IOM Innovation Facility: Fostering Transformative Solutions

The IOM Innovation Facility is a dynamic platform that supports novel and transformative initiatives on migration. By offering seed funding, building innovation capacities, and nurturing an innovation ecosystem, it enables the creation and expansion of impactful and innovative projects. The Facility’s approach centers on fostering partnerships and collaboration with a wide range of stakeholders, ensuring that innovative ideas can be effectively piloted and scaled to drive system-wide solutions.

Strategic Objectives

• The Facility aims to expedite the achievement of the IOM Strategic Plan 2024-2028 by supporting innovative solutions directly contributing to IOM’s three strategic objectives:
  • Saving Lives and Protecting People on the Move
  • Driving Solutions to Displacement
  • Facilitating Pathways for Regular Migration

Crosscutting Priorities

• Promoting Gender, Diversity and Youth Empowerment
  • The Facility will support projects that uphold and improve the dignity and human rights of all migrants by addressing unequal opportunities based on sex, gender, age, race, ethnicity, or disability. It will support initiatives that focus on dismantling attitudinal, environmental, and institutional barriers to equality. It will prioritize projects that ensure meaningful consultations and active participation from all sections of society, including youth, indigenous communities, and women, especially in the decision-making processes and project implementation.
• Leveraging Data and Technological Solutions
  • The Facility welcomes projects that leverage data-driven approaches and advanced digital solutions to enhance IOM’s anticipatory decision-making and response capabilities. It will support projects that develop and adopt new technologies to increase speed, efficiency, and scalability in migration and displacement responses. These could include projects that use big data, machine learning, and innovative methodologies to predict migration patterns, engage with diasporas, and enhance border management and promote seamless and safe cross-border movement. The Facility will also back initiatives that help states transition to digital identity systems and improve access to services for migrants while ensuring privacy and data security.
• Environment Sustainability
  • The Facility will support projects that demonstrate a clear impact in key areas, including the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, waste, and water consumption. The Facility encourages innovative solutions that support the clean energy transition, enhance waste and water management, and improve circularity. Innovations could also address air and water pollution, contribute to environmental degradation prevention, and promote biodiversity conservation. In addition, solutions that integrate innovative finance mechanisms to drive the sustainability transition and align with IOM’s commitment to ambitious environmental governance and management systems will be prioritized.
• Ways of Working in IOM
  • The Facility will support projects that enhance IOM’s organizational efficiency by streamlining internal processes and improving culture and ways of working.  It will support projects that improve accessibility and user experience of IOM’s tools and processes while ensuring IOM’s compliance standards and robust risk management needs are met. It will prioritize initiatives that leverage data, secure digital technologies and digitized information. It also includes initiatives that implement advanced security strategies, preventing fraud, corruption, and misuse of resources, thus safeguarding staff and assets.

Benefits

• The IOM Innovation Facility offers an ecosystem of services through the Innovation and Knowledge Management unit to maximize development impact of every selected project. This includes:
  • Capacity Development
    • Developing innovation capacity of teams through tailored coaching and innovation learning programmes like INCKED @ IOM – Innovation Capacity and Knowledge Development Initiative
  • Networking
    • Providing access to innovation experts, in migration, systems thinking, design thinking, futures thinking, scaling, etc.
  • Technical Support
    • Assisting in project management, monitoring, and evaluation of your innovation projects
  • Knowledge Exchange
    • Providing avenues for your team to share your project results, good practices, and lessons learned (avenues like Peer Exchange and Learning on Migration platform (POEM), Talking Migration podcast, KONNECT webinar series, and the Knowledge Fair).
  • Recognition
    • Recognizing innovation champions and projects through Innovation awards and Impact awards.

Funding Information

• Innovation projects selected through the Facility can receive funding between USD 50,000 and USD 80,000. Maximum duration for each project is 12 months.

Eligibility Criteria

• All Member States, non-IOM Member States, migrants and their communities are beneficiaries of the Facility. Applications for funding can only be submitted by IOM Offices, or by IOM Headquarters’ departments, in coordination with the relevant Country and Regional Offices.

For more information, visit International Organization for Migration.