Funding Opportunity Number: 7200AA18APS00003ADDENDUM
Issue Date: 04/11/2018
Deadline for Written Questions: 04/20/2018 at 5:00 p.m. EDT
Deadline for Submission: 05/11/2018 at 5:00 p.m. EDT

Through this Addendum to the FY 2018 Science, Technology, Innovation and Partnership (STIP) Annual Program Statement (APS) No. 7200AA18APS00003 (the STIP APS), USAID/Bureau for Food Security (BFS) is making a special call for the submission of Concept Notes focused on Strengthening Agricultural Innovation Capacities (SAIC). Please see the posting on Grants.gov for complete details.

To realize the full potential of agricultural innovation, USAID/BFS is soliciting Concept Notes that propose cutting-edge approaches to:

1. strengthen the capacity of relevant host-country organizations to act as “innovation brokers”—critical connectors in a network of actors that facilitate downstream and upstream partnerships to research, test, and scale new or improved technologies or practices;
2. conduct analysis and research on effective approaches and best practices for facilitating capacity development for agricultural innovation;
3. establish a self-sustaining community of practice to reduce transaction costs and promote best practices for strengthening agricultural innovation capacity across Feed the Future Innovation Labs and host-country partners, including universities, national and regional research institutes, private sector firms, extension organizations, and other relevant organizations; and
4. provide technical assistance on applying best practices for strengthening agricultural innovation capacity to USAID Missions and other Operating Units.

Eligibility: This Addendum is open to individual entities and consortia of entities in partnership. Consortia may be composed of any combination of public, private, for-profit, and nonprofit organizations, higher education institutions, public international organizations, non-governmental organizations, US and non-US governmental organizations, multilateral and international donor organizations. At least one entity (either in the prime or subprime role) must be a higher education institution (HEI) in the United States or a HEI from a low- or middle-income country (LMIC) where there is a USAID Mission.