TECHNOLOGY INNOVATION CHALLENGE  

(the “Challenge”) 

 

The Technology Innovation Challenge (TIC) invites technology providers to propose a pilot or proof-of-concept of innovative solutions addressing the development challenges in Asian Development Bank’s (ADB) developing member countries (DMCs). It is supported and financed by the High-Level Technology (HLT) Fund, ADB’s multi-donor trust fund promoting more widespread adoption of high-level technology in ADB projects. The TIC is sponsored by ADB. 

 

CHALLENGE RULES 

(the “Rules”) 

The aim of these Rules is to set out the terms and conditions governing the Applicant’s participation in the TIC. By submitting an application to this Challenge, the Applicant fully and unconditionally agrees to comply with these Rules. If you do not agree with these Rules, you should not submit an application. In the case of non-compliance with these Rules, the Applicant will be immediately disqualified from the Challenge. 

 

 1.  GENERAL TERMS AND CONDITIONS 

“The Applicant”, “an Applicant” or “Applicants” refers to all project members involved in the proposed project for the TIC. Project members are all entities that will have an active role in the implementation of the project, e.g. joint venture partners, consortium partners, or any form of project partnership. All TIC applications have to include a lead applicant. The lead applicant is the entity that will have the lead in the TIC application process and in the implementation of the TIC project. Furthermore, the lead applicant will handle all communication with ADB. A TIC project can only have one lead applicant. The other project members, also referred to as project partners, are the entities that will work with the lead applicant and have an active role in the implementation of the project. The lead applicant can apply by itself without any other project members. The Applicant shall bear all costs associated with the preparation and submission of its application. ADB shall in no case be responsible or liable for those costs, regardless of the conduct or outcome of the application process. 

The application, as well as all correspondence and documents regarding the Challenge shall be written in English. Supporting documents that are part of the application may be in another language, provided they are accompanied by an accurate and complete translation of the relevant passages into English, in which case, for purposes of interpretation of the application, the translation shall govern. 

All project proposals have to adhere to ADB’s Safeguard Policy Statement. The goal of the policy is to promote the sustainability of project outcomes by protecting the environment and people from projects’ potential adverse impacts. Project proposals that do not adhere to the policy will be rejected.  

The Applicant has to, during the application process as well as the implementation process, adhere to ADB’s Anticorruption Policy and Integrity Principles and Guidelines.  The Applicant is obliged to notify ADB should any of the project members be temporarily suspended, debarred, or declared ineligible or blacklisted by ADB, ADB member countries, multilateral development banks, international organisations, or other donor agencies.  

The Applicant may be requested at any stage to provide additional documentation to support their application. ADB reserves the right to accept or reject any application and to annul the TIC application process and reject all applications at any time, without thereby incurring any liability to the Applicant. 

ADB has the right to share all applications with other departments within ADB, as well as with DMCs.  

ADB will seek a no-objection letter from the relevant DMC government. If this acknowledgment cannot be obtained, then the proposal may be rejected. 

 

2. REGISTRATION AND SUBMISSION 

The deadline for submitting an application is Thursday, 12PM (midnight), 15th August 2024 (Philippines Time = UTC+8).  

Applications are submitted via the online application system. To apply, the lead applicant must register and create a user account.  When an account has been created the lead applicant will have access to the application forms. Applicants that have applied to previous ADB challenges can use the same log in details. The lead applicant is solely responsible for the information provided when registering. Any intentional or non-intentional mistake, anomaly or inconsistency, regarding this information, may result in disqualification. 

All TIC participation forms have to be truthfully and accurately filled out. Failure to complete all forms may lead to disqualification. If documents submitted in the application system cannot be downloaded, are not in the right format, or are incompatible, illegible, or unintelligible, the application will be disqualified. 

An Applicant can submit only one application per challenge. An Applicant, as a lead applicant or as a project partner, that submits more than one application for a specific challenge, will be disqualified. If applicable, please ensure that only one subsidiary or associated company within your group, or an organization owned by the same ultimate holding company, will submit an application. Suppliers can participate in multiple applications submitted by different Applicants. 

 

3. COMMUNICATION

All inquiries on the TIC or the application process must be sent via the message function in the online application system. No other ADB staff or DMC staff are authorized to comment on this process. 

The questions and answers for all queries related to the application process will be shared with all potential applicants in the Q&A section of the online application system. Therefore, please do not share any confidential information or information which could indicate your identity in your question.  

 

4.  PURPOSE OF THE GRANT 

The TIC can provide a grant of up to US$ 300,000 to undertake a proof-of-concept/pilot of a high-level technology or solution to address an identified development challenge. The proposed technology or solution has to be new to the country or the context with improved efficiency, impact, and/or life-cycle cost compared to existing solutions. Therefore, the TIC does not support technology solutions that already exist in the country or context. The technology should, however, have been tested and verified before in another country or context. If the technology solution and the results of its application elsewhere cannot be verified, the TIC application may be rejected.      

Expected outputs include, but are not limited to:  

• Project communication plan developed and implemented (includes project video and other results and lessons learned content published) 
• Pilot of the solution conducted (including stakeholder meetings, capacity building workshops and closing workshop) 
• Progress and completion reports delivered, including verification of the results by an independent party.  

The purpose of the TIC grant is to introduce new high-level technologies in DMC’s and thereby support ADB’s mandate in assisting DMC’s to reach the Sustainable Development Goals. Through TIC, DMC’s will learn about new technology solutions to address various development challenges, and technology providers’ risks related to market entry may be reduced. The goal of the TIC is to identify and develop a high-level technology project at an early stage of the project cycle in a partnership with technology firms. A successful grant implementation may lead to a scale up of the solution with ADB loan or grant funding. ADB may require the scale-up to be competitively tendered. The grantee will be eligible to participate in such tender. To guard against any unfair competitive advantage, data and reports captured and prepared under the grant may be shared will all participating bidders. 

 

4.1 Project costs and payments 

All costs required to implement the project may be charged to the grant including (but not limited to) staff/consulting cost of the lead applicant and the project partners, equipment, travel cost, per diems, training and capacity development cost for local counterparts, and independent verification of results. The project costs as well as the technology solution cannot generate revenue for the project members during the TIC project implementation. If a project member’s own product is used, the valuation of the product should be based on its production cost. If requested, the manufacturer of the product should be able to present relevant documentation showing the actual production cost. Equipment purchased under the TIC grant is expected to stay within the country of implementation after the completion of the project. The operating, maintenance, and ownership arrangements of the technology solution beyond the project implementation period is to be agreed upon during contract negotiations and to be included in the Grant Funding Agreement. For example, a royalty-free license to the participating DMC to operate the technology solution for a mutually agreed period of operation beyond the TIC project period may be negotiated.  

Payments are made on a milestone basis, subjected to the final contract negotiations. The project implementation period is expected to be around 12 months.   

 

5. ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA

In order to be eligible to apply, the Applicant and its project partners must fulfil all seven eligibility criteria listed below. Applications that do not fulfil all the eligibility criteria will be rejected. There are two types of eligibility criteria: project concept criteria and applicant criteria.   

• Geographic scope: The project must be implemented in the Federated States of Micronesia, focusing on the two outer islands: Mwoakillo and Pingelap in the state of Pohnpei. 
• Financing requirements: The Applicant must co-finance at least 10% of the total project cost via their own resources or from other funders. Their contribution can be cash or in-kind (for example, travel or staff time).

An application can comprise of several project members. All project members have to fulfil the applicant criteria listed below.  

Type of applicants: The following type of entities can apply:

• Companies
• Not-for-profit organisations
• Civil society organisations
• Research institutions
• Government-owned enterprises (must be legally and financially autonomous of the government in the implementation country)

 

3. Legal registration: The lead applicant and their project partners must be legally incorporated or registered in an ADB member country. ADB members are listed at https://www.adb.org/about/members.

4. Intellectual property rights: The lead applicant or the project partner must have the Intellectual Property Right, through ownership or licenses, to use the technology solution. 

5. No conflict of interest: The lead applicant and their project partners shall not have a conflict of interest with the government in the country of implementation or with ADB. Conflicts of interest may include sharing shareholders or legal representatives; receiving a subsidy; having material information about or improperly influencing the application of another applicant, or influence over the decisions of ADB regarding this process.

6. Not sanctioned: The lead applicant and its project partners cannot be sanctioned by ADB or be sanctioned under the UN Security Council rules. An organization or individual is ineligible while under temporary suspension or debarment by ADB directly, or under the Agreement for Mutual Enforcement of Debarment Decisions (which allows international financial institutions to recognize each other’s sanctions, such as those issued by the World Bank). The government of the implementation country has not prohibited the import of goods, contracting of works or services from the relevant country of incorporation or registration, or any payments to persons or entities in that country under Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations.

   

6.  EVALUATION CRITERIA 

The evaluation of applications will be undertaken by a technical committee based on the following evaluation criteria:

A. Impact

How effective the technology solution is in resolving the development challenge. The relevance of the expected outputs and results and the likelihood that they will contribute to the set outcomes. The extent to which the technology solution can contribute to helping  DMCs reach the Sustainable Development Goals 

B. Novelty/ Innovativeness

The technology solution is a new technology or new combination of technologies or solutions for the nominated DMC or technology context.

C. Scalability 

The viability and feasibility of the technology solution from a technical, economic, and social context to be scaled-up. The extent to which the technology solution can be replicated and scaled-up within the DMC and within the region with additional financing.

D. Value for Money 

The proposed technology solution represents value for money for ADB and the relevant DMC since it has the potential to create relevant and meaningful impact in relation to the level of the grant. The budget costs are appropriate and considered relevant and sufficient to implement the project as proposed.

E. Local Partnerships

The proposal includes local partnerships in the country of implementation, either through local project partners or through local collaborating partners (i.e. collaboration with local stakeholders). Applicants have adequate experience and capacity to implement the project. Furthermore, the long-term expected benefits of the technology solution to local businesses/communities are considered. This may include capacity development of local partners or shared ownership, or royalty-free licensing with Governments and/or local businesses/communities, or other long-term benefits.

F. Risk Mitigation

Project risks (environmental, social, and implementation-related risks) have been identified and appropriate mitigation measures have been proposed.  

The weightings indicated below are the proportion of the total score which will be allocated to each screening criteria when evaluating the applications. 

          Criterion and weighting of total score 

•           Impact (20%) 
•           Novelty/ Innovativeness (30%) 
•           Scalability (20%) 
•           Value for Money (10%) 
•           Local Partnerships (15%) 
•           Risk Mitigation (5%) 

 

7.  INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY AND PROPRIETARY RIGHTS 

If an Applicant is selected to receive a grant, the Applicant will be required to confirm that: 

• They have the necessary rights to all technology solutions described in your application including without limitation all background (any data, know-how, intellectual property, or other information, whatever its form and whether tangible or intangible, that is held by you before receiving any grant from ADB and that is necessary to implement and undertake actions related to the technology solution) and any device or process necessary to make, use or sell such Technology Solutions existing at the time of your application submission; and 
• They will defend and hold ADB and its  participating DMC harmless from all costs and expenses related to any suit, claim, or proceeding brought against ADB or its participating DMC based on any claim that the technology solution in whole or in part, as well as any device or process necessarily resulting from the use thereof, constitutes an infringement of any patent, copyright, trademark, trade secret or other intellectual property rights of any third party.    

 

8. DISSEMINATION OF PROJECT RESULTS

ADB requires the rights necessary to share knowledge related to innovations developed and funded via a TIC grant. If an Applicant is selected to receive a grant, ADB and the DMC has the right to publish the results of the TIC project implemented. Furthermore, ADB and the DMC shall have the right to use and share all data and results supplied or collected during the TIC project. 

 

 9.  CONFIDENTIALITY 

ADB shall keep confidential any and all data, documents, or other material submitted in response to the TIC, in whatever manner disclosed (e.g., oral, written, or otherwise) that is identified as confidential at the time that it was disclosed.