July 26, 2018
Memo on Inclusive Innovation Consortia Grant Program
Within the scope of Fostering Productive Innovation Project implemented by the Science Committee of the Ministry of Education and Science RK it is planned to launch Inclusive Innovation Consortia Grant Program.
The Program aims to create inclusive innovation consortia between research organizations and businesses for promotion and development of social and inclusive innovations in Kazakhstan through provision of grants.
1.1 Aims and principles of the Grant Program
Inclusive innovations are any innovations that provide access to high quality goods, works and services that create opportunities to improve living standards of urban and rural population, including vulnerable and unreached population groups on a sustainable basis with a significant outreach.
Goal of the Inclusive Innovation Program is to combine science and business with the aim of creating and implementing innovative projects that have a significant social (and potentially environmental) impact on community and have a strong commercial potential. In particular, the Program assists organizations that:
- can grow steadily based on current and projected revenues (e.g. income from sales) or sources of sustainable financing, resulting in a clearer picture of increasing their scale. Profit is fully or partially reinvested in the company throughout the duration of the program in order to ensure its growth and, consequently, solution of social problems.
- provide direct and quantifiable changes in the lives of people, particularly, but not exclusively, in the lives of vulnerable populations, defined as people with less income and resources to live a full life. This is achieved, for example, through provision of essential goods and services to consumers that are not fully provided with (due to the fact that they live in poverty, in remote areas and can't be part of the prevailing welfare society), through acquisition of goods, works and services from producers and suppliers that do not have well-established relationships with major markets (e.g., small agricultural producers with a low level of specialization), or by providing employment opportunities to more vulnerable groups or people, that are difficult to access (formal) labor market.
- unite in its composition both above-mentioned aspects in such a way that this results in enhancing competitive advantages. Thus, reception of people with disabilities to low positions, having no particular significance for business will not meet the requirements of the Program.
The basic principle of the Program is that organizations that skillfully combine these three aspects become important players both in economic development and social inclusion/sustainability. As a rule, they develop a new way of solving old problems and begin to do business in new ways, using more risky and innovative approaches. Success of such organizations should be supported by technologies and innovations. Having reached the success, these organizations can really improve people's lives – sometimes in a scale of the entire village where they work, and sometimes at the scale of hundreds of thousands of people in the country and abroad.
In this regard, the Program is designed to unite science and business, to motivate and encourage entrepreneurs and businessmen to ensure that they attempt to do something bigger, better and new for the Kazakhstani society through technology, innovation or science.
1.2 Priority areas
- Education
- Healthcare
- Information and Communication Technology
- Environmental Protection
- Renewable Energy
- Agriculture
- Rational use of resources
- Other areas provided that they are improving lives and living conditions of vulnerable and unreached segments of the population
Approximate areas of inclusive innovation are:
- innovative solutions in the field of education;
- innovative methods for business processes to include persons with disabilities in everyday life;
- introduction of cheap and affordable energy saving technologies for rural and remote areas;
- introduction of accessible and affordable technologies to provide rural population with clean drinking water;
- introduction of innovative low-cost solutions in the field of telemedicine and remote diagnostics of both rural and urban populations;
- innovative solutions in food security and agriculture;
- innovative solutions in the field of safety and health of population.
The given xamples do not limit potential participants of IIC as inclusive innovation solutions can have a broader meaning and application. Implemented consortium project must correspond to, but are not limited to, a list of priority areas for development of inclusive innovations.
1.3 Consortium members
Mandatory participants of the Consortium must be:
- Commercial organizations or non-profit organizations (with the right to entrepreneurship), activities of which meet the goals and objectives of the implemented project.
- Scientific organizations with accreditation of a scientific and (or) scientific and technical entity.
1.4 Implementation period
Maximum implementation period of the project is 24 months.
1.5 Results
At the end of the project, consortium must reach the required level of commercialization, sustainable development and enterprise growth, and significant social impacts in the framework of implemented project.
For detailed information on Inclusive Innovation Consortia Grant Program please refer to the Project website www.fpip.kz, email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.,
phone: +7 7172 23 90 35, +7 708 984 27 11.
*This memo is for informational purposes only and is not an official document. Grant Program Manual will be available on the Project website after official announcement of Inclusive Innovation Consortia Grant Program contest.