The Toyota Foundation

Program Title: Cultivating Empathy Through Learning from Our Neighbors:
Practitioners' Exchange on Common Issues in Asia

The grant program focuses on deepening mutual understanding and knowledge-sharing among people on the ground in East and Southeast Asia who are finding solutions to shared issues. Through promoting direct interaction among key players, the grant program aims to survey and analyze situations in target countries, obtain new perspectives, and expand the potential of future generations.

With multinational teams comprised of participants from diverse backgrounds, projects can avoid conventional linear relationships, such as “supporter and supported” or “instructor and trainee,” and instead form cooperative and creative alliances that consider, act on, and construct solutions to shared issues. The grant program anticipates that these partnerships, which extend beyond such factors as nationality, age, and organizational affiliation, will produce significant social change through fostering a process of mutual learning.

• Comments by the Selection Committee Chair on the International Grant Program 2018

TYTID	Project Title	Project Leader	Position, Organization	Grant Amount (yen）
A. Multigenerational and Multicultural Inclusion in Communities
D18-N-0119	Understanding "Us" to know "Them": Employing Facilitative Listening Design regionally to build empathy towards the Other through　understanding those we can relate to	Suyheang Kry	Executive Director, Women Peace Makers	7,000,000
D18-N-0199	Redefining ‘community symbiotic society’ focusing on dementia	Jun Sasaki	CEO/Chairman, Yushoukai Medical Corporation	7,300,000
D18-N-0206	Locating Peace through harmonizing Religion, Gender, and Age: The Cases of Thailand's Deep South and Indonesia's Aceh	Napisa Waitoolkiat	Director, College of ASEAN Community Studies, Naresuan University	4,500,000
Subtotal 3				18,800,000
B. Creating New Culture: Toward a Common Platform for Asia
D18-N-0192	Comprehensive Understanding of the ASEAN Urban Heritage and Practice of “Advance Preservation”	Kengo Hayashi	Lecturer, Institute of Industrial Science, The University of Tokyo	7,500,000
D18-N-0197	The ‘Ulam School’: A Food Education Transborders’ Network to Foster Solidarity and Edible Flora Preservation for Sustainable and Healthy Lifestyle among Neighboring Countries	Eric Jose Olmedo Panal	Principal Research Fellow, Institute of Ethnic Studies (KITA), Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia	7,200,000
D18-N-0219	Building of New Values Living in Rural Area in Asia:Practitioners' Exchange from Myanmar, Japan and Bhutan	Ryota Sakamoto	Associate professor, Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Kyoto University	7,000,000
Subtotal 3				21,700,000
C. Open Field
D18-N-0089	Cross-cultural communication for the inclusive society by the leaders of Person with Disability in Asia	Toshiyuki Uwano	Fellow researcher, The Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology	7,500,000
D18-N-0183	Designing the future of unofficial urban villages in mega cities of Asia: Sharing the experience of Xizhou Tribe at the Kampung Aquarium reconstruction	Kiyoko Kanki	Professor, Faculty of Engineering, Dept. of Architecture and Architectural Engineering, Kyoto University	3,300,000
D18-N-0198	Marking tourism works for local communities: A mutual learning from Vietnam and Thailand	Pham Kieu Oanh	Executive Director, Centre for Social Initiatives Promotion	7,200,000
D18-N-0208	The Project for Creating Innovation Platform for Resource Management in Local and Indigenous Community of ASEAN	Byar Myar Gay	Policy Analyst, Ethnic Nationalities Affairs Center / Co-Chair of Global Board, ASEAN Green Justice Network	7,000,000
D18-N-0238	Building network among 3 Asian countries living in an era of media reform: Finding social issues and nurturing leaders for solutions	Kaito Miwa	CEO, Specially Approved Nonprofit Organization e-Education	4,500,000
Subtotal 5				29,500,000
Total 11				70,000,000

Please read through the Guidelines for details.

Target Countries	East and Southeast Asia *1
Required elements for Project	Transnational, Cross Sector, Mutual Learning, Foresight
Thematic Areas	A. Multigenerational and Multicultural Inclusion in Communities B. Creating New Culture: Toward a Common Platform for Asia C. Open Field
Project Period	One year (Nov 2018 – Oct 2019) or Two years (Nov 2018 – Oct 2020)
Expected Output	Projects are required to; 1) identify issues and conduct a review by surveying and analyzing the situation in target countries; 2) carry out activities aimed at providing solutions to issues; 3) produce and disseminate tangible output
Potential Applicants	Diverse team based in multiple target countries. Team members could include those with practical experience and knowledge on addressing issues in the target countries, such as practitioners, researchers, creators, policy makers, and journalists and other media representatives.
Grant Amount (maximum per project)	a) One-year project: JPY 5,000,000 (approx. USD 44,500); b) Two-year project: JPY 10,000,000 (approx. USD 89,000)
Total Amount of Grants	70 million yen
Public Notification Period	From April 2nd to June 15th, 2018, 23:59 Japan Standard Time
Proposal Submission Period	From April 2nd to June 15th, 2018, 23:59 Japan Standard Time
Applications	Web-based application via Foundation website only
Selection of Grants	Formal decisions on the awarding of grants will be made by the Toyota Foundation Board of Directors at a meeting to be held in late September 2018, based on the deliberations of responsible Selection Committee consisting of external experts.

*1 East Asia: China, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, South Korea, Mongolia, Japan
　  Southeast Asia: Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines,
　  Singapore, Thailand, Timor-Leste, Vietnam


Please also see FAQs.

• Program Guidelines(515KB)
• Application Form (Sample)(181KB)
  
  ※ Application closed on June 15, 2018. Thank you for your interest.

In Baguio (the Philippines), Bangkok (Thailand), and Sendai (Japan), the participants shared their views on the International Grant Program and their experience of their granted project.
The Foundation would like to call the attention of potential applicants to the following booklet as it is full of lessons learned. It is strongly recommended to read.

WHAT BRINGS US BEYOND UNDERSTANDING TO EMPATHY ?(3100KB)