IsDB Transform Fund:
4th Call for Innovation 2021 – Building Resilience through Innovation in response to the COVID-19 Pandemic
The COVID-19 global pandemic has been ongoing for over one year, resulting in loss and negative socioeconomic impact on Member Countries. Small businesses and poor communities have been hit the hardest and require additional attention. With lessons from the pandemic, we can now imagine and create innovative pathways to recovery for a more resilient and prosperous future, by generating more jobs and better health outcomes. Innovation can change the way affected communities interact and interface with the world to ease the challenges and restrictions caused by the pandemic. Hence it’s crucial to crowdsource and support innovative ideas and inventions that address important needs.
The IsDB has a longstanding commitment to harnessing the power of Science, Technology, and Innovation (STI) to help solve the global development challenges. Its US $500 million Transform Fund, launched in 2018, invests in testing early-stage innovative ideas and in scaling innovation by providing seed money for innovators, entrepreneurs, startups, SMEs, and institutions. IsDB provides the needed initial funding or growth capital to develop and commercialize innovations that will generate economic and social impact.
IsDB announceS the Transform Fund Call for Innovation 2021 will focus entirely on supporting our Member Countries response to recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic with the aim of building a stronger, more resilient, and prosperous future. Open for application submission from 1 April 2021 – 31 May 2021, the Call for Innovation will identify, encourage, and reward innovative, high impact proposals that support the SDG-2, SDG-3, SDG-4, SDG-6, SDG-7, SDG-9.
The categories of Application are: