Beyond Sport Awards 2011: Using Sports to create positive social change

Beyond Sport is a global organization that promotes, develops and funds the use of sport to create positive social change across the world. There are three primary ways of doing this: Beyond Sport Awards, Beyond Sport Summit and Beyond Sport World.

Currently, the Beyond Sport Awards is accepting entries under 12 categories covering the entire sporting spectrum of health, social inclusion, corporate and social responsibility, and philanthropy.

Shortlisted entries for these awards receive a free invitation to the Beyond Sport Summit 2011 in Cape Town, South Africa; flights to and accommodation during the Summit; access to Beyond Sport’s global network of international sports organizations, company leaders, and influential political figures; and opportunities for business mentoring and to become members of the most influential group of social entrepreneurs ever assembled around sport.

The winners of the six Beyond Sport Community Awards will receive a minimum of $15,000 funding each and a package of substantial business support to enable them to move forward and become fully sustainable in the future.

Any project or initiative wishing to enter the Beyond Sport Awards must live up to the four basic principles of the Beyond Sport mission: Model, Impact, Sustainability and Replication.

The categories of awards are:

1. Community Awards for not-for-profits, NGOs, IGOs, charitable or small social entrepreneurial organisations: Best New Project, UNICEF Sport for Education Award, Sport for Health Award, Best Project for Social Inclusion and Sport for Conflict Resolution Award.

2. Environment Award for independent projects, federations, companies, government agencies, and rights holders alike. A relevant entry can be for any kind of activity that addresses environmental issues – i.e. events, campaigns, stand-alone projects, policies that resulted in an environmental improvement. The award under this category is the Sport for Environment Award.

3. Corporate and Federation Awards for corporations, businesses, sport governing bodies, official rights-holders, professional sports teams, federations, large social enterprises, or non-profits looking to nominate a corporate partner. The awards under this category are Sport Team of the Year, Sport Federation or Governing Body of the Year and the Corporate of the Year.

4. Judges’ Awards: There will also be a number of Judges’ Awards.

The deadline to submit entries is March 15, 2011. For more information, visit this link.

Trellis Fund Call for Project Proposals

NGOs, universities and government agencies from target countries are invited to submit project proposals under the Horticulture Collaborative Research Support Program (Horticulture CRSP) Trellis Fund sponsored by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

The goal of the Horticulture CRSP Trellis Fund is to link horticultural graduate students in the U.S. to agricultural NGOs/universities/government agencies in developing countries, and enable these organizations to extend new ideas to 1,800 farmers worldwide. Projects can cover areas of horticultural production, pest management, postharvest, marketing issues and horticultural-related community development.

The NGOs interested to apply to this opportunity will identify a horticultural problem facing local farmers and the type of expertise they seek in a U.S. graduate student. The organizations will create a project proposal and the Trellis Fund will match awarded organizations to a horticultural graduate student and fund their farmer outreach program.

Target Countries:

• Africa: Uganda, Zambia, Rwanda, Kenya, Malawi, Ethiopia, Mozambique, Tanzania, Senegal, Ghana, Mali and Liberia
• Central America/Caribbean: Guatemala, Nicaragua, Honduras and Haiti
• Asia: Bangladesh, Tajikistan, Nepal and Cambodia

The deadline to submit proposals is 4 March 2011. For more information, visit this link.

2011 Call for Nominations for the Social Innovation Fellows Program

PopTech, a unique global innovation network of cutting-edge leaders, thinkers and doers with a mission to accelerate the positive impact of world changing people, projects and ideas. It is currently accepting nominations for the 2011 PopTech Social Innovation Fellows Program.

Each year, under this program, PopTech selects 10-20 high potential change agents from around the world who are working on highly disruptive innovations in areas like healthcare, energy, development, climate, education, and civic engagement, among many others. Fellows work in both the for-profit and not-for-profit worlds, have a minimum of 3-5 years experience, and are working in organizations that are well positioned for sustainable growth.

Selected fellows get an opportunity to participate in an all-expenses-paid, multi-day intensive program focused on insights and tools for accelerating and scaling “big bet” innovations, such as branding, media relations, social/Web2.0 media, finance, leadership, digital storytelling, design for impact and organizational development.

To be eligible to be nominated, candidates should be working  in critical fields such as energy, green technology, empowering adolescent girls in developing countries, distributed health diagnostics, healthcare modeling, the environment, performing arts, water, education and other areas with significant beneficial impacts with highly disruptive breakthrough innovations to solve previously intractable problems; they should have positive track record as leaders in social innovation; work in organizations that are well positioned for sustainable growth and high impact; and are passionate leaders with a high potential for collaboration and success.

Fellows may be nominated by another individual or organization, self-nominated, or nominated from within the PopTech network. The open nomination process closes on March 31, 2011. For more information, visit this link.

UNESCO calling nominations for the Wenhui Award for Educational Innovation 2011

The Wenhui Award for Educational Innovation provides recognition to those with commitment and outstanding work in the development of educational innovations according to the theme announced for each year. The 2011 call for nominations for this Award has the theme of “Education for Learning to Live Together.”

The Award has been established by the National Commission of the People’s Republic of China for UNESCO and the UNESCO Asia-Pacific Programme of Educational Innovation for Development (APEID) to recognize the potential of education and the human innovative spirit to address and resolve such pressing issues and problems.

Individuals or institutions from UNESCO Member States in Asia and the Pacific region that have designed and implemented significant educational innovation leading to improved access to and quality in education will be eligible for the Award.

Two individuals or institutions will be conferred with the award with a Certificate of Excellence and prize money of US$ 20,000 each at the UNESCO-APEID International Conference and/or China Hangzhou International Conference on Educational Innovations. Certificates of Merit may also be awarded to individuals or institutions that have demonstrated commendable innovative practices.

The Award organizers are calling for nominations from governments, educational institutions, international organizations, non-governmental organizations and individuals in Asia and Pacific countries

All nominations must reach the Award Secretariat by 15 July 2011. For more information, visit this link.

Nominations invited for the WISE Prize for Education

The Qatar Foundation is inviting nominations from NGOs, international organizations, universities, schools, colleges, teachers’ organizations, research facilities, governments and private corporations for the 2011 WISE Prize for Education.

The WISE Prize for Education will reward individuals – or teams of individuals – who have made an outstanding contribution to any field or level of education.

An International Jury of five distinguished individuals will consider the 15 final nominations and select a winner who will receive an award of $500,000 and a gold medal.

The winner will be awarded at the World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE), which is held every year bringing together over 1,000 thought-leaders and pioneering practitioners from multiple sectors to foster new collaborations and develop innovative solutions, with the goal of inspiring and spearheading creative change in education.

Self-nominations will not be accepted. The deadline to submit nominations is 30 April 2011. For more information, visit this link.