Lima, Peru - Yesterday, in Lima, Peru, President Obama announced the first Peru-specific 100,000 Strong in the Americas Innovation Fund grants competition. It will create 20 new higher education institutional partnerships exclusively between Peruvian and U.S. colleges and universities to increase student exchanges in the fields of water conservation, climate change, STEM, and environmental sciences.

This $600,000 Peru-specific Innovation Fund competition to be launched in early 2017 is made possible due to the public-private sector commitments of the U.S. Department of State, Sempra Energy, and CAF: The Development Bank for Latin America. Actively engaged in collaboration during the last two years, Sempra Energy and CAF Development Bank are committed to supporting the 100,000 Strong in the Americas Innovation Fund.

This new Innovation Fund grant competition will facilitate new institutional partnerships that increase student mobility between Peru and the United States by creating unique opportunities for students to work and study together in teams in both countries and enhance greater regional education cooperation and competiveness. The 100,000 Strong in the Americas Innovation Fund is the dynamic and expanding public-private sector collaboration between the White House, U.S. Department of State, Partners of the Americas, NAFSA: Association of International Educators, along with private sector and foundation partners, which supports the President's signature education initiative for the Western Hemisphere. Grant competitions are designed to create innovative partnerships between universities and colleges in the United States and Western Hemisphere to develop and implement new training and exchange opportunities for students throughout the Americas.