The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Innovation Service Refugee-led Innovation Fund 2023 is now accepting applications. All displaced and stateless persons are encouraged to express their ideas under the refugee-led Innovation Fund. By making sure individuals are at the center of decisions that touch their lives, taking the lead in identifying needs and coming up with creative solutions, it seeks to restructure their involvement in the delivery of humanitarian work.
About United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is a global organization dedicated to saving lives, protecting rights and building a better future for refugees, forcibly displaced communities and stateless people.
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Refugee-Led Innovation Fund
Aim and Benefits of Refugee-Led Innovation Fund
The Fund offers refugee-led groups comprehensive support, combining funding, mentoring, and other skills, to empower them to develop and implement novel solutions that will benefit their communities in the long run.
Those organizations chosen can anticipate the following support:
- Financial assistance: Groups can apply for up to $45,000 USD in financing to test and put into practice concepts with strong community-based methods that benefit the community at large and are not primarily related to any one technology or thematic area.
- Support for program and project management: Grantees will receive assistance from UNHCR and specialists to help them develop their capacity to plan and carry out programs successfully.
- Technical assistance, knowledge, and coaching: On a variety of subjects, including technology, legal assistance, and innovative techniques, needs-based expert advice will be provided.
- Peer-to-peer networking: Supported organizations are urged to interact with one another, share knowledge, inspire one another, and consider collaborations.
- Other support based on project needs could include media and communications support, organizational support, assistance with project sustainability and scale, training on particular subjects, business model guidance, and other forms of assistance.
Requirements for Refugee-Led Innovation Fund Qualification
- Only groups run by individuals with firsthand knowledge of forced relocation are eligible to apply. This comprises stateless individuals, internal migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers. Both registered and unregistered organizations may submit applications.
- A team application is required from applicants, typically as a member of an established organization.
- Projects that have received funding during previous rounds of the Refugee-led Innovation Fund are not eligible to receive additional funding to continue implementing existing initiatives.
- As the Fund is trying to promote novel ideas proposed by refugee-led organizations to test innovative approaches. However, recipient organizations are invited to apply if they have a fresh concept or proposal.
Application Deadline
June 30, 2023
How to Apply
Interested and qualified? Go to
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) on forms.office.com to apply
There is a two-stage selection process for applications.
- Organizations are requested to submit a brief expression of interest by June 30, 2023, at 23:59 CET for the first stage. In this expression of interest, the detected problem and suggested remedy will be briefly described. After reviewing these applications, the Innovation Service will create a shortlist of contenders.
- Organizations who have been shortlisted for the second round will have an additional three weeks to submit a complete application. To create and submit these comprehensive applications, they will get assistance from the UNHCR national offices and the Innovation Service.
For more details, visit UNHCR website.
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