UPDATE (October 5, 2021): WE ARE PLEASED TO ANNOUNCE THE RESULTS OF THE SILVER ECONOMY CHALLENGE.
Congratulations to the selected applicants!
The selected applicants for Category A (financial support) are:
Associação Médicos da Floresta –AMDAF– (Brazil), which introduces a technology to diagnose cataracts that, today, continues to be the main reason for the loss of sight in the world.
Center for Environmental and Social Studies –CEAMSO– (Paraguay), which proposes to establish a comprehensive financial model for the elderly including pension, insurance and reverse mortgage, among others, focused on the vulnerable elderly who have not contributed to a retirement system.
HBR Group SRL (Dominican Republic), which proposes to establish an online platform for financial services exclusively designed for the elderly and people with disabilities.
Hospital Italiano de Buenos Aires (Argentina), which proposes to establish a comprehensive platform of care services where knowledge, training and services can both be available for the elderly and for their caregivers and health professionals.
Mona Aging and Wellness Center (Jamaica), which seeks to establish a care model that takes advantage of the capacity of local communities with a clear focus on the demand of the most vulnerable, both in urban and rural.
Nudaprop SRL (Uruguay), which seeks to establish the reverse mortgage model with focus on the vulnerable elderly population with financial problems.
Paz Mental SAPI de CV (Mexico), which attempts to establish an automated care assistance model where caregivers of older adults can benefit.
Universidad de Chile (Chile), which proposes to establish an acceleration model for entrepreneurships based on technological solutions to meet the demand of the elderly.
Universidad del Pacifico, Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation –Emprende UP– (Peru), which seeks to promote entrepreneurship of the elderly or take advantage of their knowledge for entrepreneurship of any generation.
The selected applicants for Category B (Honorable Mention) are:
Accexible impacto (Spain), offers a platform for early detection and monitoring of mental health-related diseases through speech analysis by identifying vocal biomarkers using artificial intelligence.
ad-dice (Japan), provides a health services model with a portable device that measures temperature and oxygen levels in the blood, etc. The data is analyzed remotely with artificial intelligence to provide recommendations and alerts.
Hippo Mobility Transportation Services (UK), has a transportation model exclusively designed for the elderly and people with disabilities. In addition to the application and cars designed for these people, it also offers a monitoring service.
Talov (USA), offers an application for smartphones that helps people with hearing or vision problems to lead more independent lives.
PLEASE NOTE: The Silver Economy Innovation for Inclusion Challenge closed on July 31, 2021.
The text below was posted in June 2021 when the Challenge launched.
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The Inter-American Development Bank (“IDB”), with its innovation laboratory, IDB Lab, seek to support innovative solutions that empower the rapidly growing aging population to become an engine for social inclusion and economic recovery in the Latin American and the Caribbean region (LAC). These proposals must have a focus on poor and vulnerable aging population and aim to be implemented in one or more of IDB’s 26 borrowing member countries.
The proposed business models must:
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Be innovative in nature and present a novel solution that has not been implemented before in the country of the proposal, or that adds an innovation component to an existing model.
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Promote the social and economic inclusion of poor and vulnerable aging population with key indicators to measure results.
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Contemplate a path for scalability or replication, as well as financial sustainability.
TARGET AREAS AND GUIDING QUESTIONS
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Long-term care/healthcare: How can the quality of life of the aging population be improved with adequate and high-quality long-term care and healthcare?
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Financial services and products: What new or adapted financial products and services can improve the life of older adults reducing digital barriers?
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Employment and training: What types of solutions can promote older adults’ employment and entrepreneurship to leverage their valuable knowledge and maintain income sources?
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Housing and transport (mobility): How can new housing solutions incorporate the needs of older adults with limited financial means? How can older adults keep using transportation services to maintain their independent lives?
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Acceleration and ecosystem building: How can start-ups or technology-based business (fintech, edu-tech, etc.) focus on inclusion of older adults in their client base?
AWARDS
There will be two categories for applications:
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Category A: IDB Lab Financing
IDB Lab may consider the Applicants whose proposals are selected to receive financing to implement the proposed business model in one of IDB’s 26 borrowing member countries.
The financial instruments include “Grant” (non-reimbursable) and/or “Contingent Recovery Financing” (reimbursable) and/or “Loan” (reimbursable).
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Category B: Honorable Mention
Applicants selected will be provided with opportunities to showcase their solution through various channels.
WHO CAN PRESENT APPLICATIONS?
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Applicants from any of the 48 member countries of the IDB Group can participate, including startups with “ready-to-implement” solutions, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), corporations, NGOs, public innovation agencies, accelerators, and others with demonstrated expertise in the target areas.
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Applicants legally registered in one of IDB’s 26 borrowing member countries where the project will be implemented can apply to Category A.
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Applicants legally registered in one of IDB’s 22 non-borrowing member countries can apply to Category A only in partnership with an organization registered and located in one of the 26 borrowing countries where the project will be implemented, or apply to Category B if Applicant does not have any presence nor partnerships in IDB’s 26 borrowing countries.
CHALLENGE TIMELINE*
* Dates are approximate and subject to changes
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Submit applications
June 16 - July 31, 2021 -
Final submission deadline
July 31, 2021(midnight, Eastern Time, USA)
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Review of applications
August - September 2021 -
Announcement of selected applications
October 2021
HOW TO APPLY FOR CATEGORY A
1. Complete online application:
- Submit application through online platform on or before July 31, 2021 (midnight, Eastern Time, USA).
- Applications will be selected if they fully comply with the evaluation criteria and requirements described in the Guidelines.
2. Upload Documents:
- Written evidence of counterpart resources
- Written proof of legal constitution/incorporation
- Copies of Applicant’s annual financial statements for the last two years prepared by an external auditing firm
HOW TO APPLY FOR CATEGORY B
1. Complete online application:
- Submit application through online platform before July 31, 2021 (midnight Eastern time zone).
- Applications will be selected if they fully comply with the evaluation criteria and requirements.
2. Upload Documents:
- Written proof of legal constitution/incorporation
- Organizational presentation describing solution (5 slides max, 10 MB, in PDF format)
- Video describing solution (2 minutes max in URL format)
EVALUATION CRITERIA FOR CATEGORY A
- Level of innovation of the business model
- Degree of social and environmental impact particularly for poor and vulnerable groups and communities (Promotion of gender equity will be positively considered)
- Potential for Scale and Replication
- Financial sustainability
- Technical Capacity of Applicant Organization(s)
- Viability of Execution
EVALUATION CRITERIA FOR CATEGORY B
- Level of innovation of the business model
- Degree of social and environmental impact particularly for poor and vulnerable groups and communities (Promotion of gender equity will be positively considered)
- Potential for scale or replication of the proposed model in one or more of the 26 target countries
- Evidence of impact achieved with innovative business model in other regions outside Latin American and the Caribbean
- Degree of readiness to replicate or expand business model in one or more of the 26 target countries
SELECTION PROCESS FOR CATEGORY A
Phase I
After completing the application on the online platform, an IDB Group technical team will review, analyze, and pre-select the applications.
Phase II
A due diligence process with the pre-selected applications will be conducted to analyze the model. Subject to the outcome of the due diligence, the pre-selected applications will proceed to Phase III.
Phase III
IDB Lab will select proposals according to the evaluation criteria described in Section 05.2 of the Guidelines. Selected proposals will be announced as per timeline established (see Section 07 of the Guidelines). Once the best way to implement the model has been assessed, IDB Lab will provide support to the selected Applicant(s) to initiate the design of the model (which includes developing a project plan and other documents necessary to request official internal IDB Lab approval). This process may last up to six months, depending on the maturity of the model and the implementing capacity of the selected Applicants.
*Note that final approval is subject to internal IDB Lab procedures with the understanding that for a project to be selected to receive IDB Lab funds, it must have been approved by all those directly involved in IDB Lab’s approval process. Likewise, a legal agreement must be signed which sets forth how IDB Lab financing and the counterpart resources will be used to implement the model.
SELECTION PROCESS FOR CATEGORY B
Phase I
After completing your application on the online platform, an IDB Group technical team will review, analyze, and pre-select the applications.
Phase II
Pre-selected applications will be analyzed and IDB Lab will select applications according to the evaluation criteria described in Section 06.2 of the Guidelines. Selected applications will be announced as per timeline established (see Section 07 of the Guidelines).
For questions please email: