Mauritius Research and Innovation Council

The Social Innovation and Research Grant Scheme (SIRGS), a new funding scheme in line with the National Innovation Initiative being spearheaded by the Ministry of Technology, Communication and Innovation (MoTCI), can be seen as an innovative scheme to tackle an existing gap in social innovation in the local context. Social Innovation refers to the adoption of new social practices in order to meet social needs in a different or more effective way.

 

NGOs and/or public funded bodies in collaboration with academic/research institutions/private sector companies can submit proposals which combine action-research and a social innovation potential with tangible outcomes in social development research areas including but not limited to social integration of vulnerable groups, equal opportunities and environmental issues.

 

The projects under this scheme need to have a strong research element embedded within to clearly define, describe, monitor and evaluate an intervention in an identified social problem and how in turn this intervention brings a novel and practical solution to the area under investigation.  Projects will therefore be judged in terms of the potential practical merits as socially innovative solutions to the social problems identified.