Lanzamiento nueva convocatoria: Fondo de Innovación 100.000 Strong in the Americas
UnidosxLaEducación
October 29, 2020: Partners of the Americas, the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs at the U.S. Department of State, and the U.S. Embassy in Bogotá announce a new Innovation Fund competition with generous support from the Colombian Institute of Educational Loans and Studies Abroad (ICETEX) and the U.S. Department of State to increase higher education partnerships and academic training opportunities for students in Colombia and the United States.
The 100,000 Strong in the Americas (100K) Innovation Fund is the Department of State’s signature hemispheric-wide initiative to champion the power of education to transform societies, provide opportunity, and stimulate economic prosperity. The Innovation Fund is the trusted mechanism between governments, business, foundations, and academic networks to strengthen regional education cooperation and create new models of academic exchange and training programs for students.
As of October 2020, after 28 sets of competitions over six years, the Innovation Fund has awarded 243 grants ($25,000 to $35,000 each) to 490 higher education institutions working in teams across 25 countries and 49 U.S. states. As a result of these 100K higher education partnerships, more students in the Americas have access to innovative academic training opportunities to work in teams, gain technical/linguistic skills, and prepare for the workforce.
Colombia is the second leading country in this hemispheric-wide initiative to partner with U.S. colleges and universities to implement new models of student exchange programs. To date, a total of 54 Innovation Fund Grants have been awarded to teams of 95 higher education institutions that benefit students and faculty in 15 Colombian departments and 24 U.S. states. The Government of Colombia, through its various education entities, is the leading regional partner to support the Innovation Fund. This is the second collaboration between ICETEX and the U.S. State Department to increase higher education partnerships to create academic exchange and training programs for students in both countries in the areas of Peace-Building and Rural Development.
The new U.S.-Colombia Grant Competition for 21st Century Higher Education Partnerships is generously supported by the Colombian Institute of Educational Loans and Studies Abroad (ICETEX) and the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs (WHA) at the U.S. Department of State with the U.S. Embassy in Bogota. This Innovation Fund competition will provide up to ten (10) grants of $26,175 each to support bilateral higher education partnerships that will create and implement innovative academic exchange opportunities for students in both countries starting in Fall 2021.
Thematic areas in this new 100K competition include Convergent Technologies, Oceanography, Creative and Cultural Industries, Sustainable Energy, Social Sciences, Health Sciences, Space Science, Biotechnology, Distance Education, Economic Empowerment, Sustainable Agriculture, Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH), Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM), among others.
In a statement at the launch of the new competition, U.S. Ambassador Philip S. Goldberg affirmed that “This new competition is important because it allows us to continue bringing our countries closer together, not only through exchange and academic cooperation, but also through the exchange of experiences and cultures that promotes understanding among our peoples. This type of initiative allows us to be optimistic about the future of our bilateral relationship, because by investing in educational cooperation programs we contribute to the education of our people and the prosperity of the two Nations.”
Manuel Acevedo Jaramillo, President of ICETEX, also affirmed that “The 100K Strong in the Americas initiative has become a fundamental mechanism for strengthening North American higher education relations with its peers in the Western Hemisphere. This competition provides all Colombians with opportunities to invite their higher education institutions to present and formulate projects aimed at the exchange of knowledge and skills in higher education, thus creating new exchange partnerships that will be implemented during the next academic period. The objective of this competition is to strengthen, within the framework of the rich agenda of bilateral relations between the United States and Colombia, the Colombian higher education institutions’ capacity and enrich their portfolio to meet the challenges of higher education in the 21st century.”
Teams of higher education institutions in Colombia and the United States are invited to submit grant proposals to Partners of the Americas by the competition deadline of March 15, 2021. For more details and to access to the (RFP) Request for Proposals, please visit www.100kstrongamericas.org/grants.
################################################
The 100,000 Strong in the Americas Innovation Fund is the public-private sector collaboration between the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs at the U.S. Department of State and Partners of the Americas working with companies, foundations, regional government entities, and academic networks in the United States and the rest of the Western Hemisphere to create partnerships that provide access to new models of academic exchange and training programs. The Innovation Fund is the trusted mechanism between governments, businesses, foundations, and academia to support this hemispheric-wide education initiative to build partnerships, strengthen institutional capacity, and increase access for underserved students to innovative academic exchange programs. As of October 2020, over six years, the Innovation Fund has awarded 243 grants ($25,000 to $35,000 each) to teams made up of 490 higher education institutions working in 25 countries and 49 U.S. states. Currently, more than 2,300 higher education institutions have joined the Innovation Network – including 1,300 universities and colleges in the United States.
LEARN MORE and APPLY for 100K grants: www.100kstrongamericas.org
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.
The Instituto Colombiano de Crédito Educativo y Estudios Técnicos en el Exterior, Mariano Ospina Pérez (ICETEX) is a Colombian public entity that promotes higher education through the granting of educational loans and its collection (with its own resources or from third parties) to populations with few economic opportunities and good academic performance. Within the framework of its Educational Cooperation Policy (Agreement 001/2019), ICETEX promotes the development of internationalization of higher education to improve quality, relevance, equity, research, and innovation through the expansion of mechanisms linked to government entities, higher education institutions abroad or in Colombia. This is how ICETEX implements three development axes in which Colombian citizens, teachers, researchers, national and international experts can strengthen their academic and professional training and receive support through axes such as: a) ICETEX International, in which ICETEX, as a pioneering entity in higher education internationalization, participates in international spaces as a tool for creating new opportunities for Colombians, foreigners, and higher education institutions; b) partnerships for internationalization, in which ICETEX manages cooperation initiatives to strengthen the internationalization of higher education in Colombia; c) regional cooperation, in which ICETEX manages and strengthens international cooperation programs among the regions in order to generate greater opportunities for access and equity to higher education institutions in the Colombian regions.