The GSM Association (GSMA) is inviting applications from start-ups, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and social enterprises for its new climate action innovation fund.
The GSMA Innovation Fund for Climate Resilience and Adaptation 2.0 was announced at the recent Mobile World Congress 2023 event in Barcelona, with support from the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida).
According to a statement, the latest fund builds on the telecoms industry body’s previous innovation fund launched at COP26, seeking solutions that use digital technology, especially mobile, to improve resilience and adaptation to climate change.
It will test use cases, partnerships and business models in order to improve the sustainability and scalability of digitally-enabled solutions that make a positive impact on low-income populations and those who are most vulnerable to current or future climate risks.
While selecting the final cohort, a higher priority will be given to applications focusing on nature-based solutions, solutions for sustainable consumption and production, and projects that can demonstrate focus on supporting female users, says the statement.
Successful projects will receive grant funding of between £100 000 to £250 000 (R2.2 million to R5.6 million), with a match funding requirement, to for-profit small and growing enterprises, including start-ups.
Max Cuvellier, head of mobile for development at GSMA, states: “With this fund, we want to put an even stronger focus on supporting local teams and female-led organisations, as well as relatively nascent innovations in underfunded areas, such as regenerative agriculture, forestry, fisheries, coastal and wetland ecosystems, or food and waste value chains, while taking into account the need to strengthen biodiversity.”
In addition to grant funding, selected organisations will receive tailored technical assistance, learning exchange and networking opportunities, and facilitation of relationships with mobile operators, public sector organisations and investors.
“Mobile and other digital technologies can help create a more resilient future, where communities not only survive climate shocks, but thrive in spite of them,” notes professor Charlotte Watts, CMG FMedSci, chief scientific advisor and director for research and evidence, FCDO.
Maria van Berlekom, unit head for global cooperation on environment at Sida, adds: “There is strong evidence that mobile and digital technologies can support the resilience of people in poverty to meet the repeated shocks caused by climate change.
“From the first round of the GSMA Innovation Fund, we have seen innovative mobile solutions that strengthen the financial capacity of farmers and help them increase the productivity, with prospects of scaling up their businesses successfully.
“In this second round of the innovation fund, there is an increased emphasis on nature-based solutions and biodiversity which is crucial to strengthen climate resilience. Sida therefore finds this new round of innovation fund for climate resilience by our partner, GSMA, to be very relevant.”
The fund is accepting applicants with projects in Africa, South and South East Asia, Pacific Islands, the Caribbean and selected countries in Latin America and Eastern Europe.
Interested applicants must submit their pitches by 16 May. To apply, click here.
Alternatively, nominations of a suitable start-up, SME or social enterprise can be submitted here. The deadline for nominations is 18 April.
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