Humanitarian Innovation Fund (HIF)

Humanitarian Innovation Fund (HIF)

The Humanitarian Innovation Fund (HIF) was an Elrha programme for developing, testing, and supporting the adoption of new approaches to humanitarian response. It is now a historical opportunity. Elrha’s official funding page says that there are no live funding calls, and Elrha’s HIF update says the standalone programme is closing while its experience and work are brought together with other Elrha programmes. There is no new HIF application window or replacement deadline announced on the official pages checked for this update.

This page is therefore an archive entry, not an invitation to submit an application. The date in the metadata is the deadline for the latest clearly documented HIF grant call, “AI for Humanitarians: Shaping future innovation.” The call closed on 22 January 2024. It is retained because it is a real HIF deadline and because the archived call gives applicants a concrete example of how HIF funding worked. It should not be read as a current deadline.

Current status

Elrha’s funding-opportunities page currently states that there are no live funding calls. It separates those open calls from an archive of previous opportunities, including the AI for Humanitarians learning journey, the GBV Tech Innovation Challenge, the high-severity adoption challenge, and the data-driven inclusion challenge. The HIF closing update explains that Elrha is moving into a new chapter that brings together knowledge from the Humanitarian Innovation Fund, Research for Health in Humanitarian Crises, the UK Humanitarian Innovation Hub, and the Community-Led Innovation Partnership.

That combination of sources matters for anyone searching for an application form. The HIF name remains useful for finding funded projects, guidance, reports, and lessons about humanitarian innovation. It does not currently describe a grant window to which a new applicant can send an expression of interest. A later Elrha programme may use different names, focus areas, eligibility rules, budgets, and application systems. Until Elrha publishes those details, do not carry the HIF deadline, amount, or application route into a new proposal as though they were still active.

What the HIF supported

HIF was designed around the practical problem of improving humanitarian assistance, rather than treating innovation as a technology category. Elrha describes innovation as the development and implementation of new ideas, approaches, and solutions. Its official innovation page says that the programme helped humanitarian organisations, researchers, and communities identify, test, and scale solutions for people affected by crises.

The portfolio included work on water, sanitation and hygiene; gender-based violence; inclusion of people with disabilities and older people; locally led innovation; mental health and psychosocial support; non-communicable diseases; undernutrition and food insecurity; and scaling innovation. Those areas show the breadth of the programme, but they were not a standing menu of grants with one permanent application form. Elrha used targeted calls and other forms of support, so the details depended on the particular challenge.

The official closing account describes a programme with more than 270 research and innovation grants, more than £25 million invested, 190 innovations implemented in more than 65 countries, and 39 thematic funding calls. These figures describe the completed programme and its accumulated work. They are not a promise of money still available to applicants.

HIF also treated non-financial support as part of the funding model. Elrha describes technical working groups, reviewers, a funding committee, advisory support, partnership brokering, learning activities, and help with pathways to adoption. That is important context for reading older HIF materials: a grant was generally connected to evidence, learning, contextual adaptation, and possible use by humanitarian actors. A proposal that only presents a product without a credible humanitarian problem, implementation partner, learning plan, and route to use would not match the programme’s stated purpose.

The latest archived grant-call example

The latest clearly documented HIF grant call on Elrha’s funding archive was “AI for Humanitarians: Shaping future innovation.” Its purpose was specific: to support a cohort of humanitarian practitioners in taking a problem-led approach to the opportunities and risks associated with artificial intelligence. It was not a general artificial-intelligence grant for any commercial product, nor was it an open-ended fund for every type of humanitarian innovation.

Elrha listed funding of up to £25,000 per grantee for up to 10 grantees. The award was connected to a six-month guided learning journey. Participants were expected to deepen their understanding of AI in their own work, develop a concept note that could guide further activity, contribute feedback to the learning journey, and make recommendations with other practitioners and experts.

The archived call invited humanitarian practitioners who were curious about AI, willing to collaborate, and interested in shaping future humanitarian AI interventions. The page did not present the broad eligibility list currently stated on this entry as a permanent HIF rule. Instead, it directed applicants to the call guidelines for the criteria and evaluation process. That distinction is essential: the eligibility and amount above describe the latest archived call, not a new universal HIF entitlement.

Who the historical call was for

The archived AI call was aimed at people with a meaningful connection to humanitarian practice. A strong applicant would have been able to explain a real humanitarian problem, identify where AI might help or create risk, and participate in a shared learning process with other practitioners. The call’s emphasis on a problem-led approach meant that enthusiasm for a tool was not enough. The applicant needed to start with a humanitarian need and examine whether AI was appropriate, safe, useful, and responsible in that setting.

The call was also designed around individual and organisational learning. Participants were expected to engage with a curriculum, group discussions, practical exercises, guest experts, and mentoring. That makes it a poor fit for a team seeking only a conventional capital grant, a procurement contract, or a short product-development award. It was better suited to practitioners who could connect the learning to humanitarian work and turn it into a grounded concept note.

For future Elrha opportunities, applicants should expect the specific call page to control. Elrha’s general grant guidance says that proposed work must be humanitarian in nature and defines relevant settings to include conflict-affected locations, natural-hazard disasters, complex emergencies, refugee or internally displaced person settlements, and refugees or displaced people in urban settings. The same guidance warns that requirements differ by opportunity. A future call may therefore require a particular country, partner, organisation type, evidence base, or implementation stage.

How the archived application worked

The latest archived HIF call used a staged expression-of-interest process:

1. The applicant read the call page and its challenge guidelines, including the evaluation criteria and timeline.
2. The applicant created or used an account on the Common Grant Application platform.
3. The applicant submitted an expression of interest video through that platform by the stated deadline.
4. Elrha selected a cohort of up to 10 grantees for the guided learning journey.
5. Selected participants worked through the six-month programme, developed a concept note, and contributed learning and recommendations.

Those steps belong to the archived AI call. They are useful preparation clues, but they are not an active procedure today. Do not create a Common Grant Application submission for HIF unless Elrha publishes a new call and directs applicants there. The official funding guidance says that applications are accepted only in response to a specific funding call, and that the call’s own instructions override general guidance.

The archived page also points to the importance of reading the handbook before applying. Call documents can define the form of the expression of interest, language requirements, selection criteria, expected participation, and any later deliverables. A future Elrha opportunity could use a different process, so copying the old video format or the old budget into a new application would be unsafe.

What to prepare for a future Elrha call

Although HIF is closed as a standalone programme, the archived material gives a useful preparation checklist for a later Elrha funding opportunity. Start with the humanitarian problem: identify the people affected, the setting, the operational constraint, and the outcome that needs to improve. Then describe the proposed change in plain terms. If technology or AI is involved, explain why it is suitable and what risks it introduces; do not treat technology as proof of innovation.

Prepare evidence that the problem is real and that the proposed approach is informed by people working in or affected by the crisis. Identify the partners who can implement, test, review, or adopt the work. Explain how you will measure learning and outcomes, how you will handle safeguarding and ethics, and what you will do if the approach does not work. A credible plan should account for access limits, language, connectivity, security, local ownership, data protection, and continuity when the operating context changes.

Keep the budget tied to activities and decisions. For the archived AI call, the maximum award was £25,000 per grantee, but that amount was attached to a guided learning journey rather than a general project budget. Other archived HIF challenges had different amounts and narrower eligibility. Treat every historical figure as call-specific until a current Elrha page says otherwise.

Practical decision for applicants

If you need money for a new humanitarian innovation today, do not apply under the HIF listing. Check Elrha’s current funding-opportunities page and the funding guidance for a new opportunity. If no suitable call is open, subscribe to Elrha’s updates and use the intervening time to refine the problem statement, confirm local relationships, document evidence, and prepare a concise concept note. The official innovation page remains useful for understanding Elrha’s themes and funded work, but the funding-opportunities page is the place to verify whether an application window exists.

If you are studying humanitarian innovation, evaluating a past project, or looking for examples of funding design, this entry remains useful. The HIF archive shows how a fund can combine grants with technical advice, peer learning, problem exploration, and adoption support. It also shows why a programme page needs a historical label when its funding cycle has ended. The closed-call date is preserved for reference, while the body makes clear that there is no current HIF round.

Official links

• Elrha humanitarian innovation page
• Elrha funding opportunities
• Elrha funding guidance: applying for a grant
• Archived AI for Humanitarians call
• Elrha update on closing the HIF chapter

The first link is the current official innovation URL recorded in the metadata. The funding-opportunities link should be checked before treating any HIF-related material as actionable. The archived call and closing update provide the evidence for the historical deadline, amount, application route, and current programme status recorded on this page.