The U.S.-Jordan Private Sector Innovation Fund: $50M in Foreign Aid That Companies Can Apply For, $2M to $20M Awards, Rolling SOIs From November 1, 2026

On October 26, 2026, the Regional Foreign Assistance Office (RFA) at the U.S. Embassy in Amman posted DFOP0020010, the "U.S.–Jordan Private Sector Innovation Fund" Annual Program Statement. Its program description summarizes the current administration's foreign aid policy in one line: programming should "promote trade over aid by leveraging assistance resources to champion American enterprise, U.S. exports, and infrastructure, and catalyze private capital through market principles."

The terms:

• Total funding: $50,000,000, pending availability of funds
• 3 to 5 awards expected, each about $2,000,000 to $20,000,000
• Performance period: 12 to 36 months
• Funding source: FY2025 Economic Support Funds under the Foreign Assistance Act
• Instrument: grant, fixed amount award, or cooperative agreement
• Eligible applicants: for-profit companies, nonprofits including think tanks and NGOs, and public and private educational institutions
• Cost share is not required but "will be favorably considered"
• Submission window: November 1, 2026 through September 30, 2027, 11:59 p.m. Jordan time, with reviews about quarterly
• First step: a statement of interest (SOI) of one to three pages, submitted through MyGrants
• Assistance Listing 19.600; questions to AmmanRFAinfo@state.gov

Companies rarely get direct access to foreign assistance in amounts like these. Typical embassy annual program statements fund public diplomacy at $10,000 to $250,000. This one offers up to $20 million per award, open to businesses, to create commercial deals.

Context: Jordan's aid relationship is being restructured

Jordan has been one of the largest recipients of U.S. foreign assistance for decades. The 2022 memorandum of understanding committed $1.45 billion a year in bilateral aid for FY2023 through FY2029, a large share of it as direct budget support to Jordan's treasury and funding for the Jordanian Armed Forces. With USAID dissolved, much of the remaining economic assistance has moved under State Department management through offices such as the RFA.

On August 4, 2026, U.S. Ambassador Jim Holtsnider and Jordan's Minister of Planning and International Cooperation Zeina Toukan signed a four-year, $354.6 million strategic objectives agreement. Jordanian and Gulf press described it as the first agreement of its kind under the current administration. It covers water and sanitation, energy, education, tourism, and economic opportunity, and it comes with conditions: jointly agreed objectives, "meaningful Jordanian co-investment and ownership," and a defined path toward less reliance on U.S. support. The embassy said the agreement places new emphasis on trade and commercial opportunities that benefit American workers and businesses.

The Innovation Fund puts that commercial emphasis into practice. The APS says plainly that earlier programs focused on "capacity building or access to finance," and that this one intends to reduce "the risks associated with innovative, cross-border commercial engagement." It addresses a specific market failure: U.S. companies stay out of Jordan because the market is small, the economy faces structural problems, and the region is unstable. As a result, "commercially viable partnerships and investment opportunities that could generate mutual economic benefits often fail to materialize."

The APS invites applicants to build on the existing U.S.–Jordan trade agreements, starting with the Free Trade Agreement in force since 2001. In effect, the Fund uses grant money to cover early-stage commercial risk that a trade agreement cannot.

What it funds

There are two program areas:

Program Area 1: Bilateral Commercial Partnerships. U.S. and Jordanian firms that jointly develop, pilot, deploy, or scale products and services, commercialize innovations, or enter new markets.

Program Area 2: Mutual Foreign Direct Investment. U.S. and Jordanian firms investing in each other's markets, including joint ventures, technology transfer, startup expansion, new operations, and investments that bring in advanced technology or "market-disrupting business models."

The Fund gives priority consideration to these sectors:

• Energy and critical minerals
• Communications and telecommunications
• Information and emerging technologies, "to include Super Intelligence"
• Water
• Critical and advanced manufacturing
• Transportation, smart mobility, and logistics
• Education

"Super Intelligence" is unusual wording for a foreign assistance solicitation and appears to be the first time it has shown up in a State Department economic APS. It reflects the administration's focus on AI exports, also visible in our coverage of the State Department's Pax Silica AI assistance project. A U.S. AI, cloud, or data-infrastructure company that wants to deploy in Jordan with a Jordanian partner is a strong fit.

The Fund aims for these outcomes: more U.S. exports to Jordan and neighboring countries, more commercially sustainable U.S.–Jordanian partnerships, more bilateral foreign direct investment, adoption of U.S. technology and standards, more competitive Jordanian firms, jobs in both countries, and use of Jordan "as a platform for commercial engagement and investment in regional markets." Proposals that touch Iraq, Saudi Arabia, or Syria reconstruction through a Jordanian base fit the last of these.

What it will not fund

The APS lists exclusions:

• Public diplomacy or U.S. government messaging
• U.S.-based activities, study tours, scholarships, or exchanges
• Diaspora-focused initiatives
• Projects predominantly academic or basic research
• Pure service delivery or humanitarian aid
• Completing activities started with other funds
• Human-subjects medical or psychological research
• Cultural programming and festivals
• Entertainment costs

Universities are eligible, but a proposal led by research will be rejected. An academic applicant needs a commercialization partner and a deal-oriented design, not a lab.

The profit problem for companies

For-profit firms are eligible, but State Department assistance awards cannot generate profit for the recipient. Profit means anything above allowable direct and indirect costs, and cost allowability follows FAR Part 31. A company must therefore treat the award as cost reimbursement for a commercial venture it would want to pursue anyway. The company's return comes from the market it opens, not the grant.

This shapes how the proposal should be built. The strongest applications treat the grant as funding for the risky early stage, such as a pilot deployment, certification, a first demonstration plant, or market-entry costs, and put company capital behind everything afterward. That plan should also appear as cost share, because cost share is "favorably considered" even though it is not required.

Program income can be added to the award, applied to cost share, or deducted from total allowable costs, as the award terms specify.

How SOIs are scored

Phase 1 SOIs are scored out of 100:

• Quality of Project Idea: 50 points. Responsiveness to the APS, innovation, strategic fit, and likelihood of advancing the objectives.
• Organizational Capacity and Record on Previous Programs: 35 points. Technical and management capacity, relevant experience, and partner roles.
• Program Planning and Ability to Achieve Results: 15 points. A realistic timeline, measurable results, and, notably, "the feasibility of scaling or commercializing technology solutions in a way that benefits U.S. private-sector competitiveness."

Tie-breaker: when scores are equal, the applicant with the lower indirect cost rate wins, under Executive Order 14332, Section 4(b)(iii).

The merit review panel recommends one of three outcomes: reject, go to co-design with the RFA office before a full application, or go straight to a full application. Rejected applicants receive no individual feedback. Invited applicants then submit a full package with SF-424 forms, a narrative, a budget narrative, a logic model, a results monitoring plan, key personnel, and a timeline. A second merit review follows.

The required SOI content

SOIs are one to three pages, single-spaced, in 12-point Times New Roman, with up to four one-page annexes for tables and charts. A cover table, which does not count toward the page limit, lists the project title, organization, how the project benefits the United States and Jordan, the federal share requested, cost share, and project length. The narrative covers:

1. An executive summary of two to four sentences
2. The problem or opportunity
3. The proposed solution and activities
4. An implementation plan with phases and timeline
5. Expected outcomes and a definition of success
6. A theory of change in "If ___, then ___, because ___" form
7. Partner roles, including each subrecipient's federal share and cost share
8. Resource contributions and cost share

You do not need a UEI or SAM.gov registration to submit the SOI. You need both before a full application, and registration takes four to eight weeks. Start it when you submit the SOI.

Compliance terms

Read these before committing:

• Promoting Human Flourishing in Foreign Assistance (2 CFR Parts 602, 603, 604). Award terms on abortion, "gender ideology," and "discriminatory equity ideology" apply to U.S. and foreign NGOs, international organizations, and parastatals.
• Anti-DEI certification for any work performed in the United States, which is material under the False Claims Act.
• Foreign-funding disclosure certification under 20 U.S.C. 1011f for universities and university subrecipients.
• Trafficking-in-persons compliance plan if overseas services exceed $500,000, which they will at this award size.
• Counterterrorism name-check vetting, Leahy vetting for any security-force participants, and no payments to UNRWA.
• Disclosure of foreign-government ownership or control in your company or partners.
• Termination when an award "no longer effectuates the program goals or agency priorities."
• A preference for U.S.-produced goods under 2 CFR 200.322.

Strategy: when and how to apply

Apply in an early quarter. The money is FY2025 Economic Support Funds, the total is "pending availability of funds," and only three to five awards are planned. One $20 million award would take 40 percent of the pool. Rolling programs like this tend to fund their strongest early concepts and leave little for later rounds. If your deal is ready, submit in November or December 2026 for the first quarterly review. A September 2027 submission may find the money already committed.

Lead with a deal. Reviewers will favor SOIs that name a U.S. firm, a Jordanian counterpart, a product, and a transaction. A trade association offering a "business-to-business matchmaking platform" will look like the capacity-building programs the APS says it is moving away from.

Measure benefits in both countries. The cover table asks how the project benefits the United States and Jordan, and the outcomes include jobs in both. Quantify U.S. export value, U.S. jobs supported, and the private capital the project attracts, along with Jordanian productivity gains.

Size the request to the stage. Five awards averaging $10 million is plausible. A $2 million to $5 million request to de-risk a pilot, with a credible follow-on financing plan, may score better per dollar than a $20 million request for full deployment.

Plan for co-design. The co-design option means the RFA office expects to reshape some concepts. Treat a co-design invitation as positive, and arrive with a cost-share plan you can negotiate.

Keep indirect costs low. Since the indirect rate decides ties, a company that charges indirect costs below its NICRA, or none at all, gains an advantage in a close competition.

The short version

DFOP0020010 offers $50 million in FY2025 Economic Support Funds for 3 to 5 awards of $2 million to $20 million. It funds U.S.–Jordanian commercial partnerships and cross-border investment in energy and critical minerals, telecom, AI and emerging technology, water, advanced manufacturing, logistics, and education. Companies are eligible but cannot earn profit on the award. SOIs are three pages, need no SAM.gov registration, and are accepted from November 1, 2026 through September 30, 2027, with quarterly reviews. Lead with a specific deal, quantify benefits in both countries, offer cost share, and submit in the first quarter, before the pool is committed.

Sources: the Grants.gov listing for DFOP0020010 and its attached Annual Program Statement, and coverage of the August 4, 2026 U.S.–Jordan strategic objectives agreement from the Jordan News Agency (Petra) and WAM.

If you are turning a U.S.–Jordan commercial deal into a three-page SOI, Granted can help you write the theory of change, quantify the two-country benefits, and organize a cost-share plan that works with the no-profit rule.