Deadline Date: May 22, 2026
The Innovation Challenge is inviting grant applications to support locally led innovations that strengthen resilience, protect ecosystems, and create sustainable opportunities for communities across the Global South.
The programme focuses on thematic areas including agriculture, nutrition and food security; cities and urban resilience; disaster risk reduction; and information and technology, with an emphasis on developing transformative solutions that respond to interconnected global risks such as climate change, pandemics, extreme weather events, financial crises, conflict, and food system shocks.
The initiative is designed to support bold and adaptive innovations that are locally grounded and capable of evolving in response to complex and changing risk environments. It prioritises solutions that promote resilience, safeguard ecosystems, and generate sustainable economic opportunities, particularly for communities facing multiple and compounding vulnerabilities.
The programme includes three thematic challenges: the Resilient Agriculture Innovations for Nature (RAIN) Rural Challenge, which focuses on nature-positive agricultural solutions that improve ecological and livelihood outcomes; the Resilience Innovation in Informality through Scaling Entrepreneurship (RISE) Urban Challenge, which supports grassroots, start-up, and social enterprise solutions addressing informal urban settings; and the Technology for Evolving Challenges in Humanitarian Contexts (TECH)4Resilience Challenge, which promotes the use of artificial intelligence to enhance humanitarian preparedness and response systems.
Funding is awarded to selected winners, who receive up to US$50,000 for 12 months of implementation in 2027, with results to be announced at COP31. The programme encourages participation from both non-profit and for-profit organisations, including entrepreneurs and innovators with proven or potential capacity to implement resilience solutions.
Eligible applicants must be based in countries eligible for Official Development Assistance as defined by OECD-DAC, and must demonstrate inclusion of gender, equity, and human rights considerations, along with a commitment to ensuring no harm to communities or the environment. The programme strongly encourages participation from organisations working with women and youth, ensuring they represent more than half of the populations supported.
For more information, visit Global Resilience Partnership.
