The Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data (GPSDD) in partnership with the World Bank will invest up to $2.5m on ‘Collaborative Data Innovations for Sustainable Development’.

The new initiative seeks to improve availability and use of data under two themes: “Leave No One Behind” and the environment. These topics cover people with disabilities, those living outside traditional households (e.g. institutionalized populations, slum dwellers, the homeless and refugees) and issues related to climate change and urban resilience.

The Innovation Fund is supported by the World Bank’s Trust Fund for Statistical Capacity Building (TFSCB) with financing from the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development (DFID), the Government of Korea and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade of Ireland. DFID is the largest contributor to the TFSCB.

“We are seeking collaborations that shine a light on groups that have been historically left out by traditional surveys and other data gathering,” said Claire Melamed, Executive Director of the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data. “Exclusion takes on many forms, and in order to ‘Leave No One Behind’ we must invest in better data to make better decisions leading to better lives.”

Haishan Fu, Director, Development Data Group, The World Bank Group added “Many governments, companies, researchers and citizen groups are experimenting, innovating and adapting to the new world of data. But many others are excluded because of a lack of resources, knowledge, capacity or opportunity. This innovation fund targets priority issues in the countries that most need support”.

The Innovation Fund focus is on proposals to improve data production, dissemination, and use in low and lower-middle income countries, and on projects that bring together stakeholders to address concrete problems. To qualify for funding, projects must support action and decision making by having a specific end-user of the project’s outputs as part of their team.

Successful teams will be awarded amounts between $25,000 to $250,000 depending on whether the project is embryonic or ready to scale up. Funding will be disbursed by the World Bank’s TFSCB. The first round of funding for ‘Collaborative Data Innovations for Sustainable Development’ was launched in 2016 and funding for projects was announced in March 2017.

Proposals for this call must be received no later than 1 September 2017 and submitted via the online applications system.