Deadline: 20 March 2024
MUNIS (Modernizing Uzbekistan’s National Innovation System Project) is inviting applications for the Business Investments in R&D Program aimed at supporting commercialization projects from Research Organizations, Higher Education Institutions, and SMEs to be submitted by eligible applicants represented by individual researchers.
MUNIS is a unique development project implemented jointly by the World bank and the Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Innovations of the Republic of Uzbekistan, aiming at enabling the development of a market-oriented national innovation system in Uzbekistan. The project is provided 50 million US dollars to realize several research and innovation grant programs.
Objectives
- The BIRD program pursues the following objectives:
- Build and strengthen systemic partnerships between industry, research institutes, and universities for technology development and transfer to address systemic problems in manufacturing sectors.
- Stimulate SME’s investment activity in R&D and private research organizations of high-quality R&D.
- Contribute to collective efforts to develop new technologies in areas of national importance.
- Cooperate with leading international research centers and global businesses.
Funding Information
- Business Investments in R&D Program – has an allocation of US $10 million and will finance matching grants for sub-projects to (i) support later stages of research commercialization, (ii) R&D for SMEs, and (iii) early stages of knowledge-based startups.
- The general requirements for the BIRD program are:
- Grant amount: up to US $600,000
- Co-financing amount (mandatory): at least 25% of the grant amount in monetary form
- Implementation period: up to 24 months
Eligibility Criteria
- Grant recipient for BIRD grant funds can be a legal entity created after the grant is awarded in the Republic of Uzbekistan in the form of an LLC or an existing SME company registered in the Republic of Uzbekistan in the form of an LLC.
Proposals Selection
- Proposals must be submitted in 1) English and 2) Uzbek or Russian optionally. The selection process includes submission of proposals, formal compliance checks, external technological evaluation by the International Evaluation Platform, commercial evaluation and shortlisting of proposals by the International Expert Board, pitching session, and signing of protocol of winners by the International Expert Board that lead to the obligatory participation in the acceleration program for winners and signing of Grant Agreement.
For more information, visit The World Bank.
