Call for a Grant Concept Note

Context:

This is a Call for a Grant Concept Note issued under the British Council’s grant management framework, aligned with European Union requirements.

Financial support will be awarded to eligible civil society organisations (CSOs) through a competitive selection process to design and implement locally grounded, practical interventions that improve equitable access to and effective use of public digital services, particularly for marginalised and underserved populations.

This call follows a two-stage selection process:

• Stage 1: Submission of Concept Note (submitted in the format provided in Annex 1)
• Stage 2: Invitation to shortlisted applicants to submit Full Grant Proposals.

Submission of a Concept Note does not guarantee invitation to submit a full proposal.

Project Objectives

The project aims to enhance transparency, accountability, and responsiveness in public service delivery through improved e-government tools and processes. Implemented by the e-Governance Academy (eGA) and the British Council, the project focuses on three main objectives:

• Enhancing digital interoperability across government ministries, agencies, and departments (G2G).
• Strengthening public sector capacity to improve service delivery (G2E).
• Ensuring efficient, user-friendly digital public services for citizens (G2C).

This initiative addresses challenges such as fragmented e-services, infrastructure gaps, and inefficiencies in public service delivery by advising government agencies on citizen-centric and interoperable digital transformation strategies.

Focus of concept:

Grants will be awarded under three categories:

• Project Grants: For implementation-ready interventions with clearly defined results.
• Research and Seed Grants: For piloting innovative or exploratory approaches.
• Community Engagement Grants: For awareness and encourage behaviour change linked to service uptake.

Context and Rationale

Bangladesh has made significant progress in expanding digital public services. However, access to and effective use of these services remains uneven across population groups.

Evidence from the project’s context analysis indicates that barriers to access are not limited to infrastructure or digital skills. Citizens often face:

• Limited awareness of available services.
• Low confidence in using digital services.
• Reliance on intermediaries to access services.
• Service that are difficult to navigate or understand.
• Social, cultural, and gender-based barriers.
• Limited opportunities to provide feedback on service experience.

The project, to better understand and address exclusion, adopts a practical approach that focuses on the barriers citizens face when accessing and using public digital services. These barriers may relate to:

• Functional limitations (e.g. disability affecting service use)
• Capability constraints (e.g. digital literacy, language, or skills)
• Contextual factors (e.g. access to devices, connectivity, affordability, or social norms).

Applicants are encouraged to identify and address these types of barriers in their concept note.

This grant call recognises the role of CSOs as trusted facilitators, capable of addressing these barriers through context-specific and citizen-centred approaches.

Key Challenge Areas

 Proposed interventions must respond to one or more of the following:

• Citizens are unable to access digital services independently and rely on intermediaries.
• Low awareness and understanding of available and functioning digital public services.
• Barriers faced by marginalised groups in accessing and using services.
• Low digital confidence in using digital public services.
• Services that are difficult to navigate or use.
• Limited mechanism for capturing and responding to citizen feedback on services.

Scope of Support

The project will award grants and provide accompanying technical support to CSO-led initiatives that:

• Improve practical access to public digital services.
• Enable citizens to complete service transactions independently.
• Improve local access to digital services at the community level (underserved communities).
• Build digital confidence to access and use public digital services.
• Enhance inclusivity in accessing services.
• Strengthen citizen engagement and feedback on service experience.
• Demonstrate a clear understanding of the barriers faced by different user groups in accessing and using public digital services.

All concept notes must demonstrate a clear and direct linkage to improved access to and use of public digital services.

What the Call Will Not Support

The following types of concept note are unlikely to be considered:

• Standalone digital literacy initiatives without linkage to service access or use.
• General awareness campaigns that are not targeted or tailored to intended audience.
• Technology-driven solutions.
• Physical infrastructure development.
• Activities not linked to real service delivery challenges.

Grant Size and Duration

• Maximum grant value: BDT 4,200,000
• Duration: Up to 12 months

Eligibility Criteria

Applicants must:

• Be legally registered CSOs in Bangladesh.
• Have at least 5 years of operational experience with demonstrated capacity to manage grants of similar scale.
• Demonstrate relevant thematic experience.
• Demonstrate financial and operational capacity.
• Have experience working with marginalised populations.

 Nature of Funding

• This call provides financial support in the form of grants, awarded through a competitive process.
• Selected organisations will enter into a grant agreement with the British Council and will be required to comply with applicable financial management, reporting, and monitoring requirements in line with British Council and European Union standards.

 For detail, please see the ToR

• Concept Note Submission Deadline: 02 June 2026, 11:59 PM (BD Time)
• Please submit registration copy with the concept note
• The concept note and proposal should be in English
• For queries, question and submission: please send email to egov.grants@britishcouncil.org  and cc mdshariful.haque1@britishcouncil.org.
• The email subject line should be “Call for Grant Concept Note”

A connected and trusted UK in a more connected and trusted world.

Equality Statement

The British Council is committed to a policy of equality and to valuing diversity and is keen to reflect the diversity of the societies in which we work at every level within the organisation. We welcome applications from all sections of the community. We aim to abide by and promote equality legislation by following both the letter and the spirit of it to avoid unjustified discrimination, recognising discrimination as a barrier to equality of opportunity, inclusion and human rights. All staff worldwide are required to ensure their behaviour is consistent with our policies.

The British Council has Disability Confident Employer Status. We offer a guaranteed interview scheme for disabled applicants who meet the essential criteria for the role. Applicants are encouraged to highlight any specific requirements or adjustments needed to enable participation in the recruitment process.

The British Council is committed to safeguarding children, young people and adults who we work with.

We believe that all children and adults everywhere in the world deserve to live in safe environments and have the right to be protected from all forms of abuse, maltreatment and exploitation as set out in article 19, UNCRC (United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child) 1989.

Appointment to positions where there is direct involvement with vulnerable groups will be dependent on thorough checks being completed; these will include qualification checks, reference checks, identity & criminal record checks in line with legal requirements and with the British Council’s Safeguarding policies for Adults and Children.