The Commission for Science & Technology (COSTECH) in collaboration with the Human Development Innovation Fund (HDIF) invites applications from Hubs including Incubators; Innovation Spaces; Accelerators, and the like to participate in a development programme for Hubs in Tanzania. This is to support the development of hubs in the country through a competitive call.

For more information please click the here
To download the application form click here 

Please send your application through  email address: hubsupport2018@costech.or.tz

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Do you have an idea for climate mitigation or adaptation in Tanzania that has the potential to attract private investors? Join the Mobilising More (MoMo) Challenge and submit your idea before August 31^st. The best proposal will win € 25,000 to further develop their business case.

How it works

• Do you have an idea how to involve the private sector in climate adaptation or mitigation in Tanzania?
• Go to the website www.momo4climate.org to submit your idea
• The MoMo Panel, consisting of financial experts, will assess your business case to determine its viability and the potential to mobilise private investments
• Late 2018 the best ideas will be presented in Tanzania for a live audience of investors that will select the winning proposal
• The winner will receive a € 25.000 price to strengthen and scale up their business case, with the support of the MoMo Panel
• Deadline for submitting proposals is 31^st of August

About MoMo Challenge

MoMo is an initiative from IUCN National Committee of The Netherlands (IUCN NL) and the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs (NL MFA). The aim of the MoMo initiative is to guide ideas that have strong potential to positively impact climate change to projects that are ‘investor-ready’.

MoMo Challenge Tanzania is held in cooperation with the Royal Dutch Embassy in Tanzania. Entrepreneurs, companies and non-government organisations are invited to bring forward innovative proposals with a business case that aims to attract private investment for a climate mitigation or adaptation project in Tanzania with a focus on the Southern Agricultural Growth Corridor (SAGCOT).

Further, Information to apply online

This is a call to explore and implement initiatives supportive of the effective use of digital technologies for agricultural transformation in Africa.

The Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA) is a joint international institution of the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Group of States and the European Union (EU). Its mission is to advance food and nutritional security, increase prosperity and encourage sound natural resource management in ACP countries.

CTA is launching a Call for proposals to support the implementation of ICT-enabled mechanisation services in Africa. Applications have to be sent by email by Thursday, 11 October 2018 @ 6:00 PM Netherlands time.

The overall indicative amount made available under this Grant / Call for Proposals is a maximum of Euro 250,000.

More information are available in the call documentation at the links below:

Applicants may send questions by email no later than 21 days before the deadline for receipt of applications to: Ken Lohento, Senior ICT4Ag Programme Coordinator, lohento@cta.int . Only inquiries (and not proposals) will be sent to that address. The email to which proposals will be sent is indicated in the Guidelines for Applicants.

Learn more

The National Geographic Society (NGS) and Microsoft’s AI for Earth program are partnering to support the exploration of how AI can help us understand, engage, and protect the planet. The $1 million AI for Earth Innovation Grant will provide grants to 5-15 novel projects that improve the way we monitor, model, and ultimately manage Earth’s natural systems for a more sustainable future.  

The grants will support the creation and deployment of open source trained models and algorithms that are available to other environmental researchers and innovators and thereby have the potential to provide exponential impact.

To qualify, applications should outline a proposal to use AI for conservation in at least one of the following core areas:  

• Biodiversity conservation: Species are going extinct at alarming rates, and our planet’s last wild places need protection. AI can help in areas like:
  • Protected area management and restoration
  • Sustainable trade
  • Invasive species and disease control
  • Pollution control
  • Realizing natural capital (including valuing natural capital, species identification)

• Climate change: Extreme weather events, rising sea levels, higher global temperatures, and increased ocean acidity threaten human health, infrastructure, and the natural systems we rely on for life itself. AI can help in areas like:
  • Climate resilience
  • Extreme weather and climate modeling
  • Sustainable land-use change
  • Ecosystem services (including carbon sequestration and afforestation/reforestation)

• Agriculture: To feed the world’s rapidly growing population, farmers must produce more food on less arable land, and with lower environmental impact. AI can help in areas like:
  • Land-use planning and management
  • Natural resource conservation
  • Sustainable supply chains
  • Climate-resilient agriculture

• Water: In the next two decades, demand for fresh water—for human consumption, agriculture, and hygiene—is predicted to dramatically outpace supply. AI can help in areas like:
  • Water supply (including catchment control)
  • Water quality and sanitation
  • Water efficiency
  • Extreme-event (droughts, floods, disasters, etc.) management
  • Healthy oceans

Below are just a few examples of the types of tools that we are interested in supporting:

• Biodiversity conservation: acoustic and image classification, geotemporal distribution models
• Climate change: temperature and precipitation model downscaling, risk optimization
• Agriculture: health monitoring in crops and livestock, yield modeling
• Water: groundwater modeling, flood prediction

Grant Resources: Typical proposal requests should be less than $100,000; however, applicants may request up to $200,000. Successful applicants may use awarded funds over one year. (Please see the Preparing Your Proposal page regarding stipend eligibility and other budgetary guidance.)

In addition to financial support, successful proposals will receive free access to AI for Earth API’s, applications, tools, and tutorials, and support for their computational work on Microsoft Azure.

Project Requirements: All models supported through this grant must be open source, and grant recipients must be willing to share their models for use by other environmental researchers and innovators.

Applicant Qualifications: We recommend that the main applicant has a demonstrated background in environmental science and/or technology, and we require that at least one member of the team has strong enough technical skills (such as AI, machine learning, statistical data analysis, scientific modeling, software development, and/or remote sensing) to complete the proposed project successfully.

THE DEADLINE FOR THE AI FOR EARTH INNOVATION RFP IS OCTOBER 8, 2018 AT 11:59 PM EST.

Learn more

The National Geographic Society is accepting proposals for its “Uncovering Human Origins in Asia and Africa” to encourage further investigation of hominid evolution in Africa and Asia, with preference given to projects in relatively unexplored parts of those continents.

Priority will be given to projects that aim to do one or more of the following:   

• Discover or explore new paleoanthropological fossil sites in Africa or Asia, particularly those in Central and West Africa and those in East, Southeast, South, and Central Asia
• Design or test new methodologies for discovering or exploring paleoanthropological sites in Africa or Asia
• Develop local capacity in human origins exploration in Africa or Asia

Typical proposals should request less than $30,000; however, applicants may request up to $50,000 if they are running a field school for students from the region. Successful applicants should use awarded funds within one year. Up to 20 percent of the total can be used as a stipend for the applicant and/or team members. (Please see the Preparing Your Proposal page regarding stipend eligibility and other budgetary guidance.) Projects should be research-focused but can integrate conservation, education, storytelling, or technology as a secondary component. All applications should include a clear review of the state of knowledge about human origins in the region and, if applicable, a plan for evaluating the success of the proposed capacity development activities (e.g., field school).

Submit your proposal online

Applications are open for Demo Africa 2018 that is one of the flagship initiatives of Lions@frica, a public-private alliance aimed at enhancing and deepening the start-up and innovation ecosystems of targeted fast-growing African economies. For over 25 years DEMO has built an unmatched track record of selecting, promoting and commercializing some of the most game-changing products the world has ever seen. DEMO Africa is the launch pad for African technology and trends, attracting a global audience of over 2,000 people to experience the finest African innovations as they venture into the markets. Over the last six years, they have connected over 3,000 African start-ups to the global innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem, helped create more than 2,000 high-paying jobs, and mentored more than 250 startup teams across the continent. Over 30 DEMO Africa winners have ventured on to Silicon Valley through the Lions@frica innovation tour to partake in deep knowledge exchanges and engage the global innovation ecosystem.

Submit your application online on Demo Africa

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 23 February 2018- The African Union Commission launches its Second Open Call For Research Proposals under Phase II of the African Union Research Grants programme, with a deadline of 22nd May 2018 for submission of proposals.

The objectives of the Call are to: 

• Support collaborative Research and Innovation (R&I) activities that address critical issues facing African countries and contribute to the sustainable development of African countries and the fight against poverty, while respecting ethical and gender issues;
• Develop the capacity of the African Union Commission (AUC) to design, implement and monitor R&I funding programmes and establish the basis for a credible and reputable African framework programme for R&I that could attract additional funds from other sources (African Union (AU) Member States and other partners and donors).

This call for proposal responds to the implementation of Africa’s Science Technology and Innovation Strategy-2024 which addresses the aspirations identified under Agenda 2063 and Priority 3 on the Human development of the EU-Africa partnership. The call supports research on: Food & Nutrition Security and Sustainable Agriculture (FNSSA) with particular attention on Agriculture and Food Systems for Nutrition.

The African Union Research Grant (AURG) is one of the programmes initiated within the Department of Human Resources, Science and Technology (HRST) to support a Pan African research and development through grants and direct funding. The programme provides the needed opportunity to use Science and Technology (S&T) as a tool for sustainable development, building and strengthening Africa’s S&T capacities.

The Commission through the support of the European Union secured a sum of 17.5 million euro under the EU Pan-African Programme to launch 2 calls for research proposals in Africa in 2016 and 2018. Nine (9) institutions have been selected and awarded grants up to US$ 1,000,000 each in the 2016 Call for Proposals.

The full Guidelines for Applicants, Application form, and other supporting documents are available for downloading under the Event Resources Section located on the webpage: https://au.int/en/aurg.

Deadline for submitting applications is May 22, 2018 at 17:00 GMT + 3 (Addis Ababa Time)

Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD) is seeking proposals for its Enterprise Development for Jobs that aims to contribute to job creation in developing countries by stimulating the establishment of new business enterprises or expansion of existing ones.

The main objective of this call is to stimulate renewable energy projects that increase access to renewable energy and thereby contribute to job creation and poverty reduction. The purpose of this call for proposals is to fund feasibility studies of renewable energy projects, pilot projects, and training, that can start implementation during 2018 or 2019.

Funding Information

The minimum grant size is NOK 500 000.

Eligible Activities

• The scheme does not provide investment support or loans but does provide grants to activities that contribute to early-phase project development and activities that limit commercial risk before investment decisions are taken.
• Eligible activities include but are not limited to feasibility studies, partner search, pilot projects, training of local staff, and local infrastructure investments related to the company’s investment in energy production capacity.
• Only projects in the following sector will be given priority under this call for proposals: Energy, defined as renewable energy.

Geographical Scope

• Funding will be prioritized for projects in the seven countries: Ethiopia, Kenya, Mozambique, Myanmar, Nepal, Tanzania and Uganda.
• Projects in other developing countries eligible for Norwegian development assistance may also be considered. Among these, projects in low-income countries will be given priority.

 Eligibility Criteria

• The applicant must own a minimum of 25% of the planned investment (in cases where joint ventures are considered). Any exception to this rule must be based on special justification.
• Grant recipients must have ethical guidelines for their business operations. These shall as a minimum meet the requirements of “Guidelines for the preparation of ethical guidelines for Norad grant recipients”. See ethical guidelines – Guide for Norad’s grant recipients.
• The applicant shall confirm that it has undertaken adequate security assessments for the employees that will work in high-risk areas, hereunder any mitigating measures related to training, guidance material, insurance, and equipment.
• Projects supported under this scheme must comply with the EEA Agreement rules on state aid.

How to Apply

For more information, please visit Call for Proposals.