2025 U.S.-ASEAN Women's Leadership Academy for YSEALI | SUSMAS24CA0005

Opportunity Information: Apply for SUSMAS24CA0005

The 2025 U.S.-ASEAN Women's Leadership Academy for YSEALI (branded as the 2025 YSEALI WLA InnovateHER) is a U.S. Mission to ASEAN grant opportunity designed to strengthen a regional network of emerging Southeast Asian women leaders working in technology. It sits under YSEALI, the U.S. government initiative that connects and supports young leaders across Southeast Asia to collaborate on shared challenges. This academy is meant to advance YSEALI's core thematic areas (civic engagement, economic empowerment and social entrepreneurship, education, and environmental issues) while also supporting the U.S. Mission to ASEAN's goals around inclusive economic recovery and expanding the role of women in regional peace and security, with an emphasis on DEIA principles.

The funded project will deliver a leadership academy for roughly 50 to 60 female participants who already have professional experience in the tech sector. The program is aimed at women ages 20 to 35, and the cohort must include representation from all 10 ASEAN member states (Brunei, Burma, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam) plus Timor-Leste. The opportunity is intentionally broad about what "tech" can include, listing examples such as artificial intelligence, clean energy, cybersecurity, software development, medical technology research, and tech startup incubators. In practice, this signals an interest in cross-cutting technology fields that influence economies and communities, not just one narrow specialty.

Program delivery is structured as a blend of virtual and in-person activities. The academy will include pre-workshop virtual engagement followed by an in-person intensive workshop lasting four or five days, hosted somewhere in Southeast Asia. The content is expected to do more than provide technical training; it is framed around leadership, networks, and enabling conditions for women in tech. Core purposes include building a durable network of women technologists across Southeast Asia who can continue collaborating and who can help design future YSEALI activities for women; examining how technology, including AI, can practically improve women's daily lives; discussing political and governmental policy factors that shape women's access to the digital economy and to technological opportunities; and developing general leadership competencies, including greater self-awareness of individual strengths and professional goals.

From a funding and administrative standpoint, this is a discretionary opportunity offered as a cooperative agreement, meaning the U.S. government typically expects to have substantial involvement in the project as it is implemented (for example, in coordinating, shaping, or approving key elements). The opportunity number is SUSMAS24CA0005, and it is listed under CFDA 19.040. The agency anticipates making a single award, with a maximum funding level (award ceiling) of $250,000. The original application closing date is August 5, 2024, and the opportunity was posted on June 24, 2024. Applicants are directed to the full Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) on the U.S. Mission to ASEAN website for the complete requirements, selection criteria, and submission instructions.

Eligibility is limited to organizations rather than individuals. Eligible applicants include U.S. and foreign public or private educational institutions and U.S. and foreign not-for-profit organizations (including think tanks). The eligibility list also includes nonprofits with 501(c)(3) status and nonprofits without 501(c)(3) status, as well as certain other eligible entity types noted in the posting. For-profit entities and individual applicants are explicitly not eligible. Overall, the grant is set up for a university, nonprofit, or similar institution to design and run a region-wide women's tech leadership academy that combines convening power, policy and leadership programming, and sustained network-building across ASEAN and Timor-Leste.

• The U.S. Mission to ASEAN in the community development, other sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "2025 U.S.-ASEAN Women's Leadership Academy for YSEALI" 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 2024-06-24.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2024-08-05. (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 $250,000.00 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, Nonprofits that do not have a 501 (c) (3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Others.

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