About

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is seeking application for its Middle East Regional Cooperation Program.

The overall goal of the MERC Program is to promote research, scientific exchange, capacity building, and development cooperation between Israel and its regional neighbors in support of locally-developed solutions for common regional challenges and a comprehensive and lasting Middle East peace.

Objectives

• Support applied, actionable research that generates results relevant to regional development and empowers communities, organizations, and governments to make evidence-based decisions. 

• Foster the implementation and uptake of research results and innovations, by conducting targeted outreach to public and private sector stakeholders, to improve quality of life, support economic growth, and achieve development impact in the MENA region. 

• Build the science and technology capacity of institutions and the next generation of researchers and leaders in developing countries in the MENA region. 

• Promote direct cooperation between Israel and the MENA region and establish strong working relationships that last beyond the life of the project.

Categories

• As part of this Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO), MERC is seeking to fund proposals in the following categories:

  • Applied Research Grants: The MERC Program seeks pre-proposals pertaining to applied research and technology development within the broad areas of the natural, physical, and social sciences and engineering.

  • Continuation Grants: Applicants with current or recently ended Applied Research Grants from the MERC Program may submit proposals to be evaluated as “continuation grants,” skipping the scientific peer review process.

  • Travel and Workshop Grants: Proposals to support joint cooperative workshops, meetings, or exchange of researchers may be considered under this category.

Funding Information

• Applied Research Grants  

  • Estimated Award Ceiling: $1,000,000

  • Estimated Length of Project: 2 to 5 years

• Continuation Grants

  • Estimated Award Ceiling: $500,000

  • Estimated Length of Project: 1 to 3 years

• Travel and Workshop Grants

  • Estimated Award Ceiling: $100,000

  • Estimated Length of Project: One activity, event, or exchange to be completed within one year of the award.

Eligible Activities

• Travel and Workshop Grants

  • Examples of potential activities that would be considered under this category include: 

    • A multi-day training program focused on bringing together early career researchers to develop specific skills or know-how related to a regional development priority 

    • A meeting of stakeholders to discuss research gaps in a particular sector with relevance to regional development 

    • A workshop of researchers and stakeholders, including private sector partners, with shared interests to identify potential areas for cross-border scientific cooperation 

    • An Israeli institution hosting a visiting researcher from an eligible MENA partner (or vice versa) for a couple of months to learn a new technique and develop a research partnership

Ineligible Activities

• Applied Research Grants 

  • Basic research, or primarily experimental or theoretical work undertaken to acquire new knowledge of the underlying foundations of phenomena and observable facts, without any particular application. Proposals may include a component of basic research as long as other  objectives promote the application of those findings. 

  • Activities that appear partisan or that support individual or party electoral campaigns 

  • Projects which solely or predominantly represent the development of physical infrastructures, core support for organizations, or delivery of services, including: 

    • Construction of laboratories or clinics 

    • Delivery of health services 

    • Delivery of educational services 

    • Social development programs 

    • Establishment of private enterprises and projects of a commercial or profit-making nature 

  • Projects lacking an innovative approach, or primarily constitute: 

    • Planning studies or case studies 

    • Operations research, surveys, evaluations, and baseline data collection 

    • Routine geographical mapping 

    • Literature reviews 

    • Social welfare projects 

  • One-time events, such as stand-alone conferences and one-off round tables 

  • Entertainment costs (e.g., recreational activities, ceremonies, galas, alcoholic beverages)

Eligibility

• Subject to change based on U.S. federal law and country-specific restrictions on funding, in addition to Israel the following countries/territories are eligible to apply as MENA partners: Algeria, Bahrain, Kuwait, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, and the West Bank and Gaza. Partners may come from academic, private sector, non-governmental, or governmental institutions eligible to receive U.S. foreign assistance.

• Applied Research Grants and Continuation Grants:

  • All proposals must include at least one Israeli partner and one eligible MENA partner. Only proposals developed jointly by investigators from the partner institutions are accepted. Proposals involving three or more partners are allowed. The proposal may be submitted by any party in the collaboration.

  • Proposals involving Israel and another relatively affluent MENA country (i.e., Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, or the United Arab Emirates) must include a developing country from the eligible MENA countries/territories (i.e., Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Tunisia, and the West Bank and Gaza) in the region as a partner and/or a beneficiary of the research outcomes. Affluent countries must adhere to budgetary restrictions, such as cost-sharing salaries, maintain the spirit of regional cooperation opposed to primarily engaging foreign expatriates, and target benefits and outcomes of the project to developing, USAID-presence countries in the MENA region and resource-limited populations. Satellite or portal campuses of foreign (e.g., U.S., Indian) institutions are not considered eligible MENA partners.

  • Participation of partners from outside the MENA, including the United States, is not a key feature of the MERC Program, but they may be considered for modest roles in exceptional cases to meet an essential technical need that is not otherwise available among the partners. Applicants must be prepared to provide a well justified case for participation of partners from outside the MENA and accept that MERC may not support their participation. The use of non-regional partners to lead or administer the overall project is discouraged.

• Travel and Workshop Grants:

  • To simplify the award management, it is strongly preferred that applicants to the Travel and Workshop

  • Grants category propose one prime recipient/grantee from Israel or one of the eligible MENA partners, and no sub-recipients. The prime must propose an activity involving participants from Israel and one or more of the eligible MENA partners.

Post Date: October 17, 2024