Deadline: 2 March 2020

The 2019 U.S.-Mexico Innovation Fund Competition for Economic and Financial Inclusion and Agricultural Sustainability for Inequality Reduction is supported through generous contributions from Fundación Banorte, Fundación Gruma and the U.S. Department of State.

This Innovation Fund grant competition is designed to create and foster partnerships between higher education (HEIs) in Mexico and the United States that propose student academic exchange and training programs in the thematic areas of Economic & Financial Inclusion and Agricultural Sustainability, with an emphasis on inequality reduction.

Special consideration will be given to proposals that focus on exchange programs that would benefit economically disadvantaged, undeserved and/or racial/ethnic minority student populations.

Purpose

The purpose of the 2019 U.S.-Mexico Innovation Fund Competition for Economic and Financial Inclusion and Agricultural Sustainability for Inequality Reduction is to provide more opportunities for higher education institutions (HEIs) in the United States and Mexico to work together to provide new student exchange and training programs in the following academic themes. Proposed programs must focus on addressing inequality reduction.

• Agricultural Sustainability
  • Nutrition Sciences
  • Soil/Plant Sciences
  • Agricultural Engineering
  • Agricultural Economics
  • Agronomy
  • Environmental Sciences; Ecosystem Science/Management
  • Sustainable Cropping/Food Systems
    • Indigenous Agricultural Practices
    • Urban Food Systems
  • Food Security Networks
  • Protected Agriculture
  • Agroecology
  • Green Energy
• Financial/Economic Inclusion
  • Business Administration/Management
  • Fostering Financial Inclusion in:
    • International Finance
    • Corporate Finance
    • Public Finance
    • Investments
    • Micro finance
    • Financial Services
    • Financial Policy
    • Rural Savings/Loans
    • Financial Education/Literacy
  • Social Infrastructure
  • Data Engineering for Financial inclusion
  • Economics: Behavioral, Managerial for Financial Inclusion
  • Entrepreneurship for Financial Inclusion
  • Rural Enterprise Development

Expected Results

Higher education institutions that are successful in implementing Innovation Fund grants will:

• • Promote and implement new student exchange and/or training opportunities for students in the U.S. and Mexico;
  • Increase the number of students studying between the U.S. and Mexico;

• Create/strengthen strategic partnerships through international mobility between HEIs in the U.S. and Mexico, above what would have taken place if the grant did not exist;
• Demonstrate increased awareness of the barriers to student exchange opportunities; and
• Engage and collaborate with the Innovation Fund in sharing the lessons learned from the implementation.

Funding Information

The intent of the 2019 U.S.-Mexico Innovation Fund Competition for Economic and Financial Inclusion and Agricultural Sustainability for Inequality Reduction is to award up to 10 Innovation Fund Grants of $25,000 to selected proposals.

Eligibility Criteria

• • Higher education institutions located and legally registered in Mexico and the United States are eligible to apply for the 2019 U.S.-Mexico Innovation Fund Competition for Economic and Financial Inclusion and Agricultural Sustainability for Inequality Reduction.
  • This Innovation Fund competition seeks to receive applications from a diversity of HEIs. Eligible institutions for this grant competition include four-year and shorter-term degree-issuing institutions, such as universities (public and private), colleges, community colleges, technical/vocational schools, and other post-secondary institutions with credit-bearing programs; and large, small, rural, and urban institutions.

• • The intention of selecting from these categories is to ensure representation of the broadest diversity of institutional profiles, so that successful innovations have the greatest possibility of replication across the institutions and ultimately reaching the overall goal of the 100,000 Strong in the Americas Innovation Fund.
  • Proposals must include a partnership between at least one higher education institution in the U.S. and one higher education institution in Mexico.

• Proposals may involve new institutional partnerships or build on existing partnerships, but in all cases, should demonstrate strong institutional support and should focus on creating sustainable exchange programs among the partnering institutions.

For more information, visit http://www.100kstrongamericas.org/grants/