Deadline: 15 October 2019

The Niwano Peace Foundation is seeking applications for its 2019 grant program that aims to build a world of peace and coexistence. The Foundation makes grants in order to actively encourage activities undertaken in the spirit of religious principles grounded and conducted in such a way as to invite broad social participation.

The Niwano Peace Foundation promotes interreligious understanding and cooperation. It also strives to strengthen cooperation among people actively making continuing efforts, in a religious spirit, to achieve a peaceful society.

The activity grant theme for fiscal year 2019 is “Dialogue and collaboration in divided societies”.

Funding Information

• The grant amount which one applicant can apply will be up to 1,000,000 Japanese yen (For foreign applicant, the grant amount which one can apply will be up to some USD equivalent to 1,000,000 Japanese Yen).
• Providing grant is for one year, from 1st April 2020 to 31st March 2021.

Eligible Fields

• Social activities based on the spirit of religious principles
  • Social activities based on the spirit of religious principals are defined as those undertaken for individual and community welfare and peace, both physical and spiritual, based on the spirit of religious principles that emerge from reverence for God, Buddha, or other universal spiritual reality.
  • In particular, these include peace-making activities related to education, volunteer work, development cooperation, environmental protection, human rights or the social problems of aging societies done in the spirit of religious principles which transcend religious boundaries.
• Grass-roots activities deployed in a local community
  • Activities to vitalize local communities through interdisciplinary workshops and meetings with particular emphasis on collaboration by groups and individuals from diverse organizations and religious groups.
  • It is expected that local communities will come up with some new values with an independent mind.
  • Examples would be workshops and outreach programs to inspire people to think about how people living in faraway countries are related to their own lives, or to encourage development of local activities in which people “think globally, and act locally.”

Eligible Projects/Activities

• Activities which are consistent with the theme of NPF’s activity grant for fiscal year 2019.
• Practical activities, short-term or long-term, directly related to peace building.
• Activities which stimulate activities not only in one’s own field but as well in other fields and can be creative and pioneering models for realization of peace.

Ineligible Projects/Activities

• Activities undertaken for the benefit of a specific religious group.
• Activities based on or for the advancement of a specific political ideology.
• Activities for profit.
• Activities the purpose of which is holding conferences only as such.
• Projects for which the applicant’s primary intention is to publish the results of activities. (This does not apply to past grant recipients.)
• Grants are not scholarships as such, and are not to be used as financial support for Study abroad.

Eligible Applicants

• An application may be made by either an individual or an organization.
• Nationality is not a criterion for eligibility.
• Any group which has been in continuous existence for a reasonable length of time is eligible to apply, whether or not it is legally incorporated.

How to Apply

Interested applicants must apply online via the given website.

For more information, please visit http://www.npf.or.jp/english/grant/guidelines_application_forms