Research Funding Areas
S.E.VEN funding is intended to catalyze, support and disseminate research on questions of economic development, prosperity and entrepreneurship. Funding is particularly targeted
toward new frontiers in enterprise-based solutions to poverty and innovative ideas that
are unlikely to be supported by conventional funding sources.
Our approch is nontraditional, posing a challenge to the classic pattern of funding
top-down projects with government-led conceptual frameworks. We support the uncertain
and often interdisciplinary methods required to develop and encourage truly
entrepreneurial approaches to wealth creation and poverty reduction.
Get Involved
- Apply for a Grant (Annual RFP Competition)
- Apply for Mini-Grant (Submit Yours Now)
- View Current Competitions
Traditional top-down thinking curtails the potential for poverty reduction by diminishing the excitement and meaning of entrepreneurship in the public consciousness. Partly as a result, many otherwise well-educated people maintain either a preglobalization worldview, or one informed by outdated concepts.
The S.E.VEN Fund encourages rigorous and innovative researchers to tackle questions head-on, unlocking the potential of enterprise-based solutions to poverty.
S.E.VEN Funding Has the Following Goals:
- To expand the purview of scientific inquiry to include scientific disciplines fundamental to a deep understanding of entrepreneurship and economic development, but which are currently largely unsupported by conventional grant sources.
- To forge and maintain useful collaborations between researchers and on-the-ground actors working on Enterprise Based Solutions to Poverty.
- To provide the public with a deeper understanding in this area, and their potential implications for our worldview.
- To create a logistically, intellectually, and financially self-sustaining independent organization to accomplish these goals during and beyond the initial three year program beginning in 2007, thereby pioneering a new model of philanthropically and government grant-funded efforts in enterprise based solutions to poverty.
Conferences & Speaking Engagements
S.E.VEN supports and hosts several gatherings and conferences in the field of enterprise-based solutions to poverty:
- S.E.VEN Fund Member Meetings
Access to Members Only - RFP Focus Roundtable Discussions
Access to invited participants only; first one was held in June 2007 - Research Presentation Meetings
S.E.VEN-funded researchers present their findings—open to the public
Entrepreneurs create products, services and jobs. They expand economies, improve people's lives, provide employment (high and rising wages) and bring about competition. A competitive environment, in turn, gives rise to efficiency, meritocracy and further innovations and entrepreneurial drive.
The potent combination of entrepreneurship and technological innovation can forge an environment that is conducive to further enterprise, involving even government policy in supporting entrepreneurship and innovation.