TESTING 123: The Global Integrity Innovation Fund for addressing the challenges of transparency and accountability

TESTING 123: The Global Integrity Innovation Fund is a call for innovative ways of addressing the challenges of transparency and accountability. The Global Integrity Innovation Fund  invest in 10 to 15 innovative ideas with around $10,000 each, giving innovators from any country around the world the opportunity to test their ideas.

A small team of us at Global Integrity will be evaluating applications as guided by selection criteria to determine finalists, with external expert advice on a case-by-case basis to assist in the process.Innovators whose ideas are selected for the final round will be offered a chance to explain the uniqueness of their idea, the strength of their testing model and their own capability to try it out, through a phone or web interview with the Global Integrity team.Final investment decisions will be made by Global Integrity and will consider both written applications as well as final interviews.Throughout the selection process, we will be posting a brief description of each submitted idea on our website for public discussion.

The fund realizes that while ideas may be a dime a dozen, thinking up an unheard of approach can be difficult, and proposing it can feel risky.  To convince you that it is worth it, we will try to lower the barrier to entry as much as possible.To start, here are our top six tips for applying to our innovation fund:

• Do your research – Your hypothesis should be grounded in a concrete understanding of what would work in theory and why, as well as what has worked or not in practice in the past.
• Disruptive is key – We are not looking for ways of doing things that have already worked (or failed).  We won’t fund ideas that simply apply an existing model to a new context, but we will invest in a method that is a clear departure from what has been tried and has the potential to shake things up if it works.
• Get inspired – Take a peek at some of the ideas that we consider ‘innovative.’  We are not asking you to duplicate these efforts – on the contrary, we want you to consider how these approaches, methods, and tools have been able to disrupt our usual thinking and then apply this lens to your own idea
• Consider the testing timeline – Propose an idea that can be tested quickly.  We want to invest in trials that take no more than two to six months.Why?  We believe that a lot can be learned in a short period of time, and lessons learned can fuel quick iteration – a recipe that we believe leads to success
• Convince us that you can do it – We need to know that you have the skills, know-how, motivation, and resources (given our capital) to test out your idea.Give us examples of your competencies to demonstrate to us that you are the right innovator to bet on
• Present an informed story – Perhaps of chief importance to us is the articulation of your Theory of Change.We need to know that you have thought about your end goal, the steps required to reach it, and the assumptions that inform these processes that imply certain effects

Those having an innovative idea that wants to test out, the fund invites the candidates apply to TESTING 123 and become part of a network of innovators working towards reform for open and accountable governance around the world.

Following are the evaluation criteria to select ideas:

1. The idea deals with an issue of corruption, transparency and/or accountability.
2. The idea addresses a specific, identifiable problem.
3. The idea aims to diagnose and/or mitigate the target problem.
4. The idea has a clear Theory of Change.
5. The idea can be defined as Innovative & New.
6. The innovator (and team) is capable of testing his/her (their) idea.

Deadline:The application period starts now and  will be accepting applications until November 16, 2012 at 5pm EST.

Deadline: November 16, 2012 at 5pm EST.

For further information, visit the link.