Criteria

Both Concepts and Proposals will be evaluated on four criteria. Criteria will share equal weight in making selections.

1. The proposed project is truly innovative. It breaks with conventional ideas or processes in its field. It goes beyond marginal improvement of methods that already exists.

2. The project is beyond merely the idea stage. There has been additional testing, demonstration or prototyping. The applicant has invested time, resources, and thought into assessing project viability.

3. The innovation has clear potential for impact beyond the applicant organization. If successful, the project could scale up to reach more people, other communities, or additional organizations. The applicant identifies a plan for doing this.

4. The innovation team has the experience, knowledge and skills to successfully implement the project. If partners are needed, they are identified and their contributions are clear.

We recognize there are many avenues of innovative change. The Island Innovation Fund is focused on three strategies that hold promise for broad impact in Hawai'i, and preference will be given for projects that:

• Deploy human capital in unique and innovative ways
• Implement new technologies that enable impact on a larger scale
• Utilize networks of people and organizations to work toward a shared vision of social change