Dear Ecoversities community,

We are the team of Collaborative Projects & Regional Gatherings, lovers of weaving, collaboration, symbiosis and seeding. We are part of the Ecoversities Alliance, where we continue to imagine how to keep the field open so that, as an alliance, we can continue to create more ideas, games, products, experiments, etc., for our lives, and alternatives for reimagined education, for reimagined lives, for reimagined worlds.

With this in mind, we share here with you the call for Collaborative Projects!

The Ecoversities Collaborative Projects encourages people to play together to deepen the relationships among Ecoversities in a particular region or across regions, and strengthen the work that we are doing at the Alliance with actions/activities/creations/experiments/etc., that can weave some of the big questions from the regions. This call is for Ecoversities that want to work together (at least 3 Ecoversities) and the topics are flexible as they respond to what is alive in their region.

Three questions that this call proposes to explore are:

• What are the challenges and problems my Ecoversity is facing and other Ecoversities are facing in my region?

• What can we do to help each other?

• What steps can we take to strengthen the movement to re-imagine education, re-imagine life, re-imagining the world, in our region and beyond?

👥 Who is it for? 

The Ecoverse is a learning/unlearning journey. Its objective is to weave relationships between different people, initiatives, projects, communities and contexts to expand opportunities for collaboration and strengthen the fabric of the Ecoversities Alliance.

The call is open for all Ecoversities members from all regions. We are looking for collaborative projects which involve at least 3 Ecoversities in the specific region (but we are open to projects that engage multiple regions). So we ask you to be mindful of the whole and think about ideas rooted in the needs of the region, or in the needs of the larger Ecoversities community. Also we ask that you have done some background preparation work with the other partners before submitting your proposal.

🌎 What kinds of projects can you submit?

We want projects that will come up with resources/paths/ideas/material/etc. that strengthen the movement to re-imagine education, re-imagine life, re-imagining the world. These can include campaigns, training workshops, small planning meetings/conferences (under 10 people), developing learning materials, prototyping experiments, crowdfunding campaigns, a software app, policy work, etc. 

Some of the questions to think about as you are working on your project proposal may include:

• What kinds of blocks or challenges are Ecoversities facing in the region? What can we collaboratively do to overcome these?
• How to strengthen/ enlarge the pool of learners in the region?
• How do we increase the pool of good facilitators?
• How do we increase practical apprenticeship opportunities in the region?
• How do we increase the base of financial and other resources for Ecoversities in the region?
• How to support different kinds of assessment and accreditation of learning in the region?
• How do we explore shifting different kinds of local work and economies for learners?  
• What new projects do Ecoversities want to create together?
• How do we think that local project /ecoversity can be catalysts for other regional projects or alliances….? 
• Are there inter-regional topics that can be address through collaborative action?

PLEASE NOTE: IF YOU ARE APPLYING FOR A RESEARCH PUBLICATION OR A RESIDENCY TO VISIT ANOTHER PROJECT, IT WILL NOT FIT UNDER THIS CALL. 

💰 Funds 

The money given to the projects are intended to be partial seed – a contribution for the birthing of the project, a starting point, from which the organization will be able to reach other funding opportunities (these will be asked about in your application).

Each collaborative project can apply for between $500 to $2.000 USD. Keep this in mind for the application.

↪️ How to apply?

In order to apply, applicants must answer the following form: here for English version, here for Spanish version, here for Portuguese version. In the forms, you must answer the questions and explain why your project is nurturing your region.

Submit your application by March 5th, 2023!

If you feel that one or more questions are better answered through video or audio, we are open to receive it. Please compile them in one video only, referencing which questions are being addressed, and limit the video or audio to a maximum 7 minutes. You can send your video to collaborative.proj.gatherings@gmail.com, if necessary using a file sharing tool such as WeTranfer.

The timeline is:

Until March 5th → submission of applications + review of the applications and brainstorming to finalise the project details

Between March and July → project materialises, events take place, networks are formed and expanded, emotions are stirred, funding is spent

August → invoices are delivered, and reports are submitted

Please note that the awardees commit to share a documentation of their process with the larger Ecoversities community, during and upon completion of the project.

✔️ Selection Criteria

The selection of the projects will be done on a non-competitive basis and in a spirit of collaboration and trust in the potential of every application. We don’t look for yes or nos, but how we can make the project happen in the best way. Some of the main criteria we will take into account are:

• To what extent does the applicant understand the general purpose of the Ecoversities Collaboration Projects?
• To what extent does the partial seed required by the project reflect the financial needs of and the efforts to raise the rest of the money needed?
• At least 3 Ecoversities projects have to be involved in the project.  To what extent this project can nurture the region and the Alliance?
• To what extent this project can nurture the region and the Alliance?

Through this process we aim to select projects that reflect equality, diversity and inclusion – so we encourage all interested members of the Alliance to participate (regardless of race, color, ancestry, nationality, religion, gender, sexual orientation, age or disability). 

Let us know if you have any further questions to collaborative.proj.gatherings@gmail.com.
We hope that this call can make you explore your region or inter-regional collaborations, come up with questions, explorations and ways of approaching what is happening and how we can answer to what is moving around us.

With love and curiosity to get to know all your ideas,
The team of Collaborative Projects & Regional Gatherings: Catarina, Sara, Evina, Archana, Wafaa, Ana Carolina and Manish