About the program

Team VipiCash at the Innovation Norway and UN Women hackathon in 2017. Photo: Innovation Norway — Team VipiCash at the Innovation Norway and UN Women hackathon in 2017.Photo: Innovation Norway

The Humanitarian Innovation Program grants funding and support to develop, test and scale new solutions that can contribute to a better and more efficient humanitarian assistance. The program facilitates collaboration with private sector in innovation processes. A call for proposals is published annually on this page. The next call will open in the end of May 2020.

We support innovation projects led by humanitarian organisations where the expertise and technical know-how from the private sector is applied to find solutions to humanitarian challenges. The program supports both early stage innovation (Innovation Lab) and scaling and diffusion of solutions that have proven to be successful at the pilot stage (Scaling and Diffusion Program). Read more about the projects that have received funding here.

The Humanitarian Innovation Program is a grant and support mechanism, fully financed by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and administered by Innovation Norway.

Learn more about the projects we support

Who can apply?

UN agencies with a humanitarian mandate
Norwegian humanitarian organisations with an international mandate

The grant scheme aims to mobilise humanitarian-private partnerships. The humanitarian organisation/agency is the applicant and receiver of the grant.

What are we looking for?
The Humanitarian Innovation program is looking for bold ideas that seek to improve resilience against natural disasters or improve humanitarian response in crises and conflict, specifically projects addressing issues related to

Protection: Humanitarian organisations’ efforts that contribute to protecting people from violence, abuse and violation of international law due to humanitarian crises. Applications focusing on protection from sexual and gender-based violence are encouraged.
Green humanitarian response: Humanitarian organisations’ efforts that contribute to more sustainable and more environmentally friendly solutions within humanitarian aid.
Cash transfer programming: Humanitarian organisations’ efforts to provide direct distribution of money rather than traditional relief items to people affected by crises.

NOK 30 million was allocated to innovation and scaling projects in 2019.

Applications for Innovation Lab projects may range from NOK 4-6 million (or up to NOK 8 million for multiagency projects with 3 or more agency partners)
Applications for Scaling & Diffusion projects may range from NOK 2-9 million.
The total funding allocated for each program is subject to applications received.

A call for proposals is published annually. The next call will be published on this website in the end of May 2020. See criteria below. These may be subject to small changes.

Innovative:The projects shall aim for transformational impact bettering the lives of people affected by humanitarian crises, develop more sustainable solutions and/or contribute to more cost-efficient utilization of humanitarian funds. Projects aiming for radical innovation will be prioritised.

Humanitarian-private partnerships: The projects shall define how private sector is contributing (or will contribute) to the innovation project.

Target group: The projects shall impact people affected by crises/disasters. The applicant must describe expected involvement of affected population in the innovation process and how they may be impacted by the outcome.

Scalable solutions: The projects shall aim for scaling, which refers to the process of replicating and/or adapting an innovation across large populations and geographies for transformational impact.

Anchoring in the organisation: The projects must ensure leadership commitment and sufficient resource allocation.

Sustainability: The projects will be considered across the three dimensions of sustainability: social, environmental and economic effect, as well as handling of risks related to cross cutting issues; including human rights, gender equality, anti-corruption, climate and environment.

Humanitarian principles: The projects shall be conducted in accordance with the humanitarian principles; humanity, neutrality, impartiality and independency.

Knowledge transfer: The projects must include activities for the sharing of knowledge with other organisations that engage in humanitarian response to ensure broader learning outcomes for the sector.

Sourcing of products and solutions: The projects must ensure an open innovation process and a transparent and competitive procurement.

The Innovation Lab supports early stage innovation projects. The funding is milestone based, with 30% of the total grant going towards the process of reaching a humanitarian-private partnership and the remaining 70% towards the development and piloting of an innovative solution.

Process and milestones

Milestones shall cover:

Map the need of beneficiaries: gaining a true understanding of the humanitarian challenge the project is approaching, including beneficiary engagement
Market dialogue: an open dialogue with innovators and companies for inputs and discussions on approach and technology
Define function and purpose of the innovation: an open, innovative and competitive process / procurement should ask for function rather than feature. It should be open enough to allow for new and potentially unknown solutions to the problem at hand.
Development / procurement: a formal process resulting in a development partnership with a private partner or procurement of an innovation / new solution

Financing and project costs
Applications for Innovation Lab projects may range from 4-6 mill NOK (or up to 8 mill NOK for multiagency projects with 3 or more agency partners)
The grant can cover up to 100% of approved project costs. Disbursement of the grant for phase 1 (30%) will take place upon receival of signed acceptance letter and request for disbursement. Disbursement of the grant for phase 2 (70%) will take place when an open, innovative and competitive process / procurement has been officially announced and a formal commitment to enter a partnership has been made.

Project costs that can be included are:

Purchasing of defined deliverables from private sector engagement, including material and technology investment in prototypes for piloting purposes
Up to 30% of total innovation project costs for personnel dedicated to the project (included externals / consultants)
Other expenses related to doing needs assessment, market dialogue and field testing, e.g. travel cost and training
Indirect administration costs of up to 7% of total project costs

Project length
Maximum project length is two years from the agreement letter has been signed.

Reporting
All grant recipients are required to present to Innovation Norway a brief report on how the funds have been spent and the results of the project within two months after the project is completed. The report should also present a brief executive summary of the project.

The grant recipient is responsible for monitoring and review of the project, including an evaluation of the solutions and the results, in line with the organisation’s results framework methodology.

The Scaling and Diffusion Program supports the first uptake and scaling of solutions that have been successfully piloted / reached proof of concept in the field.

Scaling processes vary, depending on the context of diffusion, and applications should identify potential route(s) to scale that will be explored in the project.

Financing: Matching with private capital
Applications for Scaling and Diffusion projects may range from NOK 2-9 million. The funding granted from The Humanitarian Innovation Program must be matched 1-1 with private capital. The private capital can come from sources such as investment funds, philanthropic funding, shareholders within the private company partner(s), loans and guarantees etc.

The objective of private-public matching of funding in the scaling program is to increase overall funding to innovation and test innovative financing mechanisms within the humanitarian sector.

The grant and match funding shall cover costs related to diffusion and scaling of the solutions, including procurement and/or implementation of the solution, as well as testing of route(s) to scale in search of a viable and sustainable scaling model.

Project costs
Project costs that can be included in the grant received by the humanitarian organisation:

Purchasing the innovative solution
Costs related to implementation and diffusion (such as travel costs, capacity building in the field - max 30% of total project cost)
Administrative costs, maximum 7% of the total grant

Other mandatory attachments to the application

Scaling and diffusion plan
The applications should define potential route(s) to scale that will be explored during the project period.

The scaling plan should also include

Value creation model(s) that will be tested, in search of long-term sustainability of the solution, such as; a business model, livelihood, circular economy or other
Budget
Identification of risk and risk management e.g. relevant regulatives, other barriers to scale

Partnership agreement
A partnership agreement between the humanitarian organisation and private companies must be signed and attached to the application. The agreement should include relevant information such as distribution of IPR, costs and income.

Project length
Maximum project length is two years from the agreement letter has been signed.

The grant recipient is responsible for monitoring and review of the project, including an evaluation of the solutions and the results, in line with the organisation’s results framework methodology.

About the program

Learn more about the projects we support

Frequently Asked Questions