Award Criteria

Submission Criteria

Relevance and Alignment with SmartAg Objectives

The project should align with SmartAg’s mission and address key challenges in the food sector.

The project promotes sustainable practices, enhances climate resilience, drives innovation in agri-value chains, and integrates gender as a cross-cutting theme.
It focuses on solving specific, critical challenges in the sector while having broader significance for the community, agricultural sector, or ecosystem.
The initiative enhances sustainable practices, improves efficiency, and optimizes resources to boost productivity or reduce costs.
It creates meaningful benefits for target groups, such as employees, smallholder farmers, women, and marginalized communities, by addressing their unique needs and challenges.

Innovation and Creativity

The project introduces fresh ideas, technologies, or adaptations to tackle challenges in new ways.

It brings a novel approach or adapts existing methods to address key issues in agriculture and food systems.
The solution fills specific gaps, meets unmet needs, or enhances sustainable practices in a creative and impactful way.
It is practical, adaptable to different contexts, and demonstrates a willingness to take calculated risks.
The innovation reduces inefficiencies, optimizes resources, or improves productivity, contributing to broader agricultural and food systems.

Impact and Potential for Change

The project has the potential to create meaningful change, both in the short and long term.

It delivers significant outcomes, addressing challenges like climate mitigation, adaptation, or reducing food loss and waste.
The impact is evident across multiple levels:

Individual: Improving livelihoods, skills, or capacities.
Community: Strengthening networks and fostering collaboration.
Ecosystem: Enhancing agricultural value chains and contributing to sustainability goals.

The project considers its geographic reach and engages a wide range of stakeholders.
It contributes to improving agricultural ecosystems, such as resource efficiency or environmental benefits.

Implementation Feasibility and Strategy

The project has the potential to grow and remain relevant over time.

It can expand to benefit other communities, regions, or agricultural systems, or deepen its impact within its current scope.
Sustainability is built into the project, balancing environmental, social, and economic factors for long-term viability.
The resources invested are proportional to the impact achieved, addressing challenges like resource availability, market access, or stakeholder engagement.

Scalability and Sustainability

The project has the potential to grow and remain relevant over time.

It can expand to benefit other communities, regions, or agricultural systems, or deepen its impact within its current scope.
Sustainability is built into the project, balancing environmental, social, and economic factors for long-term viability.
The resources invested are proportional to the impact achieved, addressing challenges like resource availability, market access, or stakeholder engagement.

Vision and Anticipated Learning

The project reflects a clear vision for the future and a commitment to learning.

Tools or systems are in place to document lessons learned and ensure continuous reflection, adaptation, and improvement.
Lessons learned are applied to refine the approach, improve outcomes, and guide future initiatives.

Submission Criteria

Apply Now!

You can apply if you are a company working with the responsibility managed Climate Smart Agriculture and Food Systems fund or aiming to get funded by the fund.