Deadline: 4-Jun-23

Knowledge Platform Security & Rule of Law is offering grants for the Knowledge Management Fund to diversify thinking and evidence in the Security & Rule of Law (SRoL) field, particularly in Fragile and Conflict-Affected Settings (FCAS).

The Knowledge Management Fund is the Knowledge Platform’s instrument to financially support activities arising from its network. The small-scale grants awarded by the Fund offer a low barrier to entry for innovative, agile and experimental proposals.

The KMF is divided into three strands: Events, Research, and Innovation. This helps applicants maintain focus on the methodological approach by which they are trying to achieve their objectives. Proposals should reflect the specific added values of the KMF: addressing emerging priority areas, seizing opportunities to strengthen SRoL policy and practice, addressing knowledge gaps, and feeding research outcomes and original ideas into the SRoL sector. These are purposefully broad to leave as much scope as possible for applicants to generate knowledges in their thematic and geographic areas of interest.

Thematic Focus and Scope of Proposals

• The 2023 Thematic Headline is ‘Toward Just Social Contracts’, which the KPSRL has chosen to explore more concretely through three subthemes:
  • Participatory and inclusive social contracts
  • Authoritarian social contracts and the security sector
  • Resilience to polarization
• To stimulate a diversity of proposals, KMF applications are not required to link to any specific subthemes, but applicants may choose to align their proposals with them if they wish.
• The KMF remains a fund focused on the generation and brokering of knowledges as well as learning exchanges supporting the work of the community, rather than implementation of activities. They are interested in three dimensions of knowledges: (co)creation, connections, and use. Each proposal is expected to work towards at least one of the following:
  • (co)creation of new knowledges – to fill gaps where there is insufficient knowledges or expertise available,
  • linking knowledges and actors – to address a lack of awareness or understanding of existing knowledges, or bring actors together for network strengthening or collaborative efforts
  • breaking down the barriers for learning and change within or between people, institutions and organizations – to create enabling environment for or strengthen programmatic or organisational learning,
  • creating the impact of knowledge through its uptake – to ensure the use of knowledges and learning that already exists, which is either ignored or not made available to policymakers and practitioners.

Funding Information

• The KMF is a €200,000 annual fund that awards grants for 9-month projects of up to €20,000 for events, research ideas and other initiatives that contribute to improving the quality of knowledge generated by the SRoL field, and its subsequent uptake.

Eligibility Criteria

• Applications are open to any organization, consortium or individual with the ambition to improve policies, programs or learning in the field of security and rule of law in fragile and conflict affected settings. Think-tanks, (I)NGOs, academics, universities, activists, community groups, private sector organizations, government institutions, journalists, independent researchers or innovators, local governance authorities, and data specialists are all welcome to submit proposals.
• Partnerships between individuals and organizations and across the range of sectors within the network are highly encouraged. The KMF also welcomes partnerships that link people from different regions of the globe.
• The KMF will only fund costs that are directly attributable to the project, up to €20,000. All costs – especially salaries and fee days – must be substantiated and justified. The KMF will not cover overheads, organizational running costs, or any expenses that fall outside the budget agreed in the signed contract.

For more information, visit Knowledge Platform Security & Rule of Law.