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What is an Innovation Challenge?
Innovation Challenges are defined as prized challenges that UNDP Offices organise to solicit innovative ideas to address challenges which cannot be achieved through traditional solicitation processes.
Find out more details from HERE.
What are the themes of this Innovation Challenge?
- WATER
- ENERGY
- CIRCULAR ECONOMY / WASTE MANAGMENT
Your proposed action should address one (or more) of these themes, be based on bi-communal collaboration and must demonstrate potential to be beneficial for both communities.
What should the actions of this challenge consider?
The proposed actions should be:
Beneficiary-Centred, Context-Appropriate and Solution-Focused.
describe the issue they are addressing and demonstrate how the solution is focused on the needs of end-users or beneficiaries, and appropriate to their context.
demonstrate how the action will be broadly accepted and widely accessible to all targeted beneficiaries and/or potential users.
Financially Sustainable and Scalable.
Available for sharing.
Replicable in other environments.
Building on technologies or methodologies that are adaptable to various contexts.
The idea-should be unique and should propose a new action or new approach to existing ones.
A key criteria UNDP will look at during the selection process will be the connectivity of the suggested action to existing initiatives and systems in the area of Green Transition (water, energy, circular economy and/or waste management); how it creates linkages between them and how it amplifies them.
The proposal should include a mapping of other existing stakeholders, businesses, initiatives and systems in the respective thematic area, showcasing how the proposed idea fits within the current ecosystem and elevates and/or connects to existing initiatives.
We encourage visuals, such as graphs, illustration and different types of visualisations showcasing the interconnectivity of the suggested solution with other ongoing initiatives and stakeholders.
Women entrepreneurs and business owners will be given priority.
The Innovation Challenge will look for submissions that can have positive economic and environmental impact island wide.
Applicants must submit proposals that contribute towards intercommunal cooperation. The solutions will be evaluated based on these points for a chance to be awarded the Innovation Challenge seed-funding of up to €20,000. A detailed selection evaluation criteria can be found in the download cards below.
What are the Eligibility Criteria?
The application will be open to the following:
This Innovation Challenge is open to all individuals (18+) as well as businesses, including SMEs, start-ups, NGOs, social enterprises, academia and any other entity, to apply.
The innovative action must be pilot tested in Cyprus.
The applicant (individual/company) must submit the Proposal Booklet, including budget breakdown of how the challenge prize amount of €20,000 will be utilised during piloting in 2025.
The proposed action should be based on bi-communal collaboration and must demonstrate potential to be beneficial for both communities.
The proposal must provide an action towards the challenge of water, energy and/or circular economy & waste management. The approach must be non-existent in Cyprus, connecting with and/or amplifying existing initiatives.
The project must demonstrate that it would continue beyond the life of the seed-funding.
What is the application and selection process?
Applicants must complete the proposal booklet together with all relevant documentation and submit their application HERE by 23:59 EET on Sunday, December 8th, 2024. Applications will be evaluated based on criteria attached below, and you will receive an email response within a week.
Participating teams should also register on the UNDP Quantum platform by 23:59 EET on Sunday, December 8th, 2024. For any technical support required for registering on the platform you can email registry.cy@undp.org with subject line ‘INNOVATION CHALLENGE – QUANTUM SUPPORT’.
Shortlisted teams will be invited to present their idea to a selection panel on the week of 11 – 15 December, 2024.
Winners of the seed-funding will be informed by the 20th December 2024.
Download the attachments below for more information on the challenge; the evaluation criteria; and the Proposal Booklet you need to complete.
Who owns the Intellectual Property rights to the proposed actions?
The intellectual property rights of solicited ideas and/or solutions remain with UNDP who will issue appropriate licenses to the developer of the idea. The solution shall be made public and open exchanges, collaborative participation and community development following the challenge shall be encouraged.
This aims to ensure that:
innovations that are of significant interest and benefits to the public actually becomes “public goods or services” and may be made accessible;
that there will be no monopoly control over the solution; and
that they will not be priced outside of the beneficiaries’ ability to pay.
If the innovative idea selected by UNDP is adopted and replicated by UNDP or any of UNDP partners in various UNDP-supported programmes/projects, the source of the innovative idea must not and cannot expect to be the sole source of all business activities arising from such adoption of the innovation.
Where necessary, and where marketable technologies are involved, UNDP may provide perpetual license to the source of the innovative idea, but UNDP shall not be precluded from granting the same license to other entities.
