Application guidelines

The RISK Award will be assigned to an operational project in the field of the specific biennial topic. The award winner will receive funding up to € 100,000. The prize has to be used for the implementation of the proposed project. With each awardee an individual funding agreement will be concluded that fits to the specific project situation and needs.

Dates and Deadlines
01 June 2026	Announcement of the 2027 RISK Award topic
01 June - 31 July 2026 (12:00 CET)	Application phase I
01 August - 30 September 2026	Review phase I
01 October - 30 November 2026 (12:00 CET)	Application phase II (by invitation only)
01 December 2026 - 31 March 2027	Review phase II
April 2027	Individual notification of application status
May/June 2027	RISK Award ceremony (tbc)

Apply for the 2027 RISK Award, endowed with a project funding of up to €100,000! Phase I runs from 1 June to 31 July 2026 (12:00 CET).

The call for applications has not started yet

About the jury

The jury who will make the final decision consists of a board of internationally renowned experts in the field of disaster risk reduction representing a variety of backgrounds (international origins, gender-balanced, politicians, scientists and practitioners). They stand for a fair, objective and targeted decision process.

Jury members

Content

The proposal must address the specific annual RISK Award topic.
The project must be non-profit. Business development can't be supported.
The proposed project must include an implementation part (action), a proposal solely based on research is not sufficient.
The risks must be related to climate change and natural hazards.
Risks solely due to social turmoil, war, chemical disasters, and/or political crises are not in the scope of the RISK Award.
We appreciate people centred approaches and community-based initiatives.
We welcome multi‑stakeholder initiatives, but for the RISK Award application we require a clearly designated focal‑point organisation.

Who can apply

Non-profit organisations (Local entities or international organisations with a regional or local office in the project region).
The project must be based in a middle income or low income country according to world bank classification (> more).
The RISK Award is given to institutions or organisations. Individuals cannot be considered.

Guidelines for your application: Phase I

This phase is open to all legitimate organisations.
The application must be submitted in English.
The proposed project must align with the annual theme of the RISK Award.
The online form must be completed in full.
The concept template must be downloaded, fully completed, and uploaded again as a PDF.
The Word form will be available in the online system once you have registered as applicant.
All relevant information must be submitted in the system by the deadline. Late submissions or additions cannot be considered.
Applicants will be informed no later than two months after the end of Phase I. The best submissions will receive an invitation to submit a full application in Phase II.
Unfortunately, applicants not selected in Phase I cannot be considered further.

Guidelines for your application: Phase II

Phase II is only open to organisations selected from Phase I that have received a formal invitation to continue their application.
The online form for Phase II must be completed in full.
The following four forms (Word documents) must each be fully completed and uploaded as PDFs:
(1) Detailed Description, (2) Detailed Milestone Plan, (3) Detailed Impact Framework, (4) Detailed Budget.
The 4 Word forms will be available in the application portal for those organsations which will be invited to continue after they passed Phase I.
Organisations will be informed about the final status of their application no later than May 2027. Unfortunately, we cannot provide interim updates.
We will evaluate the proposals according to 5 indicators: (1) Potential for impact, (2) Equity, (3) Scalability, (4) Viability and Sustainability, (5) Institutional capacity.
Try to highlight how your project contributes to these 5 indicators and consider that when structuring your proposal text.

Budget

The award is endowed with 100,000 €. Hence, our project funding is limited to 100,000 €. However, we also understand that there are many initiatives that are larger. In this case, please write in your application what the volume of your overall project is and where the other required financial resources will come from.
The overall budget of the project (including own, external and RISK Award contributions) shall not exceed 1,000,000 €. Otherwise the contribution of the RISK Award is too little.
The RISK Award contribution must have a visible impact within the project.
If the whole budget is bigger than the RISK Award, it must be visible for what purpose the RISK Award contribution will be used.
The proposal should include a milestone planning and a rough budget plan explaining how the funding will be used.
The budget of the proposed project can also be less than €100,000. However, it should not be less than €50,000.

Timeline and formality

The timeline of the proposed project should be between 12 months and 2 years maximum.
Application documents may only be submitted via the online application system using the provided templates. Applications sent by post, email, or via other channels will not be considered.
The form must be completed in English.