START-UPS: GET UP TO US$5000 GRANT IN YOUTH AGRIPRENEURS PROJECT (YAP)

Young Agropreneurs

• WHO: Describe your background: “who are you?” – include your full name, your city/country, telephone number and age (as the applications are restricted to those younger than 39 years at the time of submission);

• WHAT: Describe your project: What do you want to do? How do you want to do it? Your proposal has to be agri-related. Show it is realistic and sustainable. We’d also like to know if your project has a socio-economic impact on your community;

• WHY: What motivates you to do the project you submit? What are the gains for you and your community?

• HOW: List the steps you intend to take to achieve your goal, leading to the success of your project; Describe what you have done already to get your project started, until now, either alone or with help; Describe the actual measurable success factors for your project: How do you measure your success? How do you plan to use the US$5000 grant? Define a budget of at least five line-items, and a time frame.

• Your submission should be written in MS Word or any other text editor. It should be 1-2 pages.
• Your submission should be in a story-telling format (as if it were a blogpost), but still containing all elements we mentioned before.  
• Your submission (in MS Word or any other text editor) should be sent as attachment to an email;
• The submission can be in English, French, or Spanish;
• Don’t use any fancy structuring in your text (e.g. no tables or columns);
• We need at least one illustration (a picture, a drawing or a video). You can submit up to two illustrations maximum: e.g. two pictures, or one video and a picture which illustrate your project. You should hold the copyright for the pictures/video, or have a formal permission to use the picture(s) or video. Include picture credentials in your submission BlogSpot;
• Pictures/video should be attached to your submission email. We also accept links to videos you have uploaded on YouTube or Vimeo. But do NOT include the pictures/illustrations in your text. Send them as separate attachments to your email.
• Your submission (your MSWord file, and your pictures/video or video links) should be emailed to p.casiercgi@ar.org

•  The projects have to be related to the agriculture supply chain: input (seeds or fertilizer, tools,…) or production (crops, livestock, fisheries, forestry, agro-forestry,..), value-added services (such as processing or storage), market access,…;
• The US$5000 seed funding by itself has to make a difference in your project: e.g. we don’t want projects where you have to wait for another $20,000 to come in before you can start;
• Your project has to be practical, realistic and hands-on;
• Your project has to show self-sustainability. e.g. no repeated financial investment is needed, and it has to be eco-sustainable (let’s not ruin the earth while trying to feed the planet);
• Your project should show concrete results or at least tangible outputs within one year;
• We prefer projects which have a direct impact on rural areas;
• The agripreneurs have to be younger than 39, at the time of their submission;
• We do accept “group submissions”, e.g. projects run by a group, an organisation, and institute or from a small company (with an annual turnover of less than US$50,000). The proposal has to be submitted by the person who would be the project coordinator, and will be the mentee in our project;
•  We accept up to two project proposals per person.

• How many “Likes” the post gets: How many people clicked on the “Like” button below the post. Note: Only “Likes” on your BlogSpot itself are counted, not on other social media channels;
• How many comments each BlogSpot gets. This is the most important selection criteria. We encourage “dialogue” and we would like every BlogSpot to become an opportunity for the online public to exchange views and provide feedback about your project. Note: Only the comments left on your BlogSpot itself, are counted. Comments left on other social media channels are not included;
• How many times your BlogSpot was viewed.
• The first selection score will be calculated with the formula: First selection score = (5 * #comments) + (2 * #likes) + (#views).

• One can only “Like” a post if you have a wordpress.com account;
• Submitted comments are not published immediately: to avoid spam, we manually screen the comments before releasing them. We release comments at least once a day. So, monitor comments on your submission blog regularly, and post your replies. Note that we closely monitor the comments. Any attempt to artificially pump up the comments on your application, will be considered as spamming and might result in the disqualification of your application.
• The number of pre-selected posts which will go to the jury, will depend on the amount of funding we are able to raise. The first selection will consist of twice the amount of applications we have funding for. E.g.: if we have funding for ten agripreneurs, we will send the jury twenty pre-selections.

• Based on the public voting formula, a panel of judges (judges to be announced later) will give a final score on the top submissions, which will determine the finalists. The panel will consist of scientists, communications specialists and experts in sustainable development.
• They will, individually, score each blog entry based on the project or initiative you presented (feasibility, originality, impact and sustainability – each equally weighed) and the way you presented the project in a BlogSpot. We will total the individual judges’ score to make the final score.

• We accept your online submission, the BlogSpot and illustrations, from now until March 11th 2016 (midnight CET).
• Submit your proposals to p.casier@cgiar.org.
• Once we receive your submission, we will sent you an email to acknowledge your application. When your submission is online, we will send you the link, so you can promote it within your network.
• Once an application is online, we don’t edit it anymore (so spellcheck your application before sending it to us :)
• The online voting will start from the moment your submission is online. The voting closes on March 13th at midnight CET. That’s when we tally your online score;
• The online scores will determine the 20 most popular projects;
• The jury will make the final selection by March 14th;
• On March 15th, we will inform you, if you are selected. From then, we will work with you on the logistics to get you to #GCARD3 Global Conference.

• By submitting your proposal,…
• You allow us to publish the BlogSpot, video and pictures on our blog
• You agree to come to The Global #GCARD3 consultation in South Africa;
• You agree to write a bi-monthly follow-up BlogSpot to be published on the GFAR blog;
• You agree to write a short wrap-up BlogSpot after one year, describing the concrete outcomes of your project, and how the seed funds have been spent;
• You will moderate the comments on your submission BlogSpot(s), by replying to incoming comments, questions, suggestions…