What we do

We form and support partnerships across our programmes, at both strategic and grantee level, to make sure that the global innovation and research agendas are as coordinated, collaborative and well-informed as possible.

What we’ve achieved

At a strategic level:

• In 2018, we joined the gender-based violence (GBV) Call to Action and became a member of the International Organisations Working Group. We made a series of pledges and committed to playing our part in tackling GBV in humanitarian response.

• In 2017 we became partners with the Asian Disaster Reduction and Response Network (ADRRN) and its members. Our mutual ambition is to improve access to innovation resources, support novel ideas, and strengthen partnerships between local organisations in the region.
• We contribute to World Health Organization (WHO) technical expert research prioritisation meetings. Our collaboration with WHO’s Technical Working Group on Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH) in Humanitarian Settings, and support provided to the Inter-Agency Working Group on Reproductive Health in Emergencies, has helped identify priority SRH evidence gaps. As a consequence, we have seen an increase in the number of applications to investigate SRH topics, as well as more grants awarded in this area.
• We act as a conduit for ensuring that applicants for our research funding have the latest information.

At a grantee level:

• We’ve brokered a number of partnerships between humanitarian agencies and non-traditional actors (academics, private sector, and design organisations, among others) to combine the right mix of skills, experience and expertise to develop impactful innovation. As an example, we arranged a partnership between NGOs and a design agency to develop innovative methodologies to prevent GBV committed by ANSAs and to strengthen existing good practices.
• We created a Humanitarian Innovation Guide that provides valuable advice and guidance to humanitarian practitioners and organisations that want to learn more about innovation and social innovators from outside the community.
• Our focus on research impact has empowered researchers unfamiliar with the humanitarian community. It has also enabled them to collaborate with policy level ‘influencers’ to whom they would not otherwise have had access. Our work with the WHO Inter-Agency Task Force on Mental Health and Psychosocial Support in Emergency Settings (MHPSS), for example, helped some of our grantees bring their research to the attention of WHO experts, giving them a greater chance of it being considered a potentially scalable intervention.