About the Programme

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 with a high degree of innovation will be prioritised.

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

Direct impact for beneficiaries: The projects shall impact people affected by crises/disasters. The applicant must describe expected involvement of affected people 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.

Leadership commitment: 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.

Project length: Maximum project length is two years from the grant 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.

Project steering groups: In order to lessen the burden of reporting, provide support and ensure progress in the projects, Innovation Norway will take part in project steering group meetings on a regular basis.

Surveys: Surveys are conducted on a regular basis to evaluate Innovation Norway. The grant recipient is expected to answer any such survey initiated by Innovation Norway or by any Norwegian Ministry.

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

Process and milestones

Milestones shall cover:

• Needs assessment: 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: is there already a suitable solution in the market? Or is there a need to develop something new?
• 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 or as stipulated in the Framework Agreement between the grant recipient and the Government of Norway.

The Scaling Programme supports scaling of solutions that have been successfully piloted / reached proof of concept in at least one humanitarian setting. 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 projects may range from NOK 2-10 million. The funding granted from The Humanitarian Innovation Programme must be matched 1-1 with private capital. The private capital can come from sources such as private investment funds, philanthropic funding, shareholders within the private company partner(s), loans and guarantees etc.

The objective of public-private matching of funds 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 , or as defined in the framework agreement with the Government of Norway.

Other mandatory attachments to the application

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

The scaling strategy 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 models, 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 one or more private companies must be signed and attached to the application. The agreement should include relevant information such as distribution of IPR, costs and income.