New Ideas Initiative

The DSA New Ideas Initiative is an exciting new funding opportunity for researchers to be awarded small-scale funding for exploring new ideas, collaborations and knowledge sharing within the international development sector.

The Initiative is a component of the Development Studies Association's (DSA) Accountable Grant with the UK Department for International Development (DFID). The Initiative will award 5-8 small grants, not exceeding £8,000 each, to successful applicants, depending on the portfolio selected. Activities should take place between March and June 2012.

All applications must comprise at least one organisation in the UK and/or Ireland to act as project lead.

New Ideas Initiative Aims

The overarching goal of the Initiative is to ensure development policy and practice has a transformative and sustained effect on people's agency and lives. In order to meet this goal the Initiative aims to build on the diversity of existing research programmes and activities that presently are being undertaken, and to identify emerging issues, new approaches and new partnerships.

New Ideas Initiative Focus

The Initiative has a focus, but not exclusively, on encouraging new learning about the following:
• emerging issues for development policy and practice to engage with
• new approaches that development policy and practice should be taking, whether issues are ongoing or emerging
• new partners that development practitioners should be engaging with

New Ideas Initiative Activities 

• Examples of activities that could be included: a workshop or roundtable, a stakeholder survey, a scoping exercise and literary review, an online consultation, a series of think pieces.
• The new learning generated should be developed and disseminated innovatively; and planned outputs using relevant information communication technologies such as video, social networking and other digital media are particularly welcome.

New Ideas Initiative Outcomes

The anticipated outcomes of the New Ideas Initiative activity are that stakeholders, including DFID and DSA members, will:
• refresh their horizon scans of emerging issues
• bring new framings, approaches and methods to existing priorities
• form new alliances of partners, driven by the issue and the context
• stay at the cutting edge of thinking, policy and action
• ultimately we want the work to contribute to positive change on the ground

New Ideas Initiative Coordination and Communication 

• The Initiative will provide project management support to each of the grantees.
• Initiative outputs and findings, including a consolidated report, will be disseminated widely through DSA's existing networks and will be fed into other outlets and conferences being held both in the UK and abroad. The Communication for Development Network (C4D Network) is supporting the coordination of the Initiative and will distribute outputs through its site and allied networks.
• We welcome innovative mechanism for dissemination and developing uptake channels.

For any queries or clarification, please contact Jackie Davies.