UNDP Moldova announces a new competition to fund solutions for the digitalization of public services and to support small and medium-sized enterprises, to which Moldovan ICT companies are invited to participate. The call for proposals is launched in partnership with the e-Governance Agency and the Optim Project – Opportunities through Technologies and Innovation in Moldova, a project of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), implemented by HELVETAS Swiss Intercooperation.

Thus, the solutions proposed in the competition shall be for:

• optimizing the interaction between citizens and the Government through the citizen portal MCabinet (creation of the mobile version and the notification module) and the mobile wallet for entrepreneurs (where documents issued by a certain entity will be stored – certificates, licenses/authorizations, extracts, court decisions, etc.) and the digitalization of other public services;
• supporting small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) – digital certification, logistics automation, digital inventory management, digitalization in the fields of health, digital education and literacy, agricultural and food industries, energy, circular economy, environment, logistics, tourism, trade, cyber and fintech security, financial inclusion etc.

The financial support provided will be a maximum of US$40,000, but not more than 50% of the total value of the proposal. In the case of collaborative groups of companies, the contributions will be shared equally between the companies involved or according to the specific requirements of the submitted proposal.

The number of selected proposals will match with the available budget for this call, $200,000.

Private entities within the ICT sector, registered (or in the process of registration) in accordance with the Law on Entrepreneurship and Enterprises of the Republic of Moldova may participate in the competition:

• Moldovan privately owned IT companies, registered and operating in Moldova;
• Start-ups and groups of initiative in the process to register the IT company under Moldovan legislation (registration shall take place before contract signature).

Collaborative groups may partner with private, public and NGO sector institutions – specialized associations, government agencies, LPAs, schools, hospitals, universities, research institutions etc.

The competition takes place in two stages (submission of the concept note and the full application). The deadline for submission of concept notes is 7 March 2022, 15:00. Only the selected concepts will advance to the next stage (submitting the full application).

The selection process will be based on the principles of merit, transparency, equality, and rational use of funds. More details are available here.

UNDP is conducting this funding competition in the framework of the “Accelerating digital transformation in the public sector in the Republic of Moldova” project. Similar competitions will be conducted every few months.