Research Grants

AGENCE UNIVERSITAIRE DE LA FRANCOPONIE

ALLIANCE FOR A GREEN REVOLUTION IN AFRICA (AGRA)

BILL & MELINDA GATES FOUNDATION AGDEV FUND

EUROPEAN COMMISSION

ACP S&T

FP7

FSTP

INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION AND DEVELOPMENT FUND (TaiwanICDF)

Promoting research for development projects through complementary grants

Promoting research for development projects is the best way for establishing sustainable scientific network linkages and sustainable and consistent networks. It also provides opportunities for effective training and capacity building. An annual program of granted projects will be launched as an opportunity for donors to take part in the global network through identified, regional and inter-connected projects.

This activity includes:

• Facilitating, hosting and managing programs of research for development implemented by research for development partners
• Encouraging pooling of partners and facilitating proposal writing
• Stimulating, fostering and guiding additional horticultural research on problems that are neglected, especially by the private sector, or topics relevant to international development
• Small grants for activities in the developing world including scoping studies, test application of new technologies, proof of concept development, fostering linkage between horticulture and the health communities, mapping and statistics for horticulture

An administrative officer will manage these programs, as member of the Executive Secretariat and report to the Executive Secretary.

GlobalHort Call for Concept Notes on Horticultural Global Issues Proves to be a Huge Success

 One of the four core activities of GlobalHort is “Promoting research for development projects through complementary grant programs”. During the last Board Meeting in Arusha in November 2008, the International Cooperation and Development Funds of Taiwan confirmed the release of USD3.0 M for such activities through GlobalHort over a period of three years. It was agreed by the Board that collaborative research projects should be selected through an international competitive call. The principles which should be reflected in these projects are outlined in the project guidelines. Integral parts of these guidelines are result-based project management to ensure better impact, participatory and multi-stakeholder approaches to involve diverse partners from various sectors, i.e. research partners, development actors, the private sector and consumers and producers as final beneficiaries.

By the end of 2008, the call for concept notes on horticultural global issues was launched. It was announced through GlobalHort website and through the email list of GlobalHort newsletter. Applicants could apply to one of the following themes: (1) Nutrition and Human Health, (2) Protected Horticulture, (3) Fruit Fly Management, and (4) Linking Farmers to Markets. The budget ceiling for each project is 250,000 USD per year for a project period of three years (750,000 USD in total). If the funding ceiling is fully utilized, the available budget is sufficient to finance one project per theme. Co-funding with other ongoing or new initiatives is possible and welcome.

 The deadline for submitting concept notes to this call was 27 February 2009. The overall response was overwhelming. We received a total number of 187 concept notes within the eligible time span. This was far more than we ever expected.

To handle this call, an in-house pre-selection of concept notes, mainly for formal aspects but also on quality, was necessary. The short-listed concept notes were forwarded to reviewers, mainly part of GlobalHort’s Advisory Group which comprises an expert pool of resource persons from the horticultural sector or with expertise in cross-cutting topics. The reviewers were provided with review guidelines and an evaluation sheet to assess the following aspects of each concept note: (1) Relevance and Harmonization, (2) Eligibility and Partnership, (3) Involvement of Beneficiaries, and (4) Project Approach and Feasibility. Finally, they were asked to provide a ranking of the list of concept notes they had received, supported by additional comments. 

After receiving the evaluations of all the reviewers per theme, the applicants of the selected concept notes were informed in April 2009 to develop a full project proposal. They were also provided with the comments of the reviewers or any additional comments to improve the quality of the proposal.  

Three concept notes for theme 1, three for theme 2, two for theme 3 and five concept notes for theme 4 were selected for full proposal development. We expect receiving the full proposals by the end of May 2009 for themes 1 to 3 and by 6 June for theme 4. Thereafter, we will again forward the full proposals to our reviewers. We expect, that the final selection of projects can be announced during the next Board Meeting on 19-20 June 2009. 

The selection process of this call is still on-going but it can be regarded as a great success already. Through this call, the visibility of GlobalHort has tremendously increased. Existing linkages between partners have been revitalized and new alliances within and across sectors have been formed. Based on the quality of the concept notes, many more projects could be supported. However, due to our restricted funding capacity we even had to reject project concepts which were of high quality. We hope that after the final selection of projects we can attract other donors to provide additional funding.

The message from this call is clear: there is a perceived need and strong interest to invest in the horticultural sector and in approaches for joint collaborations between research, development and the private sector.

GlobalHort Secretariat Announces the Screening Results of the Call for Concept Notes on Horticultural Global Issues

Published on 4^th Apr 2009

GlobalHort had launched a call for concept notes on global horticultural issues on 24 December 2008. The purpose of this call was to increase the visibility of the horticultural sector and to develop or strengthen partnerships among stakeholders and actors in the horticultural sector. Hence, specific emphasis was laid on the quality of the partnership which should involve research institutions, development actors and the private sector. Furthermore, ideas for result-oriented multi-stakeholder projects which actively involve growers and consumers and final beneficiaries to achieve the highest possible impact were sought. (See "Project Guidelines" for more information.) 

The deadline for submitting concept notes to this call was 27 February 2009. The overall response to this call was overwhelming. We received a total number of 187 concept notes within the eligible time span. The breakdown according to themes is a follows:

·         Theme 1 - Nutrition and Human Health: 52

·         Theme 2 - Protected Horticulture: 41

·         Theme 3 – Fruit Fly Management: 15

·         Theme 4 – Linking Farmers to Markets: 60

·         Theme not addressed or serious formal mistakes: 19

This was far more than we ever expected. It clearly demonstrates the need and interest to invest in the horticultural sector and in approaches for joint collaborations between research, development and the private sector. Unfortunately, GlobalHort has currently only a limiting funding capacity to support such projects. If the funding ceiling of 750,000 USD per project (up to 250,000 USD per year and for three years in total) is fully utilized by the qualified projects, we can finance only one project per theme. Therefore, we will not even be able to support all of the good project concepts. However, we currently approach donors for additional support. Due to the success of this call we also hope to launch new calls in the near future. Please check our web site regularly.

Due to the large number of concept notes we received and the limited number of reviewers that we have, the evaluation process has taken more time than initially anticipated. However, a preliminary selection of concept notes has been completed. The concept notes which qualify to develop a full project proposal will be chosen among these lists.

The lists are arranged according to the themes of this call:

Theme 1 - Nutrition and Human Health

Theme 2 - Protected Horticulture

Theme 3 – Fruit Fly Management

Theme 4 – Linking Farmers to Markets

Concept notes which are not in these lists have not qualified for a full proposal. Due to the large amount of concept notes we cannot provide individual comments to those concept notes which are not listed. We would like to stress that project concepts which are not in these lists are not necessarily of poor quality. However, they may have not met the specific objectives and instructions of this call. In some of the themes the competition was extremely high so that even otherwise good concept notes had to be removed.

Concept notes which qualify for full project proposals will be chosen from these shortlists. As soon as we have taken a final decision, the information will be updated on these lists. Applicants can check on the respective list whether their concept note has been selected to develop a full project proposal. The applicants of the qualified concept notes will be informed by email about further procedures. Individual comments and suggestions for improvements from the reviewers and the GlobalHort Secretariat will be provided.