Deadline: February 28, 2019
WHAT IS THIS GRANT FOR?
This grant will support the enabling environment for the development of the Creative Industries (CI) sector.
• This component will be targeted at reducing constraints faced by MSMEs involved in the CI sector, through financing interventions to support CIs, which would focus on improving the business climate for MSMEs in the CI sector including drafting of legislation inclusive of national cultural and creative policies and gender related initiatives that would support increased inclusion of women in the sector.
• It will focus on financing of goods, consultations, workshops, seminars, technical work, research (including knowledge products), and institutional strengthening activities.
• CIIF will fund up to 90% of the project cost or a maximum of USD150,000.
WHO IS THIS GRANT FOR?
• Change agents in the CI sector who are creating platforms to access and integrate into the global creative economy.
• Public-private partnerships that are executing business climate reforms, innovation policy and intellectual property asset management.
• Business support organisations, chambers of commerce, government agencies that are reducing constraints faced by MSMEs involved in CIs, improving the business climate of CIs including drafting of legislation and gender related initiatives, focusing on financing of goods, consultations, workshops, seminars, technical work, research (including knowledge products), and institutional strengthening activities.
Eligible Organisations: Governments, business support organisations, universities, nongovernmental organisations, and legally registered creative enterprises can apply. Proposals from all sub-sectors will be accepted however emphasis will be on five priority sub-sectors.
Organisations applying must be resident in one of the Caribbean Development Bank’s 19 Borrowing Member Countries: Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Montserrat,
St. Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, and Turks and Caicos Islands.
FUND EVALUATION CRITERIA
• Digitization: Creation of digitized content – e.g. webinars, online courses, marketplaces, or sector-specific technologies, libraries and databases and mapping of the creative sector accessible to audiences on an ongoing basis.
• Intersectionality: Inter-section with other industries including but not limited to tourism, urban planning, environmental sustainability, agriculture, education, gender, trade & foreign affairs, health and wellness and technology.
• Clustering, Co-working, Synesthesia: Establishment of clusters, creation of co-working spaces and/ or programs for the intersections between cultural and creative industries sub-sectors.
• Cultural heritage and continuations: Creation and re-creation of products, services, programs that harness, perpetuate and innovate based on the cultural heritage of the region.
• Regional integration and collaboration: Partnership and/or reach across three or more countries.
• Innovative merit: Refers to the factors of differentiation of the proposed new project or service with respect to what is already available in the destination market. Technological impact will be considered where applicable.
• Commercial viability: Considers the market, the proposed commercial strategy, projections and economic results over time, growth potential, and risk factors of the business and the project.
• Coherence in the formulation: Adequate relationship between objectives, results and activities.Adequate human and financial resources for fulfillment of the objectives.
• Social and environmental impact: Incidence of the project in matters of environmental and social impact such as poverty, employment, income, young people, and ethnic minorities.
• Benefit to women: Incidence of the project in terms of its benefit to women.
• Appropriateness of the applicant: History, fulfillment of commitments, contacts and networks with the markets, experience and competencies for project execution.
• Contribution to business climate: Contribution to improvements in the business climate for MSMEs involved in the CIs.
• Additionality: Additionality, with regard to the impact of the grant resources on the proposed project.
• Appropriateness of the applicant: History, fulfillment of commitments, contacts and networks with the markets, experience and competencies for project execution.
• Coordination within creative industries (CI): Identify your project’s positioning within the larger CI sector. Establish the ways in which your project and entity fits within a strategy for coordinated growth of CI across multiple institutions, platforms and countries.
• Development strategy: Outline of a three-year development strategy following the proposed initiative.
• Business model 1 : Clearly identify the business model being used and how this business model has evolved and is being tested.
• Innovative environment: Identify how your project will contribute to an innovative environment for CI sector development including platforms for increased access to funding, research and design that facilitates scaling and return on investment for clients, commercialization of ideas,
audience development, market penetration, access to export and trade.
• Communication: Identify the mechanisms through which your entity will establish relationships of trust through transparency, ease of access and consistent communication with stakeholders.
ELIGIBLE PROJECT COSTS
These are the areas in which funding may be provided (this list is for guidance only and is not exhaustive):
• Equipment
• Research and development;
• Advisory services;
• Product and service development;
• Marketing services and activities (e.g. Trade fairs participation, trade mission and in-market activities);
• Promotional material (e.g. brochures, catalogues and videos)
• Training/capacity building programmes;
• Implementation of information technology solutions (e.g. website, e-commerce and multimedia);
• Market research and testing;
• Packaging, design and;
• Intellectual property activities (e.g. brand registration and patents).
The application form can be accessed at: https://www.caribank.org/form/
The Cultural and Creative Industries Innovation Fund, led by the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB), was designed as a multi-donor fund to support the development of the creative industries (CI) sector. In response to constraints faced by the sector in 2017, CDB approved support to establish a pilot intervention which was started with an initial contribution of USD2.6 million from the Bank.