GDPC Spotlight Research Grants 2026: $10,000 for Research on Principled and Accountable Use of Technology in Humanitarian Action

GDPC Spotlight Research Grants 2026: $10,000 for Research on Principled and Accountable Use of Technology in Humanitarian Action

The 2026 GDPC Spotlight Research Grants Program was a research funding call from the Global Disaster Preparedness Center (GDPC), in partnership with the French Red Cross Foundation. It focused on the principled and accountable use of information and communication technologies in humanitarian action, including emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence. The official call offered US$10,000 for research lasting up to eight months.

The application deadline for this cycle was July 31, 2026, at 23:59 UTC. That deadline has passed. The official call page still provides the 2026 program details, but it does not announce a later cycle. This page is therefore a historical reference for the closed 2026 call, not an open application listing. Do not treat the eligibility form or application instructions below as evidence that submissions are still being accepted.

Key details

The official source is the PrepareCenter call page linked at the end of this entry. PrepareCenter identifies GDPC as the organization announcing the program and describes the French Red Cross Foundation as its partner for the 2026 call. The page also says that the Global Disaster Preparedness Center is an international Red Cross and Red Crescent reference center managed by the American Red Cross.

What the 2026 grant supported

The call was designed for original, applied research that could inform policy, planning, humanitarian programming, or community action. Its subject was not technology for its own sake. GDPC asked researchers to examine how technology affects people and humanitarian organizations in low- and middle-income country contexts, including both useful applications and risks to rights, dignity, agency, safety, and trust.

The official call grouped its questions into three topic areas:

Community needs and digital realities

The first area covered whether digital tools respond to the priorities and concerns of affected people. One example in the call asks what needs and concerns communities have regarding digital tools used in humanitarian service delivery. Another asks how communities repurpose, reinterpret, maintain, adapt, or abandon technologies over time.

This topic would suit a project examining actual use rather than assuming that a tool is helpful because it is new or technically capable. A proposal could, for example, study how people navigate a digital registration or communication service, what barriers prevent use, or why a community changes a tool to fit local practices. The research question would need to be grounded in a low- or middle-income country setting and connected to humanitarian action.

ICT solution feasibility and implementation

The second area addressed the conditions that determine whether an ICT solution can work in practice. GDPC listed infrastructure, skills, funding, and governance as operational constraints. It also highlighted differences in digital maturity across communities and organizations, and asked how proactive alignment with humanitarian principles affects outcomes and risks.

This makes feasibility broader than whether software functions in a controlled demonstration. A suitable study might examine the organizational capacity required to operate a tool, the effect of unreliable connectivity, the cost and staffing model needed to maintain it, or how design choices relate to humanity, neutrality, impartiality, and independence. The proposal should show how its evidence could help a humanitarian actor make a real decision.

Data protection in humanitarian action

The third area focused on personal data, privacy, accountability, and community trust. The official questions include how disaster-affected people understand and respond to the collection and use of their data, which two-way feedback or complaint mechanisms support privacy and accountability, and how incidents such as data breaches or misinformation affect trust in humanitarian actors and programs.

Applicants working with vulnerable populations would need to take consent, confidentiality, privacy, and possible harm seriously. The call does not turn data protection into a purely legal checklist; it asks for evidence about how people experience data practices and how humanitarian programs can improve them.

Eligibility

The published eligibility requirements applied to the person or team submitting the 2026 proposal:

• The applicant had to be affiliated with an accredited university at the time of submission.
• Eligible university researchers included PhD candidates, postdoctoral researchers, and faculty members. Teams were welcome to submit proposals.
• Researchers were expected to come from the social sciences or humanities. The official page names sociology, anthropology, law, human geography, management, behavioral studies, and psychology as examples.
• The primary applicant had to be a national of a low- or middle-income country. The call included least developed and upper-middle-income nations and linked to OECD country classifications.
• The research had to focus on a low- or middle-income country context and align with one of the three defined topic areas.
• Projects had to be feasible within the eight-month program window and able to produce the final research paper by June 30, 2027, or earlier.

Residence and nationality were not the same test. The official FAQ says that a national of a low- or middle-income country could still be eligible while residing in a high-income country, provided the research focused on a low- or middle-income country context. It also allowed international collaboration, including collaboration with high-income-country researchers, while keeping the primary applicant and the research focus within the program’s stated priorities.

The call encouraged proposals led by researchers based in low- and middle-income countries, using community-based or participatory methods and producing outputs that local stakeholders could use. It specifically asked applicants to critically assess technology rather than assume that a digital intervention would be beneficial.

Funding and allowable costs

Each grant was US$10,000. The official FAQ states that funds could be used only for expenses directly related to the proposed research project. Examples of eligible costs included part-time staff, office staff, graduate students, and other personnel directly supporting the work; survey or interview costs and participant incentives; equipment rental; equipment that remains in the department to strengthen research capacity; and software or tools required for data collection or analysis.

Essential project travel could be budgeted using the most economical transportation available. The call listed economy airfare, airport-to-hotel transportation, vehicles for fieldwork in remote locations, airport taxes, visas, inoculations, and necessary per diems for overnight project travel. Printing, copying, communications, and meeting-room rental for project activities were also listed as eligible.

Administrative overhead or indirect costs were allowed up to 8% of the total grant. The page excluded excess overhead, unrelated institutional expenses, personal side trips, first- or business-class upgrades, personal phone calls during travel, unrelated data collection, non-essential software, and equipment or software that would become the individual researcher’s personal property after the project.

The budget had to be in US dollars and include a detailed expense breakdown and justification. Translation into English could also be included where needed, because the research could be conducted in any language but the final paper had to be submitted in English or French.

Application package and process

Although this cycle is closed, the official application process is useful for understanding what the 2026 call required. Applicants first used the Eligibility Form. GDPC said that the form determined eligibility and provided a link to the Application Portal. A form link remains on the official page, but the presence of that link does not reopen the deadline.

The complete application package listed on the call page included:

1. Applicant information, including professional affiliation details.
2. Project summary, with a concise abstract and key information.
3. Project description, covering the background, rationale, objectives, methodology, scientific merit, broader impact, and ethical considerations.
4. Budget proposal in US dollars, with a detailed expense breakdown and budget justification.
5. Research team composition, naming the principal investigator and key co-investigators and supplying their CVs.
6. Letters of collaboration from each partner institution when the project involved institutions or organizations outside the applicant’s primary affiliation.

The call also emphasized a letter of support from a relevant partner organization or agency. Its proposal guidance asked for a letter from a local stakeholder interested in taking the research results forward and able to identify the intended audience, such as a program team, policy group, advocacy organization, or project developer. Applicants should therefore have treated stakeholder engagement as part of the research design, not as a last-minute signature request.

The application had to be submitted in English. Researchers could work in another language, but the final paper had to be in English or French. If translation into English was needed, the official FAQ said to include its estimated cost in the budget. The call welcomed both new projects and extensions of ongoing studies, provided an extension clearly explained how it built on and expanded the earlier work.

Review and research expectations

An expert panel including representatives from GDPC, IFRC, and other humanitarian organizations reviewed eligible proposals. The published criteria covered scientific merit and rigor, alignment with one of the defined topics, potential impact and applicability, ethical understanding and risk mitigation, the qualifications of the principal investigator and co-investigators, a reasonable budget, and an achievable timeline. Cross-collaboration and partnership between stakeholders were also part of the evaluation.

The official timeline placed application review in August 2026, award notification in September 2026, and award processing in October 2026. The research period was November 1, 2026 through June 30, 2027. Research reports were due by June 30, 2027, followed by report review and final publication stages later in 2027. These dates describe the closed 2026 cycle and should not be read as a current application schedule.

Researchers also had to account for research integrity. The page allowed generative AI tools as a writing aid, but required proposers to disclose how such tools contributed to a proposal or research deliverable. Intellectual contributions and research outcomes had to come from human effort and expertise, and proposers remained responsible for accuracy and authenticity. Fabrication, falsification, or plagiarism could lead to disqualification.

The official FAQ did not prescribe one research method. It said researchers could choose an approach suited to their questions and objectives. It did, however, call for ethical practice, including informed consent, privacy and confidentiality protections, minimization of harm, inclusivity, and respect for affected communities. If a university required Institutional Review Board approval, verification had to be provided to GDPC once obtained.

Status and what to do now

The 2026 call is closed because its published submission deadline was July 31, 2026 at 23:59 UTC. No later GDPC Spotlight Research Grants cycle is announced on the official call page. This entry keeps the actual closing date in its metadata and is marked as a historical reference so it does not present a passed deadline as an active opportunity.

Researchers interested in a future GDPC call should monitor the Global Disaster Preparedness Center’s research activities and official announcements rather than reuse the 2026 date. A future round could change the theme, amount, eligible countries, required documents, timeline, or portal process. The 2026 details below are useful for planning a concept around community needs, ICT feasibility, humanitarian principle alignment, or data protection, but they are not confirmation of future funding.

Official link

• 2026 GDPC Spotlight Research Grants call for applications

The official source is the authority for any successor announcement or changed program detail.