Development Impact Grants (DI grants)

Application information and template

QUICK REFERENCE

Award Range: CHF 5’000–CHF 10’000

Deadline to Apply: 15.05.2018

Earliest start of Project: 15.06.2018

Submit by email to:

Updates to the Development Impact Grant program will be posted on the cooperation.epfl.chwebsite and will replace any previously circulated or published materials.

Application Submission: Submit the completed application package to . Submitted files should read “[Project Name]_[Last Name of person submitting grant]”.

The application should include:

1.Application Cover Sheet.

2.The Project Description. Your project description should directly follow the cover sheet in a single document. The project description must be single spaced, using 11-point font, with 2.5cm margins, is not to exceed 3 pages and should address all points. No supplements, appendices, or additional materials will be reviewed.

3.The Budget. One year of funding can be requested, to be spent within 12 months.

Please note that CODEV reserves the right to request additional information from applicants as necessary.

Support Letters: Letters of support are not required. However, applicants are welcome to submit a letter from a partner institution expressing their commitment to work with the project team if applicable. Additional letters advocating the proposed approach or confirming the value of the project idea —from scale-up partners, collaborating institutions, policy-makers —are also welcome. No more than 2 letters will be accepted.

Application template

Project Title (max 5 words):
Focus Country:
Student Name: / Email:
EPFL Faculty: / EPFL Lab:
Project Summary
(1 sentence):
Main International Partner Organization (if applicable):
Main International Partner Contact: (Individual)* / Partner Contact Email:
Total Funding Requested (CHF):
Would you be interested to spend 2-4 weeks working at a desk at swissnex San Francisco or swissnex India? If yes please indicate your reasons and preference for location. Please note that part of the grant will be allocated to cover expenses of this stay.
Abstract: Please include a summary of your proposed project (max 200 words), in language appropriate for a non-technical reader.

Project Team: Please list all co-investigators and field research partners. Do not list a partner organization without an identified point of contact (i.e. Name and Title/Position).

Name / Title/Position / Institution / Country / Field/Discipline / Email

ProjectDescription

Instructions
1. Description text should use 11-point font and 2.5 cm margins.
2. Include responses to ALL questions below.
3. The description should NOT EXCEED 3 SINGLE-SPACE PAGES. Additional pages will be discarded.
5. The project description should be unprotected and unlocked (editable) text (.doc) file.
  1. Project Title. Include a project title no longer than 5 words; this title will be used for all correspondence.
  1. Development Challenge: What is the development challenge you seek to address? How does it relate to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)? Reference evidence from the literature describing the scale, complexity, and drivers of the challenge.
  1. Approach. Describe your entrepreneurship idea, including how it addresses the development challenge described above. Please indicate the scientific literature and any preliminary, unpublished results that have informed your approach.
  2. What specific gap(s) in knowledge will your work address? Why is your approach innovative?
  3. What questions will the project answer? What specific outcomes will you focus on?
  4. Justify your strategy. What data, tools and methods will you use to answer the questions above?
  1. Development Innovation and Scalability. Describe any intervention or innovation that might result from your work.
  2. How does your project incorporate lessons and methods from multiple disciplines (e.g. engineering, natural science, social science)?
  3. What evidence (e.g. market research, willingness to pay data) do you have of demand for your innovation (e.g. by users, target beneficiaries, policy-makers)?
  4. How do you expect your research to eventually transition out of EPFL? How do you anticipate the project would continue beyond the life the grant?
  5. If your solution proves effective, what types of institutions or communities are likely to fund and implement it at scale?
  1. Existing alternatives or “competitors.” Position yourself within the broader landscape.
  2. What are the two most important alternatives or competing interventions?
  3. How is your idea similar? How is your idea different?
  1. Project Plan: Establish a 12-month timeline which includes key activities and major deliverables.
  1. Risks: What risks do you foresee in implementing this project (e.g. in-country partnership falls through, delays)? How would you overcome them?
  1. Team: What are the unique strengths of your team? How will work be divided among team members? What is the role and level of engagement of your partners?
  1. Measures of success: What metrics you will use to track the success of this grant? What are your targets?
  2. This should be within the scope of your project as funded (can include the envisioned DI grant and any other awarded or anticipated funds).

Page 1 of 3