implementation and find a common ground for the projects within the framework of the CSO-CGIAR Competitive Grants Program.

• Share methodologies and tools for working effectively in partnership - Tips, tools and exercises on people, power, and networks

•Stimulate sharing of knowledge and experiences between projects throughout the duration of the program.

Timeline

Selected Project Proposals