Deadline: 16th April 2018

U40 Empowered is a UNESCO initiative started in 2018 with the support of Sabrina Ho. This initiative expands the actions of the International Fund for Cultural Diversity by supporting projects from national and international NGOs that promote young female cultural entrepreneurs working in the digital creative industries. It is designed to increase opportunities for women under 40 to access funding, infrastructure, equipment and co-production opportunities in the digital creative industries.

Focus

U40 Empowered will finance projects that:

• Develop and/or implement strategies that invest in women as entrepreneurs working in the digital creative industries;
• Create networks and opportunities to innovate and collaborate with women under 40 working in the digital creative industries;
• Organise female-led creative mentorship programmes for women under 40 in partnership with digital creative hubs, incubators, and clusters;
• Give visibility to the work and innovations of women entrepreneurs under 40 working in the digital creative industries;
• Strengthen the digital skills of women under 40 working in the creative industry;
• Collect and analyse sex-disaggregated data with a view to better understand the underlying causes of gender inequality in the digital creative industries with a view to informing policymaking

Eligibility

• Projects must be implemented and/or benefit only eligible countries (developing
  countries Parties to the 2005 Convention).Non-governmental organizations that, according to their national regulations, are non-governmental and non-profit and that meet the definition of civil society in the Operational Guidelines.
• International non-governmental organizations (INGOs) registered in countries Parties to the 2005 Convention: Applications from INGOs must be implemented in two or more eligible countries and demonstrate that the proposed project has an impact at the sub-regional, regional or inter-regional level.

Offer

• The project implementation period shall be between 12 and 24 months, with the projects beginning in October 2018
• The maximum amount that can be requested is 100,000 USD.
• Projects that are approved for funding will receive their allocations in severalinstallments. Beneficiaries normally receive 50% of the total amount approved at the beginning of the project, another 30% mid-way through the project and the remaining 20% once all activities have been completed and the final reports are submitted.
• Expenditures for project-related overhead costs are limited to a maximum of 30% of the total project budget.

Application

• Download and review the call for funding.
• Download and review the Annotated Guide.
• Download, save to your computer and complete the Project Framework (including the project objectives, budget, outputs/deliverables and list of team members). The Project Framework should be opened and completed in Microsoft Excel or similar applications.
• Gather digital copies of all Complementary Documents that are required for your application.

All the project proposals must be submitted through the online Application Form.

• Create your account at https://en.unesco.org/creativity/applicant/register.
• Log in at https://en.unesco.org/creativity/user/login  and complete all the fields in the online Application Form. During this process, you can save your application and come back later, using your login and password.
• Upload the Project Framework and Complementary Documents in the dedicated fields. Before finalizing your application, ensure that all fields have been completed and accept the Terms and Conditions
• Date, sign and click on the ‘SUBMIT’ button to finalize your application.