Call for proposals: Partners for Development—Canadian Universities - Closed

Table of Contents

• Eligibility
• Application Process
• Key Documents
• Deadline
• Proposal Assessment

The Canadian International Development Agency's (CIDA) Partnerships with Canadians Branch (PWCB) is launching, under its Partners for Development program, a call for proposals of up to $50 million for international development projects to be implemented by Canadian universities. The objective of this call is to support the international work of Canadian universities in contributing to Canada's efforts to reduce poverty in developing countries.

The deadline for submissions was October 13, 2011.

This call will fund projects from Canadian universities in partnership with institutions and organizations in developing countries. CIDA will contribute between $500,000 and $5 million to projects with a duration of up to five years. CIDA will contribute up to 75 percent of total project costs. Universities must contribute at least 25 percent of total project costs, either as a cash or in-kind contribution. Overhead is included in the total cost of the project.

This call will contribute to the CIDA targets of:

• Allocating half of PWCB funding to CIDA's countries of focus and half to other countries eligible for official development assistance
• Aligning 80 percent of PWCB funding to CIDA's priority themes: increasing food security, securing the future of children and youth, and stimulating sustainable economic growth

Eligibility

In order to be eligible, universities must be publicly-funded, have been officially designated a university in Canada by a provincial charter, and must have at least three years' experience managing and delivering international development projects in developing countries. Private universities are not eligible under this call; however, they are invited to apply to other Partners for Development calls for proposals, as applicable.

Application Process

1. Thoroughly review the Partners for Development: Canadian universities application guidelines.
2. Create or update your organizational profile through PARTNERS@CIDA.
3. Upload the mandatory documents as listed in Section 13 of the application form, including the completed application form, to your profile on PARTNERS@CIDA. Supporting documentation that is not available in an electronic format should be scanned and uploaded to PARTNERS@CIDA. Ensure that documents are duly signed where this is a requirement. CIDA will not accept application forms or supporting documentation by mail or by fax.
4. Submit your application before the deadline.

Key Documents

Note: If you cannot access the alternate formats, refer to the Help page.

• Application form (RTF - 2.7 MB, 17 pages)
• Application guidelines (PDF - 406 KB, 30 pages)
• Weightings for merit criteria (PDF - 84 KB, 1 pages)
• Interim Haiti Recovery Commission New Project Concept Note (RTF - 232 KB)
• Budget tables (XLS - 77 KB, 3 pages)

Deadline

Completed applications should have been submitted by October 13, 2011. No late applications will be accepted.

You will receive an automatic email to confirm that your application has been submitted. If you do not, then the application is considered "not received".

Proposal Assessment

CIDA will assess all proposals submitted with all mandatory documents against the following five partnership principles, which are explained further in the Partners for Development-Canadian universities application guidelines (PDF - 406 KB, 30 pages):

1. Sound governance
2. Support of Canadians
3. Relevance to CIDA's mandate and coherence with Canadian government policy
4. Results
5. Development effectiveness

To ensure transparency and fairness to all applicants, CIDA will not discuss applications until all universities have been notified of decisions regarding their proposals. The application guidelines, and the frequently asked questions section of the CIDA-PWCB website represent the only official interpretation of the application process.

Applicants that do not meet the eligibility criteria as mentioned in the section on eligibility will be notified in writing as soon as possible. All other applicants will be advised of the results by February 16, 2012. A CIDA officer will then contact successful applicants to discuss the agreement details. CIDA will also send a letter to all unsuccessful candidates at that time to inform them of the decision.

Please note: Projects that target Haiti require endorsement by the Interim Haiti Recovery Commission (IHRC). To facilitate this process, universities must fill in and upload to PARTNERS@CIDA the Interim Haiti Recovery Commission New Project Concept Note, along with the completed application form and other mandatory/supporting documents. CIDA will submit the form to the IHRC on behalf of the university. All proposals submitted to this call that include Haiti should be long term and developmental in nature.

Also please note: If your project has a Haiti component, please see the Haiti background information.

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Information Update

• Please note that if you are using a MAC, we ask that you save and upload your Application Form, Logic Model, Risk Register and Budget Table as a PDF to Partners@CIDA. If you do not convert these documents to PDF, the information contained in these documents may become compromised and illegible. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and thank you for your cooperation.
• Office Expenses: Only office costs in the developing country(ies) targeted by the project directly related to the implementation of the project are considered eligible project costs. Office costs for the university in Canada, such as, but not limited to, rent, electricity, heating, cooling, and other such expenses, are ineligible as direct costs under the Partners for Development Program.
• Salaries for Canadian university employees: Salaries paid to the Canadian university's staff in Canada for actual time worked on the project are considered eligible project costs. In Canada, these salaries are limited to only one level of project management and one financial officer. The salaries of all other university staff in Canada, including senior management, receptionists, and human resources and information systems personnel, are not eligible direct project costs and are counted as overhead.
  
  However, CIDA will not contribute more than 50 percent of the eligible salary cost attributed to each Canadian university staff member for the time they dedicate to the project in Canada and/or abroad. For example, if a staff member's annual salary is $100,000 and (s)he dedicates 80 percent of his/her time to the project for its entire duration, then the total eligible salary cost per project year for this individual is $80,000, of which CIDA will contribute up to 50 percent, (i.e. a maximum of $40,000). The rest must be covered through the university's cost-share.
• Salaries for locally engaged staff: Salaries and benefits for locally engaged staff can be considered eligible project costs, reflecting local practices in rates, at the percentage of time attributed to the project.
  
  Please note that salaries and benefits of public servants of government, ministries, or public institutions of recipient countries assigned to CIDA projects are paid by the recipient countries. Salary top-ups are not to be added through the project presented for CIDA funding over and above those salaries under any circumstances.
  
  Salary top-ups mean cash payments or in-kind benefits that a civil servant would receive over and above what colleagues at the same level and pay scale receive, as compensation for taking part in the CIDA-funded project. In-kind benefits include the use of a car, house, bonuses, per diems (e.g. travel expenses for specific training activities directly related the implementation of the project) etc.
• A faulty formula in Budget Table 3 has been corrected. Organizations can download updated budget tables from the call for proposals web page.
• Canadian universities may submit up to two applications to this call, either as a sole proponent or as the lead organization in a coalition, as long as they do not exceed the limit of two active agreements under the Partners for Development Program, including Tier 1, Tier 2 and Scaling-Up projects under the University Partnerships in Cooperation and Development program. Thus, universities with two or more active agreements cannot submit a new proposal through this call unless they will have only one agreement still active within 12 months of the application deadline. Agreements under specialized calls (e.g., Haiti Recovery and Reconstruction call or Muskoka Initiative Partnership Program call) or under the Global Citizens Program (e.g., International Youth Internships Program or Students for Development program) do not count. As well, there is no limit on the number of times a university can be a non-lead member of a coalition.
• For universities with two or more active agreements, a new agreement will not take effect until all but one of its active agreements have expired.