The Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor (DRL) announces a Request for Statements of Interest (RSOI) from organizations interested in submitting Statements of Interest (SOI) for programs that support Internet Freedom.
Donor Name: Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor
Country: Global
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline: 01/13/2023
Size of the Grant: $3,000,000
Details:
DRL’s goal is to protect the open, interoperable, secure, and reliable Internet by promoting fundamental freedoms, human rights, and the free flow of information online through integrated support to civil society for technology, digital safety, policy and advocacy, and applied research programs. DRL invites organizations interested in potential funding to submit SOI applications outlining program concepts that reflect this goal.
Internet Freedom Funding Themes
SOIs must address the Goal(s) of one or more of the Internet Freedom Funding Themes: technology, digital safety, policy and advocacy, and applied research.
- Technology:
- Goal(s): Develop, improve, and implement technologies to support uncensored and secure access to the global Internet and/or to support the goals of other Funding Themes outlined below. Current Problems of Interest include, but are not limited to:
- Advanced surveillance, censorship, filtering, or blocking of websites or online services;
- Internet shutdowns, degradation of access;
- Splintering of the Internet;
- The repressive use of spyware, especially when used against civil society, human rights defenders, or independent media.
- Goal(s): Develop, improve, and implement technologies to support uncensored and secure access to the global Internet and/or to support the goals of other Funding Themes outlined below. Current Problems of Interest include, but are not limited to:
- Digital Safety:
- Goal(s): Conduct programs that enable at-risk, vulnerable, and marginalized populations, or those who protect them, to prepare for, prevent, identify, investigate, and/or obtain remedy for repressive digital attacks; or other types of repression (including online surveillance and censorship) designed to prevent these populations from exercising their human rights and fundamental freedoms online. Current Problems of Interest include, but are not limited to:
- The repressive use of spyware, especially when used against civil society, human rights defenders, or independent media.
- Denial of service (DoS) attacks targeting human rights defenders, independent media and civil society, impacting freedom of expression.
- Digital transnational repression.
- Goal(s): Conduct programs that enable at-risk, vulnerable, and marginalized populations, or those who protect them, to prepare for, prevent, identify, investigate, and/or obtain remedy for repressive digital attacks; or other types of repression (including online surveillance and censorship) designed to prevent these populations from exercising their human rights and fundamental freedoms online. Current Problems of Interest include, but are not limited to:
- Policy and Advocacy:
- Goal(s): Conducting or enabling policy advocacy to counter laws, judicial actions, regulations, standards, company policies, and protocols that restrict human rights and fundamental freedoms online; enabling the Goals of the Digital Safety or Technology Funding Themes; and/or otherwise promote and expand Internet freedom. Current Problems of Interest include, but are not limited to:
- Internet shutdowns, including degradation of access.
- Splintering of the Internet.
- Policy or legal measures that restrict human rights and fundamental freedoms online in the guise of promoting cybersecurity or countering cybercrime, disinformation, defamation, hate speech.
- Digital transnational repression.
- Goal(s): Conducting or enabling policy advocacy to counter laws, judicial actions, regulations, standards, company policies, and protocols that restrict human rights and fundamental freedoms online; enabling the Goals of the Digital Safety or Technology Funding Themes; and/or otherwise promote and expand Internet freedom. Current Problems of Interest include, but are not limited to:
- Applied Research:
- Goal(s): Research efforts to inform and benefit Internet freedom globally as outlined in the Goal(s) of the above Funding Themes, or to otherwise better understand and counter threats to Internet freedom. Current Problems of Interest include, but are not limited to:
- The repressive use of spyware, especially for surveillance, censorship, or repression of civil society, human rights defenders, or independent media.
- Internet shutdowns, degradation of access, and splintering of the Internet.
- Laws, regulations, policies, practices, and protocols that restrict Internet freedom.
- Mitigating the impacts of online abuse and harassment without curtailing freedom of expression. 5. Denial of service (DoS) attacks targeting human rights defenders, independent media and civil society, impacting freedom of expression.
- Goal(s): Research efforts to inform and benefit Internet freedom globally as outlined in the Goal(s) of the above Funding Themes, or to otherwise better understand and counter threats to Internet freedom. Current Problems of Interest include, but are not limited to:
Funding Information
- Award Ceiling: $3,000,000
- Award Floor: $500,000
Priority Regions
SOIs focused globally or focused on any region will be considered. Applications should prioritize work in Internet-repressive environments. SOIs regarding technology development should have clear regional human rights use-cases and deployment strategies for the target region(s). SOIs focused on digital safety, advocacy, and research should also have region- or population-specific goals and priorities that are informed by clear field knowledge and expertise.
Key Program Considerations
- The following list of program considerations is provided as a guide to help applicants develop responsive, robust program proposals.
- Projects should have a model for long-term sustainability beyond the life of the grant.
- Preferences will be given to projects that create communities of practice and expertise, which do not just include, but elevate, stakeholders from local communities
- DRL encourages applicants to foster collaborative partnerships, especially with local organization(s) in target countries and/or regions, where applicable. Where appropriate, applicants are invited to form consortia for submitting a combined proposal, with one lead (“prime”) applicant.
- DRL strongly encourages applicants to consider contributing to, enhancing, collaborating or partnering with the developers of, and/or updating existing similar research, educational materials, or other resources before creating duplicative or similar products.
- When working with marginalized and vulnerable populations, preference will be given to projects that substantively partner with organizations or groups that are composed of, or led by, members of the populations being supported and/or explicitly focus on issues related to those group.
- DRL strives to ensure its programs advance the rights and uphold the dignity of the most at-risk and vulnerable populations. Projects that directly engage with or focus on such groups, or with activities in repressive environments, must show an understanding of context-specific ethical and safety considerations of their approach, a clear plan for responsibly and safely conducting their work, and appropriate capacity and expertise to carry out that plan and respond to emergent risks to the program, implementers, and/or beneficiaries.
- Any development or use of Artificial Intelligence and/or Machine Learning will be required to comply with Executive Order (E.O) 1396’s 9 Principles for Use of AI in Government.
- All peer-reviewed scholarly publications authored or coauthored by individuals or institutions resulting from research conducted under proposed programs must be made freely and publicly available and accessible by default without any embargo or delay after publication, in accordance with administration policy. Research projects will be required to provide significant justification and approval for any restrictions or limitations on data access, use, and disclosure.
Eligibility Criteria
- Organizations submitting SOIs must meet the following criteria:
- Be a U.S. – or foreign-based non-profit/non-governmental organization (NGO), or a public international organization; or
- Be a private, public, or state institution of higher education; or
- Be a for-profit organization or business (noting there are restrictions on payment of fees and/or profits under grants and cooperative agreements, including those outlined in 48 CFR 30, “Cost Accounting Standards Administration”, and 48 CFR 31, “Contract Cost Principles and Procedures”);
- Have existing, or the capacity to develop, active partnerships with thematic or in-country partners, entities, and relevant stakeholders including private sector partner and NGOs; and,
- Have demonstrable experience administering successful and preferably similar programs. DRL reserves the right to request additional background information on organizations that do not have previous experience administering federal awards. These applicants may be subject to limited funding on a pilot basis.
- Technology:
- To be eligible programs must:
- Be based on existing and proven open-source technologies, which have matured to the point where they can be responsibly used in relevant repressive, fragile, or conflictaffected environments and with identified at-risk, marginalized, or vulnerable populations.
- Serve a clear human rights use case in their application.
- Demonstrate a clear understanding of adversarial efforts that may impact the use of a proposed technology, and provide a strategy for addressing them.
- Clearly justify and support specific technical claims and justify their contribution to outcomes related to the Goal(s) of identified Funding Theme(s) (e.g. what specific technologies, protocols, etc. are being used; why a specific technology is being used instead of others; how the technology works to address specific identified threats; etc.)
- Submit technologies to an independent third-party security audit, according to DRL guidelines.
- To be eligible programs must:
- To be eligible programs must not:
- Be a closed-source technology project (published under proprietary licenses prohibiting code reuse or adaptation).
- Propose the development of conceptual or aspirational technology without an existing user base or clear application for protecting human rights online.
- Implement technologies that lack appropriate security for relevant at-risk populations.
- Digital Safety:
- To be eligible programs must:
- Have a clear focus on protecting human rights online.
- Demonstrate a clear understanding of adversarial efforts and a strategy for addressing them.
- Address acute repressive threats faced by the populations served.
- Exhibit a clear understanding of the operational risks of operating in local contexts.
- Clearly demonstrate strong internal capacity and deep expertise in risk management and operational security, with a history of successful implementation of similar programs in high-risk environments
- To be eligible programs must:
- To be eligible programs must not:
- Recommend or implement technology that cannot be safely and responsibly used in relevant repressive, fragile, or conflict-affected environments and with identified at-risk, marginalized, or vulnerable populations.
- Fail to specify security training methodologies that will be deployed.
- Conduct generalized “digital literacy” training without a clear impact that improves security for beneficiaries.
- Contain activities that focus on moderating and/or countering online content unless they explicitly restrict their efforts to only use methods that do not curtail freedom of expression (such as online self-regulation by users, privacy protection measures, etc.).
- Focus on countering remote offline surveillance
- Policy and Advocacy
- To be eligible programs must:
- Clearly identify and articulate a specific Internet freedom policy focus area for advocacy.
- Demonstrate a clear advocacy strategy, clearly enumerating activities, and setting concrete goals and outcomes for policy change.
- Articulate a clear understanding of the local policy advocacy context.
- Exhibit a clear understanding of the operational risks for operating in local contexts.
- To be eligible programs must:
- To be eligible programs must NOT:
- Address digital technology policies or regulations that are not focused on, or without clear direct implications for, the protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms on the global Internet.
- Applied Research
- To be eligible, Applied Research programs must:
- Have a clear and immediate Internet freedom Policy and Advocacy, Digital Safety, or Technology application.
- Exhibit a clear understanding of the operational risks for operating in local contexts.
- Show that they are complementary to, and not duplicative of, existing research.
- Be transparent in their research methodologies to allow verification, peer review, and further research by others.
- To be eligible, Applied Research programs must:
- To be eligible, Applied Research programs must not:
- Conduct purely academic research with no immediate application to protect Internet freedom for specific marginalized, vulnerable, or at-risk populations.
- Conduct theoretical exploration of technology and/or security issues that does not clearly address a specific articulated threat to Internet Freedom.
- Conduct experiments on marginalized, vulnerable, at-risk, or actively targeted populations.
For more information, visit DRL.
