The Innovations Fund is ISEAL’s grant-making facility which has catalysed collaboration and experimentation since 2016, providing support for ISEAL Community Members and their partners to test and implement innovative approaches.

Our portfolio of 49 projects supported in phase one, which completed in 2022, has produced a wealth of learning, unveiling the potential and need for innovation in all its shapes and forms.

Now established as a valuable funding mechanism, we are delighted to share our first call for expressions of interest (EOIs) under the second phase of the Fund.

• Eligibility: The Fund is open to applications led by ISEAL Community Members, who can collaborate with other sustainability systems and/or organisations outside the ISEAL community.
• Grants available:
  • Impulse grants. < CHF 20,000, for projects up to 6 months.
  • Replication grants. CHF 40,000 – 80,000, for projects up to 1 year (starting August 2023)
• Match funding. 1:1 requirement.
• Guiding principles. Values that should be embodied in all Fund supported projects.
• Visit the ISEAL website for more information about the Fund and past projects.

If interested in this funding opportunity, please reach out to our members and explore the potential for a joint project.

Between 2022 through 2026, the ISEAL Innovations Fund and Programme seeks to:

Build understanding and catalyse innovation in the use of sustainability systems, to support governments and companies in finding effective, collaborative solutions to the world’s most pressing sustainability challenges.

To help realise this vision, the Fund will encourage proposals for ambitious projects through multiple funding rounds which will support the advancement of these four strategic outcomes:

• Enhance the value proposition of sustainability systems for governments, supply chain companies, and producing enterprises.
• Improve effectiveness and integrity in assessing and responding to sustainability risk.
• Strengthen collaborative solutions between sustainability systems to specific sustainability challenges, leading to harmonised approaches to tackling these issues.
• Advance performance monitoring and reporting of progress on critical sustainability issues, strengthening the potential for consolidated reporting.

Organisations interested in applying for a grant should first ensure their project idea meets the following ambitions for all projects supported in phase two of the Fund:

1. Contributes to at least one of the strategic outcomes of the ISEAL Innovations Fund.
2. Aligns with the Fund’s Guiding Principles supported. as values which should be embodied in all projects

Prospective applicants should then consider if their project idea is suitable for support by either grant type available in this round, based on the information below. Full grant definitions and criteria are detailed in the full call for EOIs on the closed web-platform for ISEAL Community Members.

EOIs should be completed in an EOI template (available on the closed online platform for the ISEAL community) and submitted by the ISEAL Community Member leading the proposed grant by 05 May 2023.

The brief EOI template includes questions on:

• The challenge you are seeking to address and what you are hoping to achieve
• How it will contribute to the strategic outcomes of the Innovations Fund
• If and how it seeks to build on an innovation previously supported by the Fund
• The learning value for your organisation, project partners, the ISEAL community, and beyond.

Submitted EOIs are presented to a grant decision-making committee comprising ISEAL staff, SECO and external experts.

The committee selects a sub-set of EOIs it recommends for full proposal development, and ISEAL will work with successful applicants to develop detailed proposals.

Projects to start from September 2023.