About our Scaling challenge

The Humanitarian Innovation Fund (HIF) has recently launched a new funding opportunity looking for organisations with extensive reach in acute phases of emergencies, and in complex, conflict-affected and protracted settings, to pilot a previously HIF-funded innovation.

This call is an important complement to HIF’s portfolio of scale-focused challenges, which support innovators to overcome barriers to scale. Funding is available to adopt any previously funded HIF innovation in any humanitarian sector, focusing on their adoption in settings where humanitarian assistance is most difficult and most needed.

The pilot should aim to test the impact of the innovation by using it effectively in one a very high severity crisis setting (as defined by ACAPS Inform Crisis Severity Scale – see list of countries below).  Applicants must have substantial ongoing sector-relevant operations in at least three very high severity settings (as listed below).    

Applicants will be able to adopt any of the innovations supported through one of the 200+ HIF grants disbursed since 2012. Applicants must not have already implemented the innovation or been a part of its development.   

This is also an opportunity for innovators of HIF-funded innovation which are ready to scale to approach potential adopters, highlighting this rare opportunity for funding that specifically targets adoption as a pathway to scale.  

Countries considered as very high severity settings: Afghanistan; Central African Republic; Chad; Democratic Republic of Congo; Ethiopia; Haiti; Mali; Myanmar; Nigeria; Sudan; Somalia; South Sudan; Syria; Ukraine; Yemen.  

HOW TO APPLY

All the information you’ll need is available in our Challenge Handbook and Funding Opportunities page. Potential applicants are encouraged to monitor the funding call page for any updates and for FAQs. On the funding call page, potential applicants can also explore a selection of HIF-funded innovations. 

Expression of Interest applications must be made through our Common Grant Application platform by Monday 5 June 2023 at 14:00 BST.  

This innovation challenge has been made possible through funding from the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO).