Opportunity Information: Apply for SOL OAA 16 000176
Securing Water for Food (SWFF) - Round 4 is a USAID-led grant opportunity released under the Grand Challenges for Development (GCD) portfolio, a set of seven challenge programs designed to tackle difficult, high-impact development problems by finding and scaling practical innovations. This fourth call for proposals focuses on identifying and accelerating science, technology, and business model solutions that can create measurable, large-scale results at the intersection of water and agriculture in developing and emerging countries. The core aim is straightforward but ambitious: help produce more food using less water, and/or increase the amount of water that can be reliably used for food production, processing, and distribution.
The opportunity is structured to support innovations that go beyond small pilots and have a credible path to adoption and scale. In practice, this can include new or improved irrigation and water-management technologies, tools that reduce water losses across agricultural supply chains, solutions that improve water availability or quality for farming and food processing, and business models that make these solutions affordable and sustainable in real-world markets. Because SWFF is framed as a Grand Challenge, the emphasis is not only on technical performance but also on how the idea will be implemented, financed, and taken up by farmers, agribusinesses, water utilities, and other actors in the food system.
Round 4 is issued as a discretionary funding opportunity by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) under Funding Opportunity Number SOL OAA 16 000176. Awards are expected to be made using a cooperative agreement, which typically means the funder anticipates substantial involvement during the project period (for example, collaboration on learning, scaling strategy, and performance monitoring) rather than a fully hands-off grant. The program is jointly backed by the founding partners: USAID, the South African Department of Science and Technology, Sweden (through the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, Sida), and the Foreign Ministry of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. This multi-donor structure signals an intent to pool resources and global expertise around water-for-agriculture innovations with broad relevance across regions.
Eligibility is listed as unrestricted, meaning the call is open to a wide range of applicants rather than being limited to a narrow set of institution types. The Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) number associated with the opportunity is 98.001, and the funding activity category is labeled Employment, Labor and Training, although the narrative purpose and content are clearly centered on agriculture, water efficiency, and food systems in emerging and developing markets. The posting was created on August 12, 2016, with an original application closing date of October 10, 2016. The award ceiling is up to $2,000,000 per award, positioning it as a sizable funding source intended to help move promising innovations through demonstration, validation, and early scaling steps rather than only supporting basic research.
Overall, SWFF Round 4 is designed for applicants who can show a compelling innovation and a realistic plan to translate it into widespread impact: improved water productivity in agriculture, more dependable water supplies for food-related uses, and solutions that can survive beyond the grant period through adoption, market demand, partnerships, or other durable implementation pathways.Apply for SOL OAA 16 000176
- The Agency for International Development in the employment, labor and training sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Securing Water for Food (SWFF) - Round 4" and is now available to receive applicants.
- Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 98.001.
- This funding opportunity was created on 2016-08-12.
- Applicants must submit their applications by 2016-10-10. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
- Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $2,000,000.00 in funding.
- Eligible applicants include: Unrestricted.
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