Global Participation Fund: Frequently Asked Questions

How to Apply

Click here to access the Global Participation Fund application portal.

Why did we launch the Global Participation Fund?

Universal uptake of ORCID is inherent in our mission to enable transparent and trustworthy connections between researchers, their contributions, and their affiliations wherever they are. Our current member organizations emphasize the importance of ORCID’s adoption universally around the world, however, although individual researchers in nearly every country have registered for ORCID iDs, organizational membership is lacking in much of the Global South.

Evidence suggests that organizational membership and community building in local contexts are key to driving awareness and participation in ORCID among researchers in those locations. In turn, increased participation among researchers helps them increase their visibility and claim credit for their work, whilst also improving funder, publisher, and policymaker understanding of the contribution and impact of researchers in those countries and improving the ability of academic institutions to understand their global collaborations better and benchmark their performance against others.

GPF Goals

The ORCID Global Participation Fund (GPF) was established in 2022 with the kind support of several of ORCID’s founding sponsors, and was designed to provide grants to further ORCID’s public charitable purpose under its US 501(c)(3) non-profit designation:

• promoting accuracy and integrity, and furthering collaboration in scientific research and scholarship
• generally supporting and enhancing scholarship and the scientific process by
  • working to solve the author/contributor misidentification problem in scholarly research and communication
  • creation of a central registry of iDs assigned to individual researchers and linked to researcher outputs
  • engaging in other related activities to enhance and increase scholarly research and scientific discovery in the public interest

There are two GPF Grant Programs

ORCID has established the Fund to help remedy current gaps in organizational participation around the world by providing funds to:

Foster the development of ORCID Communities of Practice in the Focus Communities (as described above).

Work with local partners who can build understanding and use of ORCID in local contexts.

Create and enhance technical integrations that will support the realization of the benefits provided by the use of ORCID in areas of the Focus Communities.

Initially we will be offering two grant programs via the GPF to achieve our goals. These grant programs are:

Who should submit a proposal?

The GPF is designed to develop ORCID Communities of Practice in low- and lower-middle-income economies, as designated by the World Bank, particularly in the Global South where ORCID participation to date has been low (the Focus Communities.) All aspects of the GPF and its grant programs are designed to benefit those in this region. If your organization is either from one of these countries, or the grant will benefit research infrastructure in one of the following countries, we encourage you to apply.

Global Participation Fund Focus Communities

Does my organization need to be an ORCID member to apply?

No. GPF grants can be awarded to any non-profit organization, NGOs, or government entity, whether they are a current ORCID member or not.

How will Grant Proposals be evaluated?

As with any grant program, we seek to identify and award proposals that are likely to have the most effective impact on the Fund’s objectives in the most efficient way. As a result, preference will be given to proposals with demonstrated ability to:

• Provide effective impact most efficiently
• Deliver impact to multiple Fund objectives
• Target communities that are less well represented in the ORCID membership/user base, i.e. those in the Focus Communities

The Evaluation Group will evaluate all proposals submitted by the submission deadline. Each proposal will be read and evaluated by at least two people according to a set rubric that will be provided to proposers as reference material. Those submitting proposals will receive information about reviewer assessment and feedback as available. Information about awarded proposals will be shared with the community.

What can grants be used for?

Grants are expected to be awarded to not-for-profit organizations (or their local equivalent) whose missions closely align with the objectives of the Fund. A non-exhaustive list of example activities that may be funded includes:

• Reasonable salary/contract support for individuals conducting activities related to the proposed work
• Materials, tools, and resources needed to accomplish the proposed work
• Travel and other expenses that may be necessary to conduct the proposed work

Grantees are expected to outline how they intend to use funds should they receive a grant and are expected to spend grants as per the budget submitted in their proposal. While grantees have a great deal of flexibility with how they propose to use the grant, proposals will be evaluated based on the expected impact that the grant is expected to deliver for the grant size and the activities the grant supports.

How GPF Grants may NOT be used

GPF grants will only be awarded to non-profit organizations, NGOs and government entities, not to individuals or commercial organizations. Though this is not an exhaustive list, GPF grant funds may not be used for the following:

• To privately benefit any individual
• Political campaigns and legislative lobbying efforts
• Sub-granting initiatives
• Costs previously incurred
• Loan repayment programs
• Contribution to reserves
• ORCID membership fees

Grant sizes

The number and size of grants are largely dependent on the Fund’s size. During the 2022–23 Fund year, we expect to award 10 grants of US$5,000–20,000 each. The first tranche of grants will be awarded in November 2022; and a further tranche will be awarded around May 2023.

80% of the grant funding will be provided at the time of the award. The final 20% of the awarded funds will be provided upon submitting a grantee final report that highlights program accomplishments and impact, and reconciles budgeted financials.  Further details about final report expectations will be provided to successful projects. Note that the amount awarded to successful applicants may differ from that requested in the original proposal.

Grant durations

The duration for all grants will be one year. If grantees complete funded work before the end of the year, they may submit their final report to receive the final grant payment. If a grantee needs more time to complete the proposed work, extensions may be granted at ORCID’s discretion.

Grantees may submit additional proposals after the completion of funded work. Follow-on proposals may continue previously proposed work or can represent new work. Organizations may not receive more than two grants from this fund and may not have more than one active grant at a time.

GPF monitoring and evaluation

ORCID’s GPF Program Officer will monitor several criteria to evaluate the fund’s effectiveness and will set a key target for each of GPF objectives. In addition, ORCID will seek success stories, use cases, and indicators from grantees that provide anecdotal evidence of GPF impact. Grantees will be expected to provide an end-of-grant report that indicates how funds were used contrasted against the proposed expenditures. Grantees will also be asked to quantify the impact that their work has made toward Fund objectives.

Other benefits to awarded grantees

In addition to the financial support provided through the grant, ORCID also provides grantees the following optional benefits to encourage peer sharing and mentorship:

• Dedicated ORCID staff contact
• Invitation to participate in the ORCID grantee forum and community
• Invitations to grantee community events and forums
• Invitations to ORCID virtual and (if applicable) in-person events
• Inclusion and highlights of granted programs within ORCID’s ongoing communications program when appropriate.

GPF financials

The non-endowed Global Participation Fund has been established with the kind support of several of ORCID’s founding sponsors, who have generously agreed to forgo repayment of some or all of their initial start-up loans to ORCID to establish the GPF. 100% of GPF resources will be used on awards to grantees. The GPF is operationally supported by ORCID which does not take any overhead from the GPF for this service. As part of ORCID’s general operations, the GPF’s financials will be included in ORCID’s annual audit and submission to the US tax authorities.

The number and size of grants to be awarded by the GPF will be dependent on the size of the GPF. The initial source for the GPF’s resources is expected to support several grant rounds. ORCID will evaluate GPF effectiveness and impact before GPF resources have been exhausted to determine if the GPF should seek to raise funding to support additional grants.

GPF governance and operations

Initially, GPF implementation and operations will be guided by an Advisory Committee that includes representatives from the organizations that provided initial donations that established the fund. This group will provide feedback on GPF objectives, structure, and funding criteria. This Advisory Committee will not be responsible for Grant Program proposal evaluations. ORCID’s Board will ratify the program’s objectives and funding criteria.

An Evaluation Group will review submissions as per the Grant Evaluation Rubric. The group will include members of the ORCID staff, and it may contain members of the advisory committee at ORCID’s discretion.

To ensure transparency, the Grant Evaluation Rubric will be made available to the community and prospective grantees when the Call for Proposals opens. Those submitting proposals will receive information about reviewer assessment and feedback as available. Information about awarded proposals will be shared with the community.

Monitoring & Evaluation

ORCID’s GPF Program Officer will monitor several criteria to evaluate the Fund’s effectiveness and will set a key target for each of the Fund’s objectives.

In addition, ORCID will seek success stories, use cases, and indicators from grantees that provide anecdotal evidence of Fund impact. Grantees will be expected to provide an end-of-grant report that indicates how funds were used contrasted against the proposed expenditures. Grantees will also be asked to quantify the impact that their work has made toward Fund objectives. ORCID may showcase grantee programs and impact in its communications materials and website.

Budgeting Indirect/Overhead Costs for ORCID’s Global Participation Fund

Applicants for ORCID’s Global Participation Fund are permitted to budget for indirect/overhead costs. It is important to note that ORCID has a 15% cap for such budget allocations.