Davis Projects for Peace

• September: Call for participation/proposals begins. All I-House residents in good standing (academic and in residence) are eligible to apply. Complete your registration form to participate.
• October/November: Registration is still available; workshops, meet-ups and advising appointments are held to support the development of strong proposals.
• November: Draft proposals are due November 14, 2022.

2023

• January: Proposals are due January 3, 2023. We select 2 to 4 proposals to submit to I-Houses Worldwide. The working group at I-Houses Worldwide selects 10 proposals (and 2 alternates) to be sent to Davis United World Colleges.
• March: Davis United World Colleges makes the final selections. Funding agreements are completed by UofA and the successful Project team members.
• April: Grant funds are disbursed to partner institutions.
• May: Remaining paperwork is completed and project funds (minus $1000) are disbursed to the Peace Project teams.
• Summer: Projects for Peace are implemented. 
• End of August: Final project Reports are compiled (narrative, budget, and photos), due on September 1. The final $1000 is paid upon completion of the Final Report.
• September: Let’s write an article to tell others about your successful project; present at I-House to help inspire new applicants!

Applications will be reviewed and scored, according to the following criteria (90 possible points)

• Alignment with the Davis Projects mission (20 points)
• Proposal Narrative and Application (50 points)
• Budget (10 points)
• Sustainability (10 points)

• Projects for Peace is a global program that encourages young adults to develop innovative, community-centred, and scalable responses to the world’s most pressing issues. Along the way, these student leaders increase their knowledge, improve skills, and establish identities as peacebuilders and changemakers.
• Every year 100 or more student leaders are awarded a grant in the amount of $10,000 each to implement a “Project for Peace,” anywhere in the world, typically over summer break. Projects for Peace are grassroots activities that address root causes of conflict and promote peace.
• A hallmark of the Projects for Peace program is its flexibility: proposals may be submitted by any U.S. or international student enrolled at a partner institution; students may be any age or any major; they may implement the project alone or with others; the project may take place anywhere in the world, including in the U.S

There is a Projects for Peace campus liaison at each partner institution. Campus liaisons develop and/or follow procedures according to their school’s policies and parameters. Responsibilities include announcing and promoting the opportunity to students; organizing the selection committee to evaluate the proposals submitted; communicating results on a timely basis to Projects for Peace headquarters; and, distributing the awarded grant funds for the winning proposal(s) on campus. Campus liaisons may also lead efforts to support the grantee through each stage of implementation, encourage other fundraising efforts, as needed, and ensure the grantee has opportunities to share their experience upon return to campus. 

As of 2021, the Projects for Peace headquarters is located at Middlebury College. Previously it was located at the Davis United World College Scholars Program office. The Projects for Peace office is responsible for coordinating with campus liaisons, reviewing proposals and selecting alternate projects as needed, disbursements of funds to partner institutions, and annual planning; in the future, Projects for Peace will increase networking opportunities among the Projects for Peace community as a whole. The community includes Middlebury’s extensive array of global education programs, partner institutions and campus liaisons, and Projects for Peace grantees and alumni.

We hope Projects for Peace are building blocks for sustainable peace. There is the potential for impact in three ways:

• Student grantees. The activities of designing, implementing, and critiquing/reflecting on a Project for Peace encourage student initiative and innovation, knowledge development and skill-building, and self-awareness of their potential as peacebuilders and changemakers.
• The communities in which projects take place. Some of the most compelling projects to date have addressed one or more of the following: contributing to conflict prevention; ameliorating conditions leading to violence/conflict; looking for and building on shared attributes among differing groups; fostering diplomacy or otherwise contributing to advancing peace processes underway; promoting economic opportunity and entrepreneurship among those in areas affected by conflict; finding creative ways to bring people on opposite sides of issues together, such as through art, sports, music, or other techniques to promote a common humanity; developing leadership and mediation skills training for those in conflict or post-conflict societies; starting or leveraging initiatives, organizations (e.g. education, health) or infrastructure projects to build/rebuild community.
• The partner institutions which the grantees represent, may choose to feature grantee’s work as a way to amplify peacebuilding and change-making aspirations and accomplishments on their campus.

• All student questions must be directed to their designated on-campus Projects for Peace liaison. Communication between student applicants and the Projects for Peace office is prohibited.
• Campus liaisons at our partner institutions should feel free to contact Projects for Peace staff.

• Interested students should contact their campus liaison for campus-specific requirements or procedures. The campus liaison and interested students should review this FAQ document in its entirety, and the formatting guidelines available on our website, in order to ensure all requirements are met.
• The student lead, along with any project team members, should prepare a written project statement and budget, both formatted according to the guidelines available on our website. The written statement should not exceed two pages. It should include a description of the project (who, what, where, how), expected outcomes, and the prospects for future impact. In addition, pre-approval of all parties and organizations involved in the project should be noted. The budget should be on a separate page.
• The two-page proposal and one-page budget are submitted electronically to the partner institution’s campus liaison.
• Important: All written project proposals require a heading that includes:
  • Title of Project (cannot be changed, once the proposal is submitted)
  • Country where project is to take place
  • Sponsoring institutional partner
  • Designated project leader name and remaining team member names and schools.
  • Date range of project implementation.

• We encourage applicants to use their creativity to design projects and employ innovative techniques for engaging project participants in ways that focus on conflict resolution and management, reconciliation, building understanding and breaking down barriers which cause conflict, and finding solutions for resolving conflict and maintaining peace.
• Each Projects for Peace partner institution has designated a Projects for Peace campus liaison to coordinate the Projects for Peace proposal writing and selection process. Most liaisons work with a selection committee.
• The intention of this program is to fund 100 projects (or more, subject to additional funding), with at least one at each of the participating partner institutions. All partner institutions are invited to select and submit two recommended proposals: one prioritized proposal and one nominated alternate.
• Final review and approval of all recommended proposals from individual campuses rests solely with the Projects for Peace office, which awards grant funds to each of the participating schools with winning project(s)

• Grant funds are made to the participating partner institutions, not to students, upon assurance that the project proposed will, in fact, be implemented during the summer and once all project and participant funding agreements are received.
• It is the partner schools’ responsibility to distribute the awarded grant funds for the winning proposal within their policies and guidelines as it applies to grant awards to students.

Yes. The Projects for Peace student proposer must be an eligible student from a participating partner institution, but they are free to collaborate with other students of their choice. Project teams can be composed of students from the student proposer’s own school and/or students from other schools, even those that are not Projects for Peace partner institutions. 

Each team member and their school should be listed on the Projects for Peace proposal, but a partner institution student must be designated as the project lead and grant recipient. Each team member of a winning proposal must complete a participant agreement form.

No, two proposals for the same project are prohibited. The proposal can only be submitted by one partner school, either as its prioritized winner or nominated alternate. When more than one partner school is involved, the respective campus liaisons may work together to determine best representation of the proposal to allow for determination of remaining proposals.

• In all cases, Projects for Peace supports partner institutions in prioritizing the health and safety of grantees. The health and safety context of the proposed project site should be kept in mind as students develop project ideas and as campus liaisons screen proposals. Expertise regarding health and safety issues should be sought from institutional colleagues, as needed.
• Should modifications to the proposed project design become necessary due to emergent health or safety issues, student leaders and their partner institutions are encouraged to think creatively about how the student(s) may best implement the project while protecting their own health and safety. All modifications to the original project design should be described in the final report.
• Should a project need to be deferred or cancelled, campus liaisons must contact staff at Projects for Peace to discuss the timeline of a deferral or the possibility of funding the alternate proposal submitted by the institution.
• Projects for Peace staff will continue to track the global implications of the COVID-19 pandemic and we reserve the right to modify program plans or timing as appropriate.

• One final report per funded project must be submitted electronically to the Projects for Peace office according to the timetable and guidelines available on our website. Reports not conforming to formatting guidelines will be returned for revision.
• The final report is made up of a written reflection, a final budget report, and selected exemplary photos. Additional details are provided on our website.
• All submitted and accepted final reports, with pictures, will be uploaded to our Projects for Peace website and will be considered for profiling in an annual report. Final reports with pictures, once uploaded, cannot be modified.