Application guidelines

• The proposal must address the specific annual RISK Award topic.
• The proposed project must include an implementation part (action), a proposal solely based on research is not sufficient. 
  
• The risks must be related to climate change induced or natural hazards. 
  
• Risks due to social turmoil, war, chemical disasters, and/or political crises are not in our scope. 
  
• We appreciate ideas to involve people at risk (people centred approaches).
  
• We appreciate proposals which combine bottom-up approaches with top-down frameworks.
  
• We encourage project teams which are engaged in multi-stakeholder partnerships (different sectors, different sizes, different organisational background, PPPs).

• We will evaluate the proposals according to 5 indicators: 

1. Potential for impact 
2. Equity
3. Scalability
4. Viability and Sustainability
5. Institutional capacity

• Try to highlight how your project contributes to these 5 indicators and consider that when structuring your proposal text.
• Clearly define your target group and beneficiaries of the project.
• Clearly define the outputs, outcomes and impact which you aim to achieve with your project.

In July and in September we will offer short online courses on "How to write a RISK Award proposal". For further details and questions we invite you to join those sessions. The sessions are NOT mandatory for the application process.

• The award is endowed with 100,000 €. Hence, our project funding is limited to 100,000 €. However, we also understand that there are many initiatives that are larger. In this case, please write in your application what the volume of your overall project is and where the other required financial resources will come from.
• The overall budget of the project shall not exceed  1,000,000 €. Otherwise the contribution of the RISK Award is too little.
  
• The RISK Award contribution must have a visible impact within the project.
  
• If the whole budget is bigger than the RISK Award, it must be visible for what purpose the RISK Award will be used.
  
• The proposal should include a milestone planning and a rough budget plan explaining how the funding will be used.
  
• The budget of the proposed project can also be less than €100,000. However, it should not be less than €50,000.
  

• The timeline of the proposed project should be between 12 months and 2 years maximum. 
• Attachments must not exceed 20 additional pages. 
  
• The form must be completed in English.
  

• It is expected that the successful project will be carried out by a team of people who have complementary skills.
• It is perfectly legitimate to involve participants from partner institutions, but it is not advisable to form too large consortia for the purpose of submitting a proposal.
• Research institutions, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and non-profit organisations (NPOs) are especially encouraged to submit.
• The RISK Award mainly addresses projects in developing and emerging countries in the Global South. We therefore exclude projects that are positioned in high-income countries according to the World Bank classification. 
• The proposed projects must serve a non-profit or charitable purpose. For-profit initiatives are not eligible for selection.
  
• The RISK Award is given to institutions or organisations. Unfortunately, individuals cannot be considered.