World Bank Calls for third round of funding for collaborative data innovation projects

The Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data and the World Bank Development Data Group are pleased to announce that applications are now open for a third round of support for innovative collaborations for data production, dissemination, and use. This follows two previous rounds of funding awarded in 2017 and earlier in 2018.

This initiative is supported by the World Bank’s Trust Fund for Statistical Capacity Building (TFSCB) with financing from the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development (DFID), the Government of Korea and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade of Ireland.

The themes for this year’s call for proposals are scaling local data for impact, which aims to target innovations that have an established proof of concept which benefits local decision-making, and fostering synergies between the communities of non-official data and official statistics, which looks for collaborations that take advantage of the relative strengths and responsibilities of official (i.e. governmental) and non-official (e.g.,private sector, civil society, social enterprises and academia) actors in the data ecosystem.

This call has been issued to target improvements where needs are continuous or recurrent, and where innovations can be readily adapted to other regions and sectors. We are particularly interested in projects that result in data or methods for producing faster; in a more cost effective manner; at a higher resolution or granularity; or to address data gaps. Our ultimate goal is to encourage collaboration, experimentation, learning, and capacity development in the field of sustainable development data.

The collaborations should take place primarily in low-income countries and lower-middle-income countries, and be directed towards sustainable development generally, and linked to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in particular.

Details of previous awards and online application system

Find more details and application instructions in the online application system: http://bit.ly/wb-gpsdd-innovationfund-2018

To learn more about the collaborative data innovation funding program, you can explore past recipients’ projects. The winners of the inaugural collaborative funding round, launched in 2016, met in the margins of the Data for Development Festival for an informative learning and knowledge sharing session. The 12 winners of the second funding round, which focused around the themes of environment and leaving no one behind, are currently in the implementation phase of their projects.

Stay tuned for updates and progress stories from previous rounds as we continue to foster the collaborative data innovation community.