Information sessions 2022

A.    Small Grant Topics and Activities

Q: Is there any priority topic among the 3 topics?

A: All these three topics have the same weight as they have been identified as key areas for the promotion and scaling up Agroecology in the region.

Q: Does this mean, if there are many proposals focusing on the same topic, will the selection committee award several proposals addressing the same topic?

A: The different selected small grants may not cover all three topics in each country. Priority is given to the quality of the proposals. For example, in one country, all of the selected proposal could be on the same topic.

Q: Should the small grant activities focus only on research activities?

A: No, the small grant activities are broad and can include capacity building sessions.

B.    Lead applicant and consortium

Q: Are NGOs allowed to join a consortium to submit the proposal?

A: The call is open to any type of agroecology stakeholders including: non-governmental organization, farmers organization, private sector organization, network, research center, universities. However, only ALiSEA members can be the lead applicant. Non-members of ALiSEA can apply as co-applicant.

Q: Can a media journalist apply to the grant regarding the topic No 2 and produce success stories to promote agriculture on their media channels but that media is not a member of ALiSEA?

A: Organization cannot apply as lead applicant if there are no member of the ALiSEA Network. Therefore, they must develop a partnership with an ALiSEA member organization.

Q: Is it a requirement to include at least 2 partners in the proposal?

A: Yes, a minimum of two co-applicants is required. It is a mandatory to have at least 2 partners. If a proposal is developed with only one organization, it will be automatically rejected. The small grant call aims at fostering consortium and multi-stakeholders’ approach. Several proposal evaluation criteria are related to the quality, relevance and complementarity of the partnership. However, there is no maximum number of co-applicants in the consortium.

Q: Can an organization submit more than one proposal both in the capacity of lead and as part of a consortium?

A: Yes, one organization is allowed to submit a proposal as a lead applicant and another proposal as a co-applicant. However, the lead applicant will not be awarded more than one grant per topic.

C.    Location & Implementation period

Q: Should the geographical focus of the small grant be only on the Flagship site of the ASSET Project (Son La/Dien Bien in Vietnam, Preah Vihear in Cambodia and Xieng Khouang in Laos)?

A: No, the small grant proposal should not focus only on the flagship site. All provinces of the four countries, Lao, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Thailand are eligible.

Q: Is there the cut-off date to start the grant implementation if the procurement process is relevant to the activities which the activities are carry on at June for example?

A: The cut-off date is September 2024. The objective is to ensure enough time to implement the activities as well as draw lesson learned, exploit and disseminate the results and knowledge products developed via the small grant facility.

Q: Can the small grant activities be implemented this year or may start next year?

A: The contract with the awarded organization will be signed by this year (September 2022). The small grant may begin in 2022 or 2023 depending on the relevancy of the action plan. The small grant proposed work duration should not exceed 18 months.

Q: Can the implementation period be only 12 months?

A: Yes, the implementation period could be lower than 18 months. However, the small grant proposed work duration should not exceed 18 months.

D.    Expected Outputs

Q: In the Small Grant guidelines, expected outputs section, it states “Participate in at least two lessons-sharing and cross-learning events (webinar, exchange visit etc.) as part of the Small Grant Monitoring Process”. Should a dedicated budget be included for the proposal?

A: These lessons-learning sharing and cross-learning events will be organized by ALiSEA team. Therefore, you do not need to include a specific budget. Organizations will be invited to participate in these events and to share the result of the grant. However, this type of event to disseminate and share the results can be added and included in the proposals.

E.    Guidelines

Q: Who compose the selection committee to evaluate the concept note?

A: The selection committee is composed of from GRET, CIRAD, the Scientific Secretariat of the ASSET project and ALiSEA Board Member representative from each country. The selection committee member gathers researchers, academia and development practionners from NGOs.

Q: Does the concept note and the full proposal should be submitted at the same time?

A: Yes, to apply to this call, the lead applicants need to submit the concept note, the full proposal and the detailed budget at the same time. All documents must be submitted online via this link: https://ee.humanitarianresponse.info/x/sT0ONEeo

The deadline for submission is Tuesday 21^st June 2022.

Q: Do you have any format for the proposal?

A: To apply for this call, applicants need to fulfil the concept note, the full proposal and the detailed budget templates. All templates are available to be downloaded on the ALiSEA Website: https://ali-sea.org/guidelines-templates-2022/

F.    Budget

Q: What is the budget size of a grant?

A: The minimum amount of a grant is 15,000 Euros (Fifteen thousand euros) and the maximum amount is 20,000 Euros (twenty thousand euros). The budget size should be consistence with the topic and the proposed activities. One evaluation criteria of the full proposal concern the budget “Realistic budget and timeline based on the proposed research/project topic”.

Q: Is there a maximum amount allowed for staff cost?

A: There is no maximum amount to follow for staff cost because the three topics require different needs to be implemented.

Q: Are there any specific max. % of budget allocation/rule for each line: staff cost, activity cost, equipment cost, etc. for the call?

A: There is no maximum amount for human resources, activity or equipment costs. It depends on the topic. The only rule is a maximum of 10% of the grant may be used for overheads.

Q: We noticed there is a funding of 300K for the 2022 and 2023 calls. How many proposals will be funded under the 2022 call?

A: In total, a maximum of three proposals per country in Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam will be selected, and only one proposal in Thailand (due to the lower number of ALiSEA members).