Governmental agencies, NGOs, private sector (including start-ups), academia, UN, and intergovernmental organizations are eligible to apply. Individuals are not eligible.  

    Project proposals must be implemented in and benefit stakeholders in developing countries but may be submitted by applicants in either developing or developed countries.

    Applications may be submitted online at (link) until 9 May 2021, 23:59 Central European Time.

    The application fields request information on co-financing but this is not mandatory nor is the amount/ratio of co-finance a selection criterion; OIC applicants may include start-ups which understandably may have limited initial financial resources. 

    Yes, for the second call for proposals, they need to be linked to sustainable fisheries. In general, only applications that address the theme specified in the call for proposals will be considered.

    The core eligibility criteria for the OIC include the following: 

    1. Eligible entity – these include governments, NGOs, private sector, academia, UN, and intergovernmental organizations. Individuals are not eligible (pass/fail criterion) 

    1. Technically feasible – is the project feasible technically and otherwise (politically, financially, etc.)? 

    1. Is the idea truly new and innovative? This can be achieved in either of two contexts: a. truly innovative, not attempted anywhere before, or b. bringing existing proven innovations from elsewhere to completely new geographies and contexts. 

    1. Is the project easily replicable and scalable, e.g., there do not appear to be significant barriers to replication and upscaling of the innovation once demonstrated and the proponent has a clear strategy for replication and upscaling?

    1. Is the project potentially transformational, e.g., could its replication and upscaling transform a relevant ocean (or land-based) sector leading towards significant contributions to improving ocean health? 

    1. Does the idea create the potential/likelihood to contribute to poverty reduction, gender equity and/or livelihoods creation, e.g., could the ultimate beneficiaries include the poor and women who depend on healthy ocean ecosystems for their livelihoods, food security, etc.? 

    1. Local/Country Ownership and Coordination - does the project have strong local and country ownership and buy-in, by government, civil society and other stakeholders as relevant, such as linkages to national and sub-national development, ocean and biodiversity plans and strategies? 

    1. Stakeholder Engagement - has the project identified the appropriate target stakeholder groups and has a clear strategy to engage such stakeholders?  

    1. Project Management - Do the project management arrangements appear appropriate and sufficient to effectively deliver the project outputs and outcomes? 

    Each criterion (2-9) will be evaluated by UNDP OIC Technical Review Committee using the following scoring system to arrive at a total score (equal weighting): 

    0 = no potential 

    1 = limited potential 

    2 = good potential 

    3 = high potential 

     

    If you are unable to find the confirmation email and link to the application form, please continue reading below. 

    If you are just about to begin with the registration and application process, please add our email address (oic.info@undp.org) to your address book before proceeding, to ensure that you are able to receive email confirmations from us. 

    Some of the common possible reasons for this are slow internet connectivity and server traffic. Give the email some time to travel to your Inbox especially if you are accessing from an area with limited bandwidth. If you are unable to receive any email confirmation from us after an hour, please check the next instruction on 'whitelisting' below.

    The application system sends us an automated copy of all registrations and application submissions. From the inquiries and emails we have received so far regarding this issue, it appeared that the mail servers of their organizations have been blocking our email address.

    To confirm this, first, contact your system administrator. Please ask support in unblocking our email address (oic.info@undp.org) and also add our email address to your 'Safe senders list' or address book to make sure you will be able to receive upcoming updates and future communications from us.

    If you have already registered but could not find the link to the application form, please click here to proceed.

    We highly advise you to keep a copy of the filled-out application form in Word Document format until we have confirmed that your application has been successfully received without any issue until at least a week after the application deadline.

    Also do not hesitate to contact us directly, however, due to the high volume of emails we are receiving at the moment, we might not be able to respond in a very timely manner but we will do our best to reply within 24 hours.

    We will provide a daily confirmation to the indicated email addresses in the received applications starting 6 May and no later than 1800 Eastern Time and another final confirmation on 10 May, 16:00 CET.

     

    In this section we would like you to describe the management arrangements – specifically, how will the implementation of the innovation be managed? Who will have oversight and be responsible to ensure that the technical application and OIC reporting requirements are met? If the innovation is to be implemented in more than one country, who will be responsible in each country for the implementation? Or, if there are several organizations collaborating, what are the accountability and reporting lines?

    Following the above assessment process and depending on available OIC financial resources, a limited number of the highest scoring projects will be invited to submit full proposals addressing each of the criteria in more detail.  These full proposals will need to be accompanied by additional detail about the proposed innovation and implementation approach. Additional documentation includes organization legal status verification; quarterly workplan and itemized budget; results framework; risk register; financial statement; organization capacity assessments; and social and environmental safeguards screening. In addition, a full management review and external expert peer review will be conducted for all short-listed full proposals before proceeding to the final stage of submission of selected finalists to the UNDP Advisory Committee on Procurement. Please note that an invitation to submit a short-listed proposal does not imply acceptance and funding of that proposal.

    Costs of proposal preparation cannot be charged to the OIC.

    Eligible items include project staff costs, consultant fees, travel, equipment, communications, publications/other media, meetings, training, audits.  All payments are made on deliverables, not in advance.

    Overhead costs, such as those associated with academic research, are not eligible for OIC support.

     

    According to UNDP rules, the formal template can only be provided at the full proposal stage. In summary, among other requirements in the detailed proposal, a standard itemized line-item budget broken down by quarters of implementation to cover all expenditures covered by the OIC funds will be required. For short-listed proponents unfamiliar with UNDP practices, guidance will be provided.

     

    The OIC Team understands that innovators may not have substantial resources available to fund large-scale investments. If that is the case, for pre-approved costs over $5000, UNDP can advance the payments based only on the very strict procurement rules of UNDP. These costs must be clearly identified and approved in the final detailed proposal selection process.

    For successful proposals, once the contract is signed within the first month, an Inception Meeting is held to discuss detailed monthly workplans, risk registers, and social and environmental commitment plans. The first quarter payment is released based on the acceptance of the Minutes of that Meeting. Payments are made on a quarterly basis thereafter based on deliverables.

     

    Each concept proposal is evaluated based on its own merit.  Regardless of the origin of the concept proposal, only those that score highest by the evaluation panel will be advanced to the next level and invited to submit a full proposal. There is no formal rule regarding the number of submissions allowed from a single organization. However, it is recommended that if an organization submits multiple proposals, these should come from different sections or departments of the organization.

     

    UNDP anticipates announcement of its 2021 Ocean Innovators in late 2021. 

    Please note that only submitted innovations invited to submit a full proposal will be contacted. Visit the UNDP Ocean Innovation Challenge website and social media, and subscribe to the OIC Quarterly Newsletter for the latest updates and announcements.

    You may resubmit your modified application up until the 9 May 2021 deadline. After that date all applications will be considered final and only the most recent application will be considered.

    All applicant entities (private, NGO, etc.) should have an established legal basis in the country/ies in which they are based.  

    You may contact us by email (oic.info@undp.org) for any problems or questions.