CRAF’d is a multilateral financing instrument that supports data for crisis action. CRAF’d invests in scalable, sustainable, and well-governed ecosystems to unlock the full potential of data for people and planet – when and where it matters most. The CRAF’d ecosystem expands the joint capabilities of its partners to anticipate, prevent, and respond better to complex risks in crisis-affected and fragile settings.

While CRAF’d will provide funding to data and analytics partners, it will not act as a data distributor. Such outputs are distributed by the partners who receive funding.

Inspired by the Secretary-General’s Data Strategy, CRAF'd is the result of a joint design process championed by Germany, the Netherlands, the United States, and the United Nations family, as well as other partners across the globe. CRAF’d is administered by the UN Multi-Partner Trust Fund Office and managed by the UN-hosted CRAF’d Secretariat and the CRAF’d Steering Committee.

UN organizations who signed the CRAF’d Memorandum of Understanding and Non-UN organizations are eligible to apply to the Open Call.

Non-UN organizations can access CRAF’d funding either through a Managing Agent or through the CRAF’d direct access modality, as outlined in the CRAF’d Terms of Reference. Access modalities will be determined on a case-by-case basis when a non-UN organization passes the first stage of the application process and is starts developing a project proposal. Required documents for non-UN organizations are listed in the Open Call for Proposals document.

The application process for this Open Call is structured in two stages: In the first stage, eligible organizations can submit a concept note using an online form. Applicants can request access to the submission form here .

After a pre-selection process, CRAF’d will invite a limited number of organizations to develop a full-fledged project proposal.

The final approval of selected projects by the Steering Committee is expected in March, with the subsequent disbursement grants.

Climate change is widely recognized as a thread multiplier to other fragility risks. Its adverse effects have the potential to further destabilize already fragile settings by intensifying contests over scarce resources, reducing economic opportunities and social cohesion, straining public institutions in already fragile contexts, and fueling political violence and conflict.

CRAF’d refers to this interaction of fragility and adverse effects of climate change as climate fragility risks.

The Open Call for Proposals is seeking to fund projects that use analytics and artificial intelligence to anticipate, prevent, and respond to climate fragility risks.

An AI component is not required. We encourage any project to apply that developes analytics and/or AI to help anticipate, prevent, and respond to climate fragility risks.

CRAF’d is happy to fund both, existing and novel projects. In any case, the proposal should demonstrate that CRAF’d funding will be used to enable earlier, faster, more targeted, and more diginified crisis action or help to better evaluate and assess data-driven decision-making.

The overall funding envelope for this Open Call for Proposals is $3million.

The individual grant size must range between $500,000 and $750,000.

CRAF’d will start disburse funding in late March 2023. 

All project proposals must be submitted in English.

The proposals will be evaluated against the following criteria in descending order of priority: Commitment to CRAF’d Principles, Thematic fit to Open Call, Strategic relevance, Output, outcome & impact; Sustainability, Scalability, Innovation, Cost effectiveness. For further details please refer to the Open Call for Proposals document.

The final allocation of CRAF’d funding will be decided by the Fund’s Steering Committee. The funding decision is based on the evaluation criteria as outlined in the Open Call for Proposals document.