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 (MPTFO) and managed by the UN-hosted CRAF’d Secretariat and the CRAF’d Steering Committee.

The thematic focus for this Open Call for Proposals is on essential data sets that provide insights into major risk events and affected populations.

Projects should fall into one of the two categories:

Primary data sets that focus on capturing information related to: population and demographics; conflict and violence; weather and climate; public health and diseases; food and nutrition; geography and infrastructure; gender, including Women, Peace, Security or other relevant factors.

Multiple integrated data sources that provide comprehensive and reliable multi-hazard information. These projects can use data from various sectors, geographic locations, and sources to create a nuanced composite view on complex risks events and affected populations.

The application process for this Open Call is structured in two stages:

In the first stage, eligible organizations can submit a concept note using this online form.

After a pre-selection process, CRAF’d will invite a limited number of organizations to the second stage of the application process, where they can develop a full-fledged project proposal.

Final approval of selected projects by the Steering Committee and subsequent disbursement of grants is expected in October.

A Concept Note template is availabe here. You need to provide general information on your organization and the proposed project as well as information on your project’s budget and more detailed information on all evaluation crieria outlined in the guidance document.

The final allocation of grants will be decided by the CRAF'd Steering Committee on the basis of the project proposals submitted and evaluated against the evaluation criteria set out in the guidance documents.

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

NUNOs can access CRAF’d funding either through a managing agent (UN entity that has signed the CRAF’d MoU), or through the CRAF’d direct access modality, as outlined in the CRAF’d Terms of Reference.

A total of $3 million in funding is available. The minimum grant amount should be at least USD 250,000.

Funds are expected to be disbursed starting in November 2023.

The proposals will be evaluated against the following criteria in descending order of priority: Thematic focus, Strategic focus, Technical requirements, Commitment to all CRAF’d Principles, Sustainability, Scalability, Innovation, Cost effectiveness, Geographic balance and local ownership. For further details please refer to the guidance document.

CRAF’d is funding both existing and new projects.

The project concept note / project proposal should demonstrate how CRAF’d funding will be used to enable earlier, faster, more targeted and dignified crisis action.

Applicants are encouraged to have other sources of funding, which must be disclosed in the application.

All concept notes and project proposals must be submitted in English.

To contact the CRAF’d Secretariat send an email to crafd@un.org.