Call For Proposals: CDRI Fellowship Programme

The Fellowship provides financial support, peer learning and capacity development opportunities to promote transformative, actionable and scalable solutions for real world issues related to disaster resilience of infrastructure. The Fellowship Programme is designed to create a global multi-disciplinary pool of future-ready professionals and practitioners who will help shape resilient infrastructure systems to prepare for a growingly uncertain future.

Themes

• Proposals are invited for any one of the themes mentioned below:
  • Wildfires: Wildfires are intensifying in frequency and severity due to climate change, creating significant hazards across diverse geographies such as densely forested areas in North America, Australia, the Mediterranean and subtropical grasslands in Africa and Asia. As wildfires spread, they pose critical challenges for infrastructure resilience, including threats to power grids, transportation networks, water systems and public health infrastructure.
  • Coastal Resilience: Coastal regions are vulnerable to a wide range of marine geo-hazards and threats from climate change induced sea-level rise and extreme weather events. Developing resilient coastal infrastructure is crucial for safeguarding both urban and rural communities, especially in small islands, delta regions and coastal cities.
  • Extreme Heat: Human-induced climate change and the consequent, irreversible warming of the planet is exacerbating extreme heat conditions across the world. Building resilience in critical infrastructure sectors to extreme heat events is imperative for the health and wellbeing of communities and sustained economic growth. This will require investments in infrastructure upgrades, improved heat-related risk assessments, and enhanced emergency response plans. Innovative cooling technologies, efficient energy management, and urban planning solutions.
  • Any other theme of the applicant’s choice provided it focuses on disaster resilience of infrastructure. Applicants may reach out to them with project abstracts for feedback prior to initiating the online application. Only a limited number suggested themes will be considered.

Fellowship Approaches

• Project proposals may adopt the following approaches to address the chosen theme:
  • Application of technology and earth sciences data for risk assessment, modelling, mapping, real-time monitoring and early detection
  • Advanced infrastructure solutions such as fire-resistant and sea-water corrosion resistant materials
  • Infrastructure governance issues related to policies, legislations, codes and standards, and training needs
  • Nature-based Infrastructure Solutions (NbIS)
  • Development of early warning systems
  • Embedding resilience in critical infrastructure (e.g., ports, seawalls, storm water management systems, energy grids, telecommunications, etc.) and social infrastructure (e.g., school and hospitals).
  • Impact of hazards on infrastructure and mitigation strategies for recovery, reconstruction and resilience-planning
  • Resilience of community infrastructure (e.g., community centers, shelters, parks, etc.) through strengthened local governance and indigenous disaster risk reduction practices which are inclusive towards women, children, differently abled persons and marginalized communities

Funding Information

• Grant Amount: US$15,000 + Additional funding of US$5000
• Up to 4 teams, based on project performance, technical expert recommendations and internal review at secretariat. The aim is to create a competitive cohort and encourage well-performing teams to take their solution to the next level of development/implementation.
• Duration: 12 months + 6 months (for the teams selected for additional funding)

Eligibility Criteria

• CDRI Fellowship is open to all nationals/citizens/passport-holders/permanent residents of CDRI Member Countries. With regard to applications from countries that are not part of CDRI currently, they encourage collaboration with a research/project team from CDRI Member Countries.
• Applicants can be students, scholars, faculty, or researchers from academic institutes; practitioners from government agencies, service agencies, non-governmental organizations, private organizations, and community workers.
• An applicant can be part of up to two research proposals under the CDRI Fellowship Programme at any given time.
• Educational qualification or professional experience is no bar. However, after selection, the applicant(s) will have to submit a ‘Letter of Endorsement’ from a recognized academic or research institute/government organization.

Selection Criteria

• Criticality and relevance of the proposed solution for improving climate and disaster resilience of critical infrastructure
• Novelty of the proposed approach, methodology and solution
• Feasibility of implementation of the solution in real-world context
• Replicability/scalability of the proposed solution or product
• The overall impact of the proposed solution
• The proposals will go through a rigorous multi-tiered selection process including double-blind peer review. The final decision will be taken by the Fellowship’s International Jury.

Application Requirements

• The following documents are mandatory for your application/proposal to be considered:
  • Photograph (of each member of the proposed team)
  • Passport/National Identity Proof (of each member of the proposed team)
  • Curriculum Vitae/Resume (of each member of the proposed team)
  • Educational Qualification document/proof (of each member of the proposed team)
  • Address proof (of each member of the proposed team)
  • Undertaking by each member of the proposed team for the Fellowship (per the prescribed template)
  • Letter of Endorsement (per prescribed template)

For more information, visit CDRI.