Grant cycle: Grassroots urban innovation
Created in partnership with the Judith Neilson Foundation, we're funding community-driven solutions to build resilient, inclusive, and adaptive urban areas for the future.
Why this fund?
For years, GIG has championed grassroots innovation — solutions created from the bottom up, shaped with end users, grounded in local knowledge, and driven by lived realities. Yet across our network, we've identified two critical gaps:
Early-stage support
Small ideas need space to be tested, but lack of early-stage funding prevents experimentation and learning.
Scaling support
Structural obstacles prevent grassroots innovators from scaling their solutions or gaining recognition.
The aim of the GIG fund is to foster resilient, inclusive, and adaptive urban areas by supporting grassroots innovators as they respond to pressing challenges like climate change, sustainability, rapid urbanisation, and more.
This fund offers not only financial support, but also mentorship and a community of practice that encourages experimentation, learning, and collaboration.
Who can apply?
The GIG fund is open to GIG members who are:
- Based in Global Majority regions, especially small and medium-sized urban areas
- Working on innovations addressing urban challenges: water, waste, energy, housing, mobility, safety, social inclusion etc.
- Ready to commit to mentorship, peer learning sessions, and project reporting to t ensure solutions can be adapted, scaled, or replicated by others
What the fund offers?
Selected grantees will receive these two funding tiers:
US$ 5,000
Microgrants
For early-stage prototypes and ideas that need initial testing and development.
US$ 20,000
Medium Grants
For developed innovations ready for community implementation and scaling.
Additional support
- Mentorship from experienced practitioners in sustainability, open tech, community engagement, and business modeling
- Capacity-building workshops covering design thinking, open documentation, business models, and frugal innovation
- Peer-to-peer learning enabling South–South exchange across urban contexts
- Support in storytelling and open-source documentation
How to apply?
The application deadline is 3rd April 2026, 23:59, Anywhere on Earth (AoE). To apply, submit your project idea using the official application form.
Key dates
- Grantees announced: 1 May 2026
- Projects begin: 1 July 2026
Project timeframe
- Micro Grant: approximately 6 months
- Medium Grant: approximately 10–12 months
About the grant's participatory approach
This fund is designed as participatory grant-making, meaning the process is shaped by those closest to the challenges.
How it works
- Grant criteria and processes are shaped collectively by GIG members,
- Submitted projects go through a collaborative review process. All submission documents (excluding budget details) are shared with fellow applicants, who vote and provide feedback to support the selection committee's final decision.
- Once the selection process is complete, all applications are made accessible to GIG members.
- The grant process stays flexible, non-linear, and focused on learning.
Partnership with Judith Neilson Foundation
We are deeply grateful to the Judith Neilson Foundation for supporting this vision and enabling GIG to offer small-scale, grassroots-led funding for the first time.
This partnership strengthens our long-standing mission: to support open, local, community-driven innovation that improves lives and shapes the future of urban areas. We're excited to support the next generation of urban grassroots innovators!
