March 17, 2021, Guatemala City: Partners of the Americas, the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs at the U.S. Department of State, and U.S. Embassies announce the launch of a new regional 100,000 Strong in the Americas (100K) Innovation Fund grant competition with generous support from AgroAmerica and the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs, to increase higher education partnerships between the United States and Central America and the Dominican Republic.
The 100K Innovation Fund is the Department’s signature hemispheric-wide initiative to advance a positive agenda for the region by harnessing the power of education to transform societies, provide opportunity, and stimulate economic growth. Since its inception in 2013, and as of March 2021, the Innovation Fund has awarded 243 grants ($25,000-$35,000 each) to teams of 493 higher education institutions working in 25 countries and 49 U.S. states. As a result of 100K partnerships, more students in the Hemisphere have access to innovative academic training and exchange programs to work in teams, conduct research, gain technical and linguistic skills, and prepare for workforce demands.
This new regional Innovation Fund competition is the result of the public-private sector collaboration between the U.S. Department of State, Partners of the Americas, and AgroAmerica, the second multinational company based in Guatemala to join the 100K Fund. This Innovation Fund Competition will provide twelve (12) grants of $25,000 each to support new higher education partnerships to create and implement innovative models of academic training and student exchange programs between the United States and the region starting in January 2022.
In remarks delivered during the launch of this new competition, U.S. Ambassador William Popp affirmed: “The 100K Innovation Fund advances a positive agenda for the Hemisphere by harnessing the power of education to transform societies, provide opportunity, and stimulate economic growth. To all the higher education institutions that have won previous 100K competitions: thank you for making these educational partnerships a reality. To those institutions considering applying for this new opportunity: We hope you will dream big! The partnerships you build will bring our nations closer together and provide unique opportunities for future generations.”
Likewise, CEO of AgroAmerica, Fernando Bolaños Valle stated: “It is with great enthusiasm that AgroAmerica joins the State Department as strategic partners in this regional initiative in an organic way, because of our shared values, building, step by step, a future full of prosperity and hope for our countries. From AgroAmerica we are convinced that the future of our continent depends on strategic investments like these, which will multiply more prosperity for the United States, Central America, and the Dominican Republic.”
- Thematic areas in this 100K grant competition include Environment; Public Health; Climate Solutions; Human Rights; Health Sciences; Education Technology; Food and Agricultural Sciences; Water, Sanitation, Hygiene (WASH); Business Development; Science, Technology, Engineering, Math (STEM), among other disciplines.
- Teams of higher education institutions in the United States and El Salvador, Honduras, Costa Rica, Panama, Belize, Nicaragua, or the Dominican Republic are invited to submit 100K grant proposals to Partners of the Americas by the deadline of August 2, 2021.
- For more details and to view the (RFP) Request for Proposals for this competition, please visit 100kstrongamericas.org/grants.
The 100,000 Strong in the Americas (100K) Innovation Fund is the public-private sector collaboration between the U.S. Department of State, U.S. embassies, Partners of the Americas, companies, foundations, NGOs, and regional government entities working with education networks to stimulate and support partnerships and training programs between the United States and the rest of the Western Hemisphere. Since its inception in 2013, the Innovation Fund has been the trusted, flexible mechanism that drives this hemispheric-wide education initiative to create partnerships, build institutional capacity, increase student exchange/training programs, and strengthen regional education cooperation throughout the Americas. With contributions from the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs at the U.S. Department of State, along with 30 visionary regional public/private sector partners, the Innovation Fund has awarded 245 grants to teams of almost 500 universities and community colleges in the Americas. As a result, students and faculty have access to innovative, sustainable academic training and exchange programs. In seven years (2013-2020), over 2,300 regional higher education institutions have joined the Innovation Network — including more than 1,000 universities and colleges in the United States.
For more information: www.100KStrongAmericas.org / Follow: #100KStrongAmericas
The mission of Partners of the Americas is to connect people and organizations across borders to serve and to change lives through lasting partnerships. These partnerships create opportunity, foster understanding, and solve real-life problems. Inspired by President Kennedy and founded in 1964, under the Alliance for Progress, Partners is a non-profit, non-partisan organization with international offices in Washington, D.C. Learn more at www.partners.net or via Twitter @partnersamerica.
AgroAmerica is a Sustainable Food Producer committed to contributing to the well-being of people and the environment. We accomplish this through innovation and technological investment to develop high-quality products and the execution of our Corporate Sustainability Strategy. AgroAmerica promotes national and international cooperation by aligning its actions to the Sustainable Development Goals, thus revitalizing global partnerships to achieve our goals. For more information about AgroAmerica, visit https://agroamerica.com/en/home/.