When should I expect the funds closing is 1 June?
As stated in the RFP document: Projects can start earliest end of August/September, but ideally in October, when the cohort kickoff is taking place. The grant contract will be drafted in August (TBC), if a proposal is selected, further provisions regarding deliverables and payment schedules are made then.
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Will I be funded $1m or it will shared among many. What is the cretirea
Hi! The highest grants distributed to individual projects will be 100.000 $ (incl. overhead cost). The criteria are: proposal related to the scope of the fund (addressing critical ODI or the communities providing those), based in scientific methods and equipped with clear milestones and objectives (that are in line with the Funds mission), approach and financing volume adapted to the projects scope, relevant previous experiences in the field.
All proposals will be evaluated and shortlisted by an independent expert review board.
More info available in our RFP document: https://infrastructureinsights.fund/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/DIIF-RfP4.pdf
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Where can I find the direct link to the application form?
This is the direct link, you click the "respond" button: https://fordfoundation.forms.fm/2024-digital-infrastructure-insights-fund-rfp/forms/9861/responses/new
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Does Ford Foundation or this call have an indirect cost policy, or should institutions use their federally negotiated rates? If there is a restricted rate, can you also note the base (TC, TDC, MTDC)?
Hi! Since the DIIF is a pooled fund supplied by multiple Funders (we only use Fords Screendoor-platform for the application process), and operated by a fiscal host (currently OCF) none of the Funders respective guidelines apply here.
We don't request a detailed budget for application, but since the grants are 100k max. so rather small, and need to *contain in this sum* the overhead cost (no add ons), we recommend not more than 10% included overhead cost (which would be the overhead policy of our fiscal host that also applies to us).
We cater to an array of recipients, individuals, firms etc., many of them not affiliated with an Institution, that's why we have some flexibility factored in to the grant model (as some universities mandate a hefty overhead if its a grant).
We can structure the support as a gift, if needed, which is usually "taxed" with 13% overhead costs - if this is beneficial to the applicants and their organisation model.
Ideally, the majority of the fund goes towards the researchers: For instance, we won't allow 100 k grants for 6 months (if it's not a multi-researcher project) or if almost half of the budget goes towards overhead costs. I hope this is helpful information! As an addition: we handle disbursement and back office of the fund ourselves, institutions and/or researcher invoice the fiscal host, so there should be no additional workload for host institutions involved.
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