Applications open for Africa Impact Seed Fund

The main objective of the grant is to cultivate more curious, informed, empathetic communities on the underreported issues of Oceans and Climate change. Ultimately it aims to inspire change of perspectives, narratives, and actions amongst the communities. The Africa ISF will provide micro-scale grants to:

• Initiate new collaborations or develop existing collaborations among teachers, researchers, students, and journalists;
• Increase engagement between education communities, journalists, and local communities;
• Stimulate the use of creative visuals (e.g., comics, animated videos, photos, short videos, documentary, podcasts), data visuals and information from the reportages in teaching materials, student activities, curriculum and class materials, or scientific publications;
• Stimulate the introduction and promotion of DEI friendly tools in teaching materials, student activities, curriculum and scientific publications. (DEI = Diversity, Equity and Inclusion). Gender equality and Handicap issues among young students to be prioritized.
• Facilitate the adoption of featured findings in the reportages to relevant research and other scientific products.

Themes

• Rainforests: Deforestation, Protection, Peatland, Illegal logging, Oceans: Fisheries, Deep sea mining, Ocean science, Shipping and Climate change impacts, Transparency and Governance
• Climate & Labor: Energy transition, Climate impact on the job landscape, Labor Rights

Funding Information

• Climate & Labor: USD $2,000 to $3,000.
• Rainforest: USD $2000 to $4,000.
• The maximum duration of the proposed collaboration is four months.

Eligible Activities

• Student Engagement:
  • Insertion in teaching materials, on-campus debates, social issues hackathons, student-led debates and dialogues
  • Visuals production and dissemination (short videos, documentary, podcast, content);
  • On-campus mini exhibition
  • Journalism workshop for student press clubs
• Mobility/local Community Engagement: Knowledge exchange activities, student visits, biodiversity expeditions, citizen journalism
• Support for Research Activities: Data adoption to improve ongoing research accuracy, insertion of data or knowledge in a book chapter

Eligibility Criteria

• Applicants must be lecturers or researchers, k12 teachers, student groups based in Africa.

Application Requirements

• An overview of the proposed project in no more than 400 words. This must include the objectives, proposed activities, intended impact, rationale of the proposed project,
• Target audience & projection of total audience, strategy,
• Detailed timeframe,
• A preliminary budget estimate, including a basic breakdown of costs,
• If the proposed activities include knowledge exchange activities with forest communities, a statement by a member of the community showing a consent by them must be presented. This can be in the form of a message or letter,
• If the activities include content production, you must include a concept note explaining how you would produce it and outputs that you are aiming at,
• A copy of a curriculum vitae, including three professional references (heads of departments or leads in your workplace must be included). The references should be in the form of letters of recommendation.

For more information, visit Pulitzer Center.