Geneva Science-Policy Interface Call for Projects | Deadline 31 January 2021

The Geneva ecosystem gathers a rich variety of International Organizations, NGOs, foundations, networks, academic institutions and private sector actors that, together, have the potential to design impactful solutions to some of the most complex challenges of the 21st century. The Geneva Science-Policy Interface supports this work by facilitating opportunities for collaboration and partnership between Geneva-based international policy actors and scientific institutions in Switzerland and beyond.

Participate to the Impact Collaboration Program (ICP) providing seed funding and in-kind support to build and boost science-policy partnerships so that they can create a foundation of trust, aligned interests and cooperation to deliver real impact. The 2021 annual theme, ‘Bridging science and policy to foster systemic resilience’, dedicates attention to how science, policy and implementation actors can leverage their respective contribution to effective policy-making under uncertainty and complexity with the aim to foster the overall resilience of systems to rapid changes, shocks and crisis.

The selected laureates can obtain a maximum of 40,000 CHF per project (120,000 CHF total for projects selected in 2021) and in-kind support as needed.

The call supports projects that stem from collaborations that involve at least one actor from an academic institution (no geographical limitation), and one actor from the International Geneva ecosystem carrying policy work or implementation work (e.g. international organisations, programmes, funds, NGOs). The ICP supports collaborative projects which explicitly bridge science, policy and/or implementation both in terms of aims and actors involved.

The deadline for pre-proposals has been extended to 31 January 2021.

In 2019 and 2020, various ICP laureate projects were related to environment and sustainability:

• MArine Plankton diversity bioindicator scenarios for policy MAKERs (MAPMAKER) by ETHZ and the IUCN.
• Reliable Data for Evidence-Based Housing Policies (REDEHOPE) by the University of Geneva and the UNECE.
• Supporting Multilateral Environmental Agreements on Chemicals and Waste with Scientific Evidence by ETHZ and the Secretariat of the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions.
• Establishing a Consortium for “Public Good” Data on the Politics of Energy Transition by IISD, ETHZ, the University of Stellenbosch, India Institute of Management Ahmedabad, Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (Indonesia), Johns Hopkins University and The Policy Practice.
• At risk: Understanding contemporary environmental civil society challenges by the University of Geneva, Institute of Environmental Sciences.