Projects & Research Center- IUG

INVITATION TO PARTICIPATE IN AN INFORMATION DAY RELATED TO THE CALL FOR SUBMITTING INNOVATIVE, PARTICIPATORY ACTION RESEARCH CONCEPT PROPOSALS UNDER THE OUR FOODWAYS PROJECT. PLEASE JOIN OUR PROBLEM-SOLVING ‘HACKATHON’ TO KNOW MORE ABOUT THIS OPPORTUNITY. PLEASE ALSO NOTE THAT WE WILL SELECT THE BEST 4 PROPOSALS SUBMITTED AND WILL AWARD UP TO 11,000$ TO EACH WINNING TEAM.

this information day on this hackathon will be organized at UCASTI, 4th Floor on Tuesday 4th October @ 11-2 pm. You will have the opportunity to meet practitioner-researchers who are members of the Urban Women’s Agripreneur Forum (UWAF) to explore and discuss the co-development of either technical or social innovations based on your area of specialization.

Based on a series of focus group discussions with members of UWAF under our partnership Gaza Foodways project, the following categories are broadly outlined as areas of innovation with the potential to optimize food and farming systems in Gaza.

● Farming systems (ie. Bio-fertilizers, and natural pest & disease management)
● Food (ie. processing equipment, carbon-based compostable packaging)
● Water (ie grey and stormwater management/capture, desalination devices)
● Energy (ie. solid and organic wastes to energy, renewables, processing equipment)
● Social organization (ie. market or seed systems, value-based solidarity labeling, production and/or waste management co-operatives)

Together, we will explore what innovations look like when they are designed by women-led teams to respond to the needs of women. To this end, researchers will meet, hear from and join forces with UWAF members, forming teams around their specific questions and challenges.

Successful teams will:
Arrive at the session without preconceptions and with an open mind!
Be able to think and work in different ways together (as essential to innovative thinking)
Include at least one UWAF practitioner-researcher
Work with one of the UWAF gatherings (livestock, date, dairy, fodder, seed)
to ground truth your innovations
Be transdisciplinary[1] to consider also the implications and uptake of innovations
Apply participatory innovation development principles and approaches
Be gender balanced yet led by a woman as the principal investigator
Attend a series of webinars for familiarisation with key food system concepts
Co-develop innovations that are appropriate and replicable at chosen scales.
Develop a Business plan for the concept and how it can be implemented
If you are interested in taking part in this opportunity, then this launch event will provide information to explain how you can get involved in the hackathon with UWAF members (planned for the 18th of October @ UCASTI)
We particularly encourage early career researchers to participate and form teams. Please share this invitation with colleagues that might be interested, and respond to this email to express your interest in attending. During the launch we will share more details on the process (proposals, timelines, support webinars, mentorship).

Please confirm your attendance via
https://forms.gle/32F1284NgVdwjrUP7
We look forward to meeting you soon