What is the IDS Alumni Fund?

A small amount of resources has been allocated to support Alumni-led activities

What sort of activities?:

• Support professional development of Alumni and partners, e.g. skills training session; invite a speaker to address a group of alumni; a learning trip to a development project/programme
• Create opportunities for knowledge exchange and mutual learning between places, people and institutions, e.g. a mini-roundtable on a relevant issue
• Identify and consolidate cutting edge research/knowledge.  This may be relevant to IDS’ strategic themes / research themes, or emergent issues e.g. run a policy/research mapping workshop, produce a collaborative piece across countries
• Leverage donations to the
  IDS Scholarship Fund
• Support student recruitment and marketing

Please note that purely social get-together’s are not eligible for funds.
 

What do I need to include in the application to be successful?:

• Bring together a minimum of 3 IDS Alumni to engage in / plan the activity AND
  • Strengthen alumni and/or partner networks OR
  • Support IDS research, teaching, or communications/impact

What sort of money are talking about?:

• £250 GBP in Low/middle income countries, and £300 in High Income Countries. 
• Please note one named individual will need to receive the funds and have an account with an IBAN number.

What sort of costs can I include? (note this list is indicative and each case can be discussed):

• Speakers / Facilitator / Trainer cost
• Contribution to venue (where possible venues should be sourced through Alumni contacts)
• Printing of material (to be discussed, dependent on activity)
• Transport hire for trips / site visits
• Contribution to refreshments during an activity, up to a max 25% of the total costs

Who can apply?:

• Groups of min. 3 alumni can apply
• Where an event or activity is focussed at the country level and that country has an Ambassador (see list) the Ambassador should be informed and support the activity
• To ensure the funds are spread equitably amongst alumni, and dependant on the number of proposals received, repeat applications may need to be limited to annual or bi-annual basis

What sort of things will I need to report?:

• if it is an EVENT, organisers will be expected to produce a short blog about their event after it has taken place, to be published on the IDS alumni network website and promoted on IDS social media
• if it is an OUTPUTS or PUBLICATION for producing information/knowledge the output should be submitted to IDS, along with a blog for promotional purposes
• if it is possible you should share photos of the activity
• you will need to send the alumni office a brief report on actual costs

Sounds great, how do I apply?

• Download and complete this short application form and email it to alumni@ids.ac.uk
• The alumni office will then be in touch with you to discuss the idea further

Sounds great, but I am not sure if my idea fits and I have other questions

email the alumni office alumni@ids.ac.uk 
check out Indonesia and Bangladesh alumni network success using the fund