REF# 2021 - 11
The 100,000 Strong in the Americas Innovation Fund Opens Grant Competition for Universities in Guatemala, the United States, Central America, and the Dominican Republic
With generous support from AgroAmerica, the U.S. Embassy in Guatemala, and NGO partners of the Americas, the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs at the U.S. Department of State announces the launch of a new regional 100,000 Strong in the Americas (100K) Innovation Fund grant competition.
This new competition is the result of the public-private sector collaboration between the U.S. Department of State, NGO Partners of the Americas, and AgroAmerica, the second multinational company based in Guatemala to join the 100K Fund. This 100K Innovation Fund Competition will provide twelve (12) grants of $25,000 each to support new higher education partnerships to create and implement innovative models of academic training and student exchange programs between the United States and the region starting in January 2022.
The 100K Innovation Fund is the Department’s signature hemispheric-wide initiative to advance a positive agenda for the region by harnessing the power of education. As a result of 100K partnerships, more students in the Hemisphere have access to innovative academic training and exchange programs to work in teams, conduct research, gain technical and linguistic skills, and prepare for workforce demands. Since its inception in 2013 to March 2021, the Innovation Fund has awarded 243 grants ($25,000 to $35,000 each) to teams of 493 higher education institutions working in 25 countries and 49 U.S. states.
In remarks delivered during the launch of the new competition, U.S. Ambassador William Popp affirmed, “The 100K Innovation Fund advances a positive agenda for the Hemisphere by harnessing the power of education to transform societies, provide opportunity, and stimulate economic growth.”
Likewise, CEO of AgroAmerica, Fernando Bolaños Valle stated, “It is with great enthusiasm that AgroAmerica joins the State Department as a strategic partner in this regional initiative in an organic way, because of our shared values, building, step by step, a future full of prosperity and hope for our countries. In AgroAmerica, we are convinced that the future of our continent depends on strategic investments like these, which will multiply prosperity for the United States, Central America and the Dominican Republic.”
- Thematic areas in this 100K grant competition include Environment; Public Health; Climate Solutions; Human Rights; Health Sciences; Education Technology; Food and Agricultural Sciences; Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH); Business Development; Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM), among other disciplines.
- Teams of higher education institutions in the United States and Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Costa Rica, Panama, Belize, Nicaragua, or the Dominican Republic are invited to submit 100K grant proposals to Partners of the Americas by the deadline of August 2, 2021.
- The Proposal form for this competition is available at 100kstrongamericas.org/grants.
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