£1 million Sightsavers Innovation Fund for NGOs

Sightsavers has launched the new funding initiative for NGOs in developing countries. The Sightsavers Innovation Fund is part of a three-year Programme Partnership Arrangement that Sightsavers holds with the UK Government’s Department for International Development. It is offering £1 million for innovative solutions to development problems.

NGOs, academic institutions, the private sector and disabled people’s organisations can apply and work from this funding to help overcome challenges faced by the eye health and social inclusion sectors in developing countries.

The Fund is calling for innovative approaches which illustrate a way to overcome barriers in the promotion of eye health, inclusive education and social inclusion. Winning initiatives will receive up to £75,000 each to implement the suggested proposal over 18 months. The learning from these projects will be shared widely within the development sector as well as being used to inform Sightsavers’ own programmes.

Sightsavers is looking for proposals from a wide range of organisations. It will consider a maximum of two proposals from any single organisation. An organisation may only submit one application per sector theme.

The review process for applications will follow a two-stage process. The first review will be an internal review of proposals by Sightsavers innovation challenge team. The projects identified for the shortlist will be submitted to a second independent panel of expert judges, to ensure a level of objectivity and rigour in the choice of projects.

The deadline to submit proposals is 30 June 2012. For more information, visit this link.