Apply

Apply for Lacuna Fund support

See open, upcoming, and past RFPs, as well as more information about domain areas and the application.

Domain areas

Where we grant

Agriculture

Providing personalized services to smallholder farmers is difficult if the data needed to accurately estimate crop yields does not exist. Lacuna Fund grantees are enabling new and more robust AI applications through remote sensing and other critical datasets.
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Language

If automated speech recognition (ASR) systems are only built for a small percentage of international languages, the result is a pronounced gap in access to the digital world that is glaring in low- and middle-income contexts globally. Translation, speech recognition, and more datasets enable the promise of digital communication for all.
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Health

AI can inform healthcare responses, but only with available and representative data. Lacuna Fund health datasets are improving the robustness and availability of AI solutions in healthcare across the value chain.
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Climate

Climate change disproportionately affects people in low-and middle-income contexts. Yet often these communities do not have the information they need to make informed decisions about how to mitigate or prepare for climate change. Lacuna Fund supports the creation of machine learning models made by and for communities across the globe most affected by climate change.
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Eligibility

Who can apply

Eligible applicants

  • Non-profit entities
  • Research institutions
  • For-profit social enterprises
  • Teams of such organizations

Requirements

  • Applicants apply through Lacuna Fund's requests for proposals (RFPs).
  • Organizations should have the technical capacity to conduct dataset labeling, creation, expansion, and/or maintenance.
  • Datasets must be locally developed and owned.
  • Data collection must follow ethical labor standards, with steps outlined to protect privacy and prevent harm.
  • Datasets and related intellectual property use appropriate open data licensing to maximize responsible downstream use.
Process

How the RFP process works

  1. 01

    Technical Advisory Panel convened

    An independent TAP is established for each RFP, identifying data gaps and refining the RFP focus within a domain area.

  2. 02

    Request for proposals released

    Lacuna Fund accepts applications from eligible organizations and teams through open requests for proposals.

  3. 03

    Proposal review and selection

    TAP members review and select proposals for funding based on technical and domain knowledge.

  4. 04

    Grants disbursed by the Secretariat

    Meridian Institute, as Secretariat, manages the RFP process and the distribution of funds.

  5. 05

    Datasets published and learnings shared

    Datasets are locally owned and openly accessible, and panels distill learnings from the funding process for future funding considerations.

Resources

Key policies for applicants

Datawise Impact Assessment ReportConflict of Interest PolicyIntellectual Property Policy

Secretariat

The Secretariat provides backbone support to the Fund as a whole, including managing the RFP process and distribution of funds. Meridian Institute serves as Secretariat for the Lacuna Fund.