Supporting Young Entrepreneurs and Effective Incubators in Tier II/III Cities in India | ND NOFO 18 115

Opportunity Information: Apply for ND NOFO 18 115

The U.S. Department of State, through the Public Affairs Section at the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi, offered a discretionary cooperative agreement grant called "Supporting Young Entrepreneurs and Effective Incubators in Tier II/III Cities in India" (Funding Opportunity Number: ND NOFO 18 115). Launched on April 13, 2018, with an original application deadline of June 13, 2018, the opportunity planned to make a single award of up to $150,000 under CFDA 19.040. The program sits in the education funding activity category and is designed to strengthen early-stage entrepreneurship ecosystems beyond India’s largest metros, with a particular emphasis on Tier II cities across five targeted states aligned to the U.S. Consulate districts.

At the center of the project is a required partnership with the Nexus Startup Hub in New Delhi, framed as part of the "Road from GES" effort (linked to the Global Entrepreneurship Summit). The selected grantee would be responsible for designing and delivering a coordinated set of activities that both builds awareness among young people and improves the capacity of local incubators and entrepreneurship support organizations. The overall intent is to make entrepreneurship feel like a realistic first-choice career path for youth while also improving the quality of mentorship and incubation support available in smaller-city settings.

One major deliverable is a large-scale online outreach and communications campaign promoting entrepreneurship as a viable and attractive career option. The campaign is expected to reach at least 100,000 young people in Tier II cities across the five selected states. While the announcement does not prescribe exact channels, the emphasis on an online campaign suggests a strong digital strategy, likely combining social media, targeted content, and youth-facing storytelling to drive reach and engagement in the targeted geographies.

A second core component is hands-on capacity building for the people who run and support incubators locally. The project requires implementing a three-day intensive course in each of five selected Tier II cities. Each course must train no fewer than 25 participants per city, drawing from incubator managers, mentors affiliated with incubators, university faculty involved in entrepreneurship development, and other relevant personnel. The thrust here is practical upskilling: improving how incubators operate, how mentoring is structured and delivered, and how universities and local ecosystem actors can better support startup formation and growth.

Beyond one-time training, the opportunity places heavy weight on creating durable support structures through mentorship. The grantee must establish a network of active, trained mentors across various sectors who can provide ongoing guidance to young entrepreneurs being incubated at the selected incubators. This mentor support is also meant to extend to college and university Entrepreneurship Development Cells and other entrepreneurship-focused entities in each of the five cities. In other words, the grant is not only about training mentors but organizing them into a functioning network that continues to engage with founders after the workshops end.

The program also incorporates virtual learning as a way to scale entrepreneurship education and keep participants moving forward between in-person milestones. Specifically, it calls for leveraging online entrepreneurship development courses such as the "Innovation Readiness" course used by Nexus. The grantee is expected to facilitate and support young entrepreneurs as they progress through the online program, which implies active cohort management, encouragement, troubleshooting, and accountability so that participants actually complete the course and apply what they learn to their ventures.

The project culminates in a final 2-3 day conclave at the Nexus Startup Hub in New Delhi. This closing event is structured as a showcase and reflection point: mentees pitch their ideas, mentors explain how they supported and guided the entrepreneurs, and mentees describe their growth and learning over the course of the program. The conclave functions both as a capstone experience for participants and as a way to demonstrate outcomes from the campaign, trainings, mentoring network, and online course engagement.

Eligibility for the grant was limited to public and state-controlled institutions of higher education, private institutions of higher education, and nonprofit organizations with 501(c)(3) status (other than higher education institutions). As a cooperative agreement rather than a standard grant, the award structure signals substantial involvement by the U.S. government in coordinating or collaborating on implementation, consistent with the requirement to partner with Nexus and deliver defined outputs across multiple cities and stakeholder groups.

• The Department of State, U.S. Mission to India in the education sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Supporting Young Entrepreneurs and Effective Incubators in Tier II/III Cities in India" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 19.040.
• This funding opportunity was created on Apr 13, 2018.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Jun 13, 2018. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $150,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 1 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Public and State controlled institutions of higher education, Nonprofits having a 501(c)(3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Private institutions of higher education.

Apply for ND NOFO 18 115

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