City & Community Innovation Challenge
Funds Thai city and community innovation with grants for social problem-solving prototypes and pilot delivery.
The City and Community Innovation Challenge is an annual programme administered by NIA's Social Innovation Driving Unit, funding innovators who address urbanisation and community-development problems through applied innovation. The FY2569 (2026) cycle is currently open. Five theme areas are designated for the current cycle: soil restoration and land rehabilitation; water management; coastal resources management; sports development; and community revitalization. Grants are non-dilutive and subject to the Social Innovation track ceiling of ฿1,500,000 per project. The programme is announced through the NIA event portal (nia.or.th/event/detail/18002) and managed via the NIA MIS portal at mis.nia.or.th.
The primary target applicants are local government bodies, community enterprises, and social-enterprise or SME applicants whose work directly serves a Thai city or community. Projects must address one of the five named FY2569 theme areas; applicants working on other social problems are directed to the Sectoral Social Innovation Grant instead. Eligible legal entities must be Thai-registered with majority Thai ownership. The programme runs on an annual cadence with theme areas refreshed each fiscal year, meaning the five current themes will be replaced in FY2570.
Applicants should confirm that their project clearly maps to one of the five named FY2569 themes, as the challenge structure means thematic fit is a primary screening criterion. Local government bodies, social enterprises, and community-based organisations with established relationships in affected localities are well positioned to apply. Because the exact application closing date was not published in available sources at the time of cataloguing, applicants should access the live event page at nia.or.th/event/detail/18002 to confirm the current deadline before preparing a submission through mis.nia.or.th.
Soil restoration/land rehabilitation; water management; coastal resources management; sports development; community revitalization.
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