Accelerating Research for Sustainable and Inclusive Solutions for Enhanced Urban Resilience to Climate Change in ASEAN

Objectives and priorities

The CLARE Program, with the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) and in collaboration with the ASEAN Secretariat, is implementing a two-year research program in ODA-eligible ASEAN members states. CLARE is funded by the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO-UK) and the International Development Research Centre (IDRC-Canada), and currently implements applied research projects in 30 countries across Africa and Asia.

The objectives of CLARE-ASEAN are to generate new knowledge and enhance the research capacity for understanding, identifying and enabling the urban resilience to climate change involving strengthening of physical, social and governance aspects. Specifically, CLARE-ASEAN aims to:

• enable socially inclusive and sustainable actions to support resilience to climate change and natural hazards, including through nature-based solutions;
• scale up research and innovation efforts to provide better information on climate risks, better decision-making tools, guidance, and better climate adaptation solutions to enable transformational change in ASEAN countries.

Research themes and scope

CLARE-ASEAN intends to focus on the following themes, and fund 3 to 4 research projects on these themes:

1. Multifaceted and hazard-agnostic urban-wide or sector-wide response to urban resilience to climate change, including: risks and resilience assessment, hotspot identification, structural aspects and means such as governance, policies, finance, integrated infrastructure, and other solutions that lead to structural change in the way city/sector can be better acted/governed/managed by urban planner/policy/decision makers.
2. Resilience against worsening urban heat extremes, including: assessment, monitoring and heat management options (e.g. infrastructure, technologies, Nature-based Solutions etc.), tradeoffs, and enabling means (e.g. planning, policies, financing, developing heat mitigation/ coping strategies and plans for cities).

Research leading to short/long-term sustainable solutions for most vulnerable groups and systems, with clear pointers to immediate actions by actors, including urban planners and decision/policy makers, are a priority under this call.

Potential alignment with IPCC’s Special Report on Climate Change and Cities will be encouraged.

Research approach

The research will be done through implementation of activities that directly inform action through evidence, data and tools supporting urban climate resilience (in line with the CLARE theory of change, see Annex). In particular:

• Research will use place-based and transdisciplinary (e.g. integrating knowledge from across academic disciplines and from non-academic stakeholders) approaches. Projects integrate climate hazards, risks, as well as economic, institutional, cultural and political drivers that shape potentials for solutions for more inclusive and resilient urban futures and identify windows of opportunity for implementing resilient, transformative pathways.
• Research will be co-created with key users and contribute to strengthening capacity of those developing and applying the research, according to the Adaptation Research for Impact Principles (i.e. research designed to have direct impact on the ground, promoting action that enhances climate resilience in urban areas). Also see: https://clareprogramme.org/update/read-about-research-for-impact-approaches-in-clare-in-our-first-working-paper/.
• Research focuses on the most vulnerable urban system, communities, sectors, or infrastructure.
• Gender equality and inclusion principles are integrated in all aspects of the project life cycle including the research topic, methodologies, uptake, and team composition. For background on the CLARE approach to gender and inclusion, please consult the scoping study for CLARE by KIT (applicants may also consult IDRC’s Equality Statement and FCDO’s Women and Girls Strategy.  
• Project will report against the CLARE theory of change and log frame (see Annex). 

The above requirements could be met by employing lab-type approaches, “inclusive spaces where stakeholders, practitioners and researchers come together to co-design and test ideas, co-produce knowledge and co-evaluate solutions.” To learn about how other CLARE projects are using lab-type approaches, see p. 13-15 in the CLARE working paper in R4I approaches. Other approaches also will be considered.

Multi-country approach

Proposals involving multi-country collaborations and partnerships (more than one) are encouraged, to foster collaborative knowledge sharing, building network with the researchers and stakeholders, and help scale up the outcomes.

Evaluation criteria

The research proposals will be evaluated against the following (equally-weighted) criteria:

1. Relevance: Relevance of research topic to given context of the place where research will be carried out (clear problem statements, need-based, solution-oriented, address most vulnerable segment of urban system) and in line with objectives stated in the Call for Proposal and overall CLARE Programme.
2. Scientific quality, research design and methodology: Clarity regarding research gaps, potential for new knowledge, robustness of research design and methodologies, expected quality of research and deliverables.
3. Proposal’s strength in view of project’s feasibility: Research strength and scholarship of the research team, and the practicality of research plan from the viewpoints of time, resources, expertise, and network. 
4. Positioning for impact: Potentials for the project to make the intended impact with identified/targeted audiences including planners and decision makers, leading to solutions. Research could address long-term issues but there should be enough guidance for solutions that can be pursued immediately. This is encouraged through integration of co-creation and transformative lab-approaches and clarity on how project will continuously work and help to transform challenges of urban resilience towards solution climate change with targeted stakeholders. Evidence of partnership with stakeholders is needed but required only at a later stage (before the grant agreement, only for successful projects).   
5. Fostering network-approach to research: Multi-country (more than one) institutions and Co-PIs and clear demonstration of collaborations and partnerships within and across researchers in the region and beyond.
6. GESI contribution: Gender equality and inclusion principles in the design, implementation, monitoring, and communications, including GEI expertise in the team, local stakeholders, how communities, including underrepresented groups are engaged, equitable partnerships, capacity strengthening for GESI work.

Target countries and eligibility

The target countries of this call are ODA-eligible ASEAN members states. The research must be led by PIs from research/academic/think tank institutions (with independent legal status) in the ODA-eligible ASEAN members states.  Collaboration with researchers in other ASEAN member states and beyond the ASEAN region are encouraged; institutions beyond ODA-eligible ASEAN member states can be part of the proposal and a small resource (up to 10%) can be allocated.    

Funding amount and duration

The funding for each project is in the range of CAD (equivalent) 400,000 – 500,000 and the number of projects to be selected in the range of 3 to 4, to be decided upon after receiving applications and evaluating their merits. The project duration will be 15 months from the date of the agreement signed.  

Application deadlines

The Proposals must be received by midnight (Thailand time) of 15 March 2025; notification of tentative acceptance will be made within a month thereafter.

Successful applicants will be expected to join an inception workshop in Jakarta sometimes in early June.

Application modality

Applicants are required to submit the following (four) documents, in one email, by the specified deadline:

1. Research proposal – in the prescribed template file given below in MS Word format (editable), adhering to the word limit.
2. Financial proposal – in MS Excel sheet, available here (https://idrc-crdi.ca/en/proposal-budget)  for which guidelines for preparing financial proposal indicating how to prepare budget and which costs are eligible for funding are mentioned here (https://www.idrc.ca/sites/default/files/sp/Documents EN/resources/idrc-guidelines-for-acceptable-project-expenditures.pdf). Note this is the template used by IDRC, and budget and spending need to be compliant with IDRC rules.
3. One single pdf file including CV of PI, Co-PIs and others as appropriate. Each CV should not be longer that three pages.
4. One single pdf file including letters of support, as appropriate, from Co-PIs. Letter of support from stakeholders are encouraged but not mandatory at the proposal stage: successful projects will have to submit it before grant agreement as evidence of collaboration and co-creation.

A complete proposal should be submitted to CLARE-ASEAN@ait.ac.th with a copy to shobhakar@ait.ac.th by email with Subject Heading in email as “Submitting Proposal to CLARE-ASEAN Call: < Surname of PI>.”

A brief online consultation, if necessary and requested, will be conducted for clarifications regarding this Call at 13.00 (Thailand time) on 03^rd March 2025. Please register here (https://ait-ac-th.zoom.us/meeting/register/ZaYS6E09SwGXZ0W-Ri66Yg) to request registration and to receive required information to join online consultation.   

Please click here for the complete call document, including annexes with the proposal template, CLARE log frame, and CLARE theory of change.

CLARE is a flagship research programme on climate adaptation and resilience, funded mostly (about 90%) by UK Aid through the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), and co-funded by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), Canada. CLARE is bridging critical gaps between science and action by championing Southern leadership to enable socially inclusive and sustainable action to build resilience to climate change and natural hazards.