Call for Proposals: Grants for Open Applications Development

The IDS Knowledge Services Open Application Programming Interface (API) provides easy programmatic access to tens of thousands of thematically organised resources, primarily academic research, on development issues that are freely available online. 

IDS Knowledge Services is calling for proposals for a small technical grant. These grants are available to application from developers in developing countries (see the list of eligible countries) wishing to use information and communication technologies to repurpose, and contextualise research on development issues and so inform evidence based policy making.

Aim of the grant invitation

Knowledge matters and how it is shared shapes the decisions, policies and actions that can improve the lives of people living in poverty. Our Mobilising Knowledge for Development (MK4D) programme aims to increase access to, and effective use of, research-based knowledge. At the IDS Knowledge Services department we develop a number of products and services that support this process and use academic research, in the areas of climate change, food and agriculture, health, governance and gender, in policy and practice.

As part of this programme, we have developed an Open Application Programming Interface (API) to make the datasets held within IDS Knowledge Services accessible programmatically to other organisations and individuals. We aim to develop related Open API applications with Southern partners, to enable others to repurpose and contextualise this knowledge; and to facilitate the development by Southern partners of Open APIs and related applications. Through this work we hope to encourage south-south technical cooperation.

Who is eligible to apply?

This invitation is primarily open to technical staff/application developers based in an organisation in a developing country - see list of countries here. Individuals are encouraged to apply but must nominate an organisation as a partner grant applicant and to whom the grant will be paid through.

An organisation or individual may submit more than one proposal.

Individual grant maximum: GBP £3000
Implementation period: 5 weeks

Grants available

Two types of grants are available in this call for proposals:

1. Plug in grants

These grants are allocated to design and build plug ins/modules/add-ons to existing content management systems and web platforms. The plug-ins will import or display a user defined selection of data from the KS data sets. There are two grants currently available, these are:

Wordpress plug-in

Objectives

• To develop a Wordpress Plug-in to enable access to relevant content from the IDS Open API for use by development organisations using the Wordpress CMS;
• To release this Wordpress Plug-in to the Wordpress Open Source community;
• To develop and implement an approach to usage monitoring to enable IDS to report on the usage of IDS data by the plug-in.

Approach

• The grant-seeking organisation will be the technical lead on this project and will be responsible for gathering functional requirements, developing, managing the testing of the module, and providing support for the implementation of the plug-in within their services;
• The grant-seeking organisation will work with IDS to develop a project plan and will keep IDS up- to-date with progress of the project.

HTML widget

Objactives

• To develop an embeddable "widget", preferably using an existing Open Source framework, to enable access to relevant content from the IDS Open API for use by development organisations' websites and services;
• To develop and implement an approach to usage monitoring to enable IDS to report on the usage of IDS data by the plug-in.

Approach

• The grant-seeking organisation will be the technical lead on this project and will be responsible for gathering functional requirements, developing, managing the testing of the module, and providing support for the implementation of the plug-in within their services;
• The grant-seeking organisation will work with IDS to develop a project plan and will keep IDS up to date with progress of the project.

Requirements

• The grant-seeking organisation must be based in a developing country (see the list of eligble countries);
• The plug in must be developed using open source technologies and be released back into the open source community.

How to apply

Proposals, using API's template, must be submitted in English by e-mail to api@ids.ac.uk.

The proposal should:

• Specify which plug-in you would like to develop;
• Describe any similar work you have done in the past, giving examples (and links to live applications) where possible;
• Describe what development outcomes you might expect from this implementation, giving examples where possible;
• Describe the expected timetable for delivery of the application.

2. Innovation grants

These grants are allocated to design and build applications or services that use innovative ways of combining data and information from different sources, to create new tools, applications and systems which are useful, meaningful and relevant for informing development policy and practice.

Preference will be given to proposals that focus on the programme's key thematic or technological areas, as follows:

• Climate Change;
• Food and agriculture;
• Health;
• Governance;
• Gender.
• Technology
• Mobile;
• Mapping;
• Applications supporting people in areas of limited connectivity.

Requirements:

• The grant-seeking organisation must be based in a developing country (see the list of eligble countries);
• The application must be developed using open source technologies and be released back into the open source community.

How to apply

Proposals, using our template, must be submitted in English by e-mail to api@ids.ac.uk.

The proposal should:

• Explain why the service is needed, how it meets user needs and how it supports IDS KS's aims to get more evidence based research into policy and practice;
• Describe the origin of the idea (e.g. what application, tool or service you are replicating and adapting in your proposal);
• Describe any similar work you have done in the past, giving examples (and links to live applications) where possible;
• Describe what development outcomes you might expect from this application or service, giving examples where possible;
• Describe the expected timetable for delivery of the application;
• Explain in what way[s] the proposed application or service is innovative.

Grant timeline

• Call for proposals: 30 January - 13 February 2012;
• Evaluation of proposals: 13-17 February 2012;
• Successful candidates notified: 17 February 2012;
• Project implementation: 20 February - 26 March 2012 (5 weeks);
• App delivery: 26 March 2012.

Proposals which do not meet above stated key requirements will not be eligible for evaluation.

Enquiries: E-mail: api@ids.ac.uk.

For more information, refer to http://api.ids.ac.uk/about/grants.shtml.

For more about the IDS Knowledge Services Open Application Programming Interface, refer to http://api.ids.ac.uk.

To view other opportunities, visit www.ngopulse.org/group/home-page/other-opportunities.