New screening process

Concept Notes are short summaries of a climate project proposal. They are an optional step, but provide a way for a project proposer to receive early feedback from GCF, indicating whether the proposal merits development into a full Funding Proposal that could be considered by the GCF Board. The Secretariat screening is based upon the GCF investment framework, including the investment criteria. 

As part of our nine-month commitment, we have introduced a new screening process for all Concept Notes - including public and private sector proposals, as well as proposals made under our Project Specific Assessment Approach (PSAA).  These procedures will allow us to rapidly review proposals and provide clear feedback with one of three responses: 

The Secretariat assessment is that the Concept Note:

• is aligned with GCF’s investment criteria and merits development into a full Funding Proposal;
• is not fully aligned with our investment criteria and merits further development and resubmission; or
• is not aligned with our investment criteria and does not merit further development. 

Providing this clear feedback at an early stage will allow countries and project proponents to focus their efforts on proposals that are most likely to succeed in securing GCF funding, increasing clarity and reducing wasted effort. 

To further aid this process, we are launching a new digital template for Concept Notes, which will enable faster screening and appraisal of concept notes (CNs) by streamlining the requested documentation to align with GCF’s efficient CN screening process.

GCF Accredited Entities can access the new digitized Concept Note template via the GCF Partner Portal: https://partners.greenclimate.fund/ 

Simply click on “+ Submit proposal” and then select “Create a new proposal using the new digital template for GCF concept notes”.

PSAA applicants will be provided with access details for the Partner Portal after submission of the PSAA questionnaire; the PSAA page provides further details.