The United Nations Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC) and the BMW Group calls applications for Intercultural Innovation Award 2021. The program selects and supports the most innovative grassroots projects that encourage intercultural dialogue and work toward a more peaceful and socially inclusive world by building mutual respect among peoples of different cultural and religious identities, rejecting violent extremism and embracing diversity.

Benefits

The Intercultural Innovation Award is bestowed upon ten organizations. Awardees will benefit from a comprehensive one-year capacity-building program aimed at strengthening their work. The support program will consist of funding, training and capacity-building, customized support and mentoring. Support will also be provided to successful projects so that they can be replicated in other contexts or settings where they might be relevant. The specific support received will depend on the individual needs of the projects.

Who can apply?

Eligible to apply for the Intercultural Innovation Award are not-for-profit organizations implementing projects focused on promoting intercultural dialogue and fostering diverse and inclusive societies, and who are willing to expand their range of action. Examples include projects in the fields of promoting gender equality and women’s empowerment, preventing xenophobia, violent extremism, and hate speech, promoting the use of sport, art and culture as tools to drive social change and foster social inclusion. The Intercultural Innovation Award does not support one-time events (e.g. festivals, events, conferences. etc.).

Eligibility Criteria

• Organizations must be registered as a not-for-profit organization, such as a non-governmental organization, charitable organization, research and educational institution, labor union, indigenous group, faith-based organization, professional association, foundation and local or municipal branches of government.
• Applying organizations must have been operational for a minimum of 2 years before April 2021; with a funding base and project implementation (i.e. the organization must show registration as non-profit in their country of operation by April 2019 or earlier).
• Applying organizations must be managing a project focused on promoting intercultural dialogue and fostering diverse and inclusive societies, and who are willing to expand their range of action. Examples include projects in the fields of promoting gender equality and women’s empowerment, preventing xenophobia, violent extremism, and hate speech, promoting the use of sport, art, and culture as tools to drive social change and foster social inclusion.
• The applying organization must have the willingness to expand the range of action of the project with UNAOC, the BMW Group and Accenture.
• Organizations that have previously received any UNAOC support are not eligible to apply to the Intercultural Innovation Award.
• Projects that have been submitted to previous editions of the Intercultural Innovation Award and were not selected, are eligible and encouraged to apply again. However, applying organizations cannot have been winners of previous editions of the UNAOC Marketplace of Ideas or BMW Group Awards.