Deadline: 22-Oct-22

The Niwano Peace Foundation (NPF) is seeking applications for its Activity Grant Program.

Objectives

• Peace is the desire of all humankind.
• Many people in many nations are working unstintingly to bring it about. In spite of this, enormous problems still exist. How best to handle them is the task facing them today.
• The causes of obstructions to peace are manifold, ranging from those involving the individual, the family, the local community, and the nation through problems involving nature and the environment. It is no overstatement to say, however, that the way human beings themselves live is the root of these problems. In times like these, a religion that teaches peace and tolerance has an important role to play.
• Based on these considerations, the Niwano Peace Foundation promotes interreligious understanding and cooperation. It also strives to strengthen cooperation among people actively making continuing efforts, in a religious spirit, to achieve a peaceful society.
• The Foundation does not support any specific religious group. Respecting the uniqueness of all religions and embracing the spirit of tolerance, it aims to build a world of peace and coexistence. The Foundation makes grants in order to actively encourage activities undertaken in the spirit of religious principles grounded and conducted in such a way as to invite broad social participation.

Funding Information

The grant amount which one applicant can apply will be up to 1,000,000 Japanese Yen. (For foreign applicant, the grant amount which one can apply will be up to some USD equivalent to 1,000,000 Japanese Yen).

Fields Eligible for support

• Social activities based on the spirit of religious principles
  • Social activities based on the spirit of religious principals are defined as those undertaken for individual and community welfare and peace, both physical and spiritual, based on the spirit of religious principles that emerge from reverence for God, Buddha, or other universal spiritual reality.
  • In particular, these include peace-making activities related to education, volunteer work, development cooperation, environmental protection, human rights or the social problems of aging societies done in the spirit of religious principles which transcend religious boundaries.
• Grass-roots activities deployed in a local community
  • Activities to vitalize local communities through interdisciplinary workshops and meetings with particular emphasis on collaboration by groups and individuals from diverse organizations and religious groups. It is expected that local communities will come up with some new values with an independent mind.
  • Examples would be workshops and outreach programs to inspire people to think about how people living in faraway countries are related to their own lives, or to encourage development of local activities in which people “think globally, and act locally

Eligible Activities

• Practical activities, short-term or long-term, directly related to peace building.
• Activities which stimulate activities not only in one’s own field but as well in other fields and can be creative and pioneering models for realization of peace.
• NPF also pay attention to the following points:
  • Activity should be specific and target serious issues in society.
  • Activity that approaches the problem using innovative and effective methods.
  • Outcome of the activity has sustainability and has a broad impact, and those functions are built in as a system in the activity.

Ineligible Activities

• Activities undertaken for the benefit of a specific religious group.
• Activities based on or for the advancement of a specific political ideology.
• Activities for profit.
• Activities the purpose of which is holding conferences only as such.
• Projects for which the applicant’s primary intention is to publish the results of activities. (This does not apply to past grant recipients.)
• Grants are not scholarships as such, and are not to be used as financial support for Study abroad.

Issues of particular interest to the NPF this year

• This year, the NPF is particularly interested in activities that address the following issues while meeting the “areas of focus”.
  • Migrants, Refugees and Internal Displaced Persons (IDPs)
  • Gender disparity
  • Child poverty
  • Initiatives by religious organizations and believers to address social issues (including the use of religious facilities)
  • Effective use of technology
• Of the total number of projects to be granted, approximately half will be the projects which addressing these issues.
• However, the projects to be granted are not limited to activities that address these issues.

Eligibility Criteria

• An application may be made by either an individual or an organization.
• Nationality is not a criterion for eligibility.
• Any group which has been in continuous existence for a reasonable length of time is  eligible to apply, whether or not it is legally incorporated.

For more information, visit https://www.npf.or.jp/english/grant/guidelines_application_forms