WE4F hopes to expand the scale of innovations that impact the sectors food and water, food and energy or all three sectors of the nexus (food, water, energy) to increase the sustainability of agricultural food value chains, improving energy and water efficiency as well as to improve climate-resilient agriculture in developing countries and emerging markets, with a particular focus on the poor and women.
To achieve this goal, the effort must include partners from the private sector, NGOs, other research institutions, and other donors who share the common goal of increasing food production through sustainable water and energy usage. A key consideration of this effort is to ensure that feedback loops are created that integrate local conditions and new knowledge into both national and international policy and decision-making as integrate capacity development, knowledge management and the use of investment capital in a synergistic way to create an enabling environment in countries throughout the region.
We are looking for innovators who intend to expand their businesses or organizations commercially, using a for-profit business model and the addition of outside investment capital, and which will utilize WE4F grant funding as a catalyst attract investors, commercial value chain participants and other relevant partners to help expand to wide-scale adoption of an innovation and attract private capital. If you have a commercially proven product, service or business model that you would pitch to an investor for debt or equity investment, we want you to apply to WE4F. If you have a great idea for a development project but no track record of successful sales, WE4F is probably not the right vehicle for you.
Target Groups of the WE4F Grand Challenge
WE4F works with entrepreneurship and innovation through the following actors:
- Innovators with demonstrated potential for financially sustainable scaling that have previously received support and proved successful in the go-to-market phase from either the Securing Water for Food or Powering Agriculture Grand Challenges (for a detailed description of the selection criteria see Terms of Reference of the regional innovation hubs on the WE4F website).
- Private, for-profit companies or teams or groups within non-profits or universities which maintain their own budget and are responsible for generating revenue that have as the primary or a major part of their business model an innovative product or service that addresses the nexus of water-energy-food. These organizations can apply through the Calls for Innovation.
- Other actors that are identified on a case-by-case basis by the Regional Innovation Hub and which fit the criteria of WE4F and are crucial for the scaling of impacts.
Through our support for innovations, WE4F expects to target poor men and women smallholder farmers and others working in all parts of the agriculture value chain. Specifically, our interventions will help companies and organizations providing nexus-relevant products and services to reach women and the poor as commercial customers, equipping them with the means to achieve greater earnings and social mobility.
Goal and Focus Areas
WE4F aims to:
- Increase food production along the value chain through a more sustainable and efficient usage of water and/or energy.
- Increase income for ‘Base of the Pyramid’ (BOP) women and men in both rural and urban areas.
- Provide companies and organizations the technical assistance and capital they need to scale solutions to meet the challenges in the WE4F nexus.
- Promote climate and environmental resilience and biodiversity through the sustainable, holistic management of natural resources and ecosystems.
Thematic Areas in Which Innovation Is Needed
The WE4F Founding Partners have identified priority thematic areas in which innovation is urgently needed as mentioned below. Innovations supported by Water and Energy for Food could include but are NOT limited to the themes mentioned below:
- THEME 1: Innovations in food production to reduce water usage
- THEME 2: Efficient use of water resources for food production
- THEME 3: Sustainable use of energy and water on farms
- THEME 4: Energy innovations for food processing, and/or logistics
- THEME 5: Food production with efficient energy use
- THEME 6: Leveraging food waste for energy
Value: $25,000.00 to $500,000.00
Opens
Nov 3 2020 12:00 AM (EST)
Deadline
Dec 15 2020 05:00 AM (EST)
Retrieved on 18 November 2020 at https://innovations.smapply.io/prog/we4f_sse_asia_rih_call_for_innovations_2020/