Competition model selected

More formally this is known as a “pre-commercial procurement process”.

Many thanks to those who attended our recent EduApp4Syria dialogue conferences in Oslo and Washington, D.C. and who submitted valuable feedback.

The process will start with an initial competition from which up to five winning participants will be selected. These winners will be invited to enter into research and development contracts with Norad.

The contracts will involve several separate phases for which economic incentives will be paid out. We have set aside approximately 1.8 million USD in total.

At each phase we will narrow the field down, so that we end up with 1-2 winning applications at the end of the contract period.

We plan for the initial competition to be launched at the end of January 2016.

Following are details about how we envisage the competition process:

• In the initial competition we will ask for both a short video pitch of the concept and a simple prototype that can demonstrate the main activity/gameplay of the application which is to be developed.
  
  If you wish to build on an existing concept or use an existing concept for illustration purposes, this is fine as long as you can describe well how it will be further developed to match the requirements of the initial competition.
  
  It will be crucial to demonstrate how the application will be engaging for children, as we expect this to be a pre-condition for long term use at the household level. If your existing prototype is HTML-based, you will need to provide a convincing explanation for how it will be made into a smartphone application. The materials for the initial competition can be submitted in both English and Arabic.
  
  
• We anticipate that the apps and programs developed as part of this project will be released under an open source license and that all digital content will be released under a Creative Commons license.
  
  Exception to these requirements can be considered if the supplier provides a very significant share of own financing.
  
  It should also be noted that the requirements do not pertain to the concept video and simple prototype that we will ask for in the initial competition. 

Are you looking for partners in order to compete?

Many interested in the competition have expressed a desire to partner with other types of expertise.

To help facilitate that, we have created a Facebook Group called EduApp4Syria, where you can reach out to other potential participants. If you want to join the group, click on + Join Group.