In 2021, SeyCCAT hosted the fifth call for proposals for the Blue Grants Fund. The call took place over six weeks and concluded on the 11th of June. The fifth funding cycle received 54 applications with a total requested amount of SCR 49.6 million.
This year, the fifth call for proposals focused on four strategic objectives:
- Strategic Objective 1: Support new and existing marine and coastal protected areas and sustainable use zones.
- Strategic Objective 2: Empower the fisheries sector with robust science and know-how to improve governance, sustainability, value and market options.
- Strategic Objective 4: Develop and implement risk reduction and social resilience plans to adapt to the effects of climate change.
- Strategic Objective 5: Trial and nurture business models to secure the sustainable development of Seychelles’ blue economy.
For the BGF5, we added two new offers:
- Blue Business Grant: Partnering with Trois Frères Distillery, a successful Seychellois business, we offered SCR 150,000 and business mentorship support to an innovative project idea that advances the blue economy agenda. The Blue BusinessGrant followed a medium grants process and received three proposals.
- Large grant: A new type of grant offers up SCR 2 million to Civil Society, Government and Parastatal organizations with necessary human capacity and experience implementing large-scale project.
Preliminary outcomes
The BGF received a total of 54 project proposals:
- 7 applications for small grants (up to SCR 100,000)
- 37 applications for medium grants (up to SCR 1 million) NB: out of 37, 6 applications have been rejected for non-compliance
- 10 applications for large grants (up to SCR 2 million)
The total requested amount from the BGF5 applications was SCR 49.6 million, which was twice more than the funds available.
2021 was also the first year when we received more applications from businesses (18) than from non-profit organizations (8), while 23 applications came from individual project proponents. Additionally, we received 7 applications from repeat proponents who were both successful and unsuccessful in the previous funding cycles.
Out of 41 medium and large grant applications, 22 were invited to submit their full proposals at the second stage.