Interest reviewing NDVI application for US govt. development innovation grant

[Minhchau Dinh]

Hello,

My name is MC and I am the Operations Manager at Development Innovation Ventures (DIV) at the USAID Global Development Lab.

DIV is an open competition that supports breakthrough solutions to the world's most intractable development challenges—interventions that could change millions of lives at a fraction of the usual cost. DIV looks for bold development ideas, pilots them in small increments and tests their effects, and scales those that demonstrate widespread impact and cost-efficiency. 

Currently the DIV team is reviewing an application that will use Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and precipitation mapping for an agricultural project in Africa. If anyone on the listserv is interested in reviewing this application, or other applications in the development space, please email MC at md...@usaid.gov. 

Thank you!

[Jacqueline Kazil]

I am going to ask a stupid question -- in hopes that I am not the only one wonder this.

What does it mean to "review"?

Jacqueline Kazil | @jackiekazil

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[Minhchau Dinh]

Hey Jackie!

Thanks for your message! It is not a stupid question at all. I didn't want to overload too much information on my post, so I'm glad you followed up! Essentially, we're a grant-making institution for the biggest ideas in development. In addition to an internal review, our program values the technical and regional expertise of external reviewers (non-USAID/non-USG). Here are some high level points on what the reviewer does--  

1. The level of effort of reviewing a DIV Stage 1 proof of concept application is relatively light (no more than 1 hour for reading and writing high-level feedback). Our Stage 2 and 3 (testing at scale/full scale up) takes 2 hours of reading and writing feedback, with a possible one hour long conference call to make a funding decision.
2. A reviewer must sign a Nondisclosure Agreement and Conflict of Interest (COI) form. At DIV, we receive a lot of fascinating ideas on technology, business processes, products that are cutting-edge. We sign these documents for both USG procurement rules and for the applicants to feel comfortable.
3. This position is unpaid, but we're happy to provide letters of recommendation/documentation of your service to our program

Lastly, if this opportunity is still of interest to you, I am happy to send examples of past reviews and a power point with reviewer guidance.

Thanks again for your comment, and please feel free to let me know if you have any questions. Happy to chat over the phone as well.

Cheers,

MC