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.

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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.

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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

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.

Deadline: 4 April 2018

National Geographic Society is seeking proposals for its Conservation Technologies Programme to advance breakthrough technologies that can scale National Geographic’s efforts to explore, visualize, understand, and ultimately protect the planet.

National Geographic, through its engineering team, has a long record of success in developing innovative, cutting-edge technologies that have opened their eyes to different viewpoints, helped them to see the world in a new light and explore it in new ways. From the depths of the ocean, to the top of mountains, technologies such as Crittercam, DropCam, aerial imagery, and camera traps have already demonstrated their ability to transform the fields of exploration, science, and conservation.

Priorities

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

• Develop tools or capabilities needed to generate new data and insights on biodiversity distribution, patterns, and trends
• Inform where future protected areas should be prioritized
• Support integrated multi-sensor monitoring systems for the natural world (including land and ocean), and cultural heritage.
• Advance surveillance/alarm systems for protected areas (natural and cultural) by providing real-time, local-to-global, situational awareness

Funding Information

• Typical proposal requests should be less than $50,000; applicants may request up to $100,000, of which up to 20 percent of the total can be used as a stipend for the applicant or team members, and up to 15 percent of which can be used for institutional overhead (applicable only for awarded grants of at least $50,000).
• All applications should explicitly review what has already been accomplished and state the plan for evaluating the impact of the work.

How to Apply

Applicants can apply via given website.

For more information, please visit Conservation Technologies.

The 2018 Africa Energy Innovation Competiton is set to accelerate the development of early-stage energy firms across Africa. Across Africa, the main energy challenge is to rapidly deliver modern energy services to millions of households and businesses using sustainable and affordable energy technologies. This competition challenges early-stage energy entrepreneurs from Africa to collaborate with local research institutions or industries to develop a prototype model of a key device/equipment for a social energy enterprise or energy management system using local resources.

The global objective of this call for proposals is:

To improve working conditions, promote labour and environmental standards and reduce labour rights abuses in the cotton and garment sector value chains.

The specific objectives of this call for proposals are:

• improving knowledge, awareness and advocacy on social and environmental conditions to promote responsible production and consumption
• enhancing and up-scaling voluntary transparency and traceability schemes through existing multistakeholder initiatives to support sustainable and responsible production

Lot 1 Strengthening knowledge, awareness, and advocacy on social and environmental conditions in the cotton and garment value chains. Indicative allocation of funds EUR 3 500 000. minimum amount: EUR 500 000  maximum amount: EUR 1 500 000

Lot 2 Enhancing transparency and traceability in the cotton and garment value chains. Indicative allocation of funds EUR 2 000 000.  minimum amount: EUR 500 000  maximum amount: EUR 1 000 000

There are three sets of eligibility criteria, relating to:

the actors:

• The lead applicant, i.e. the entity submitting the application form (2.1.1),
• if any, its co-applicant(s) (where it is not specified otherwise the lead applicant and its co-applicant(s) are hereinafter jointly referred as “applicant(s)”) (2.1.1),
• and, if any, affiliated entity(ies) to the lead applicant and/or to a co-applicant(s). (2.1.2);

the actions:

• Actions for which a grant may be awarded (2.1.4)

the costs:

• types of cost that may be taken into account in setting the amount of the grant (2.1.5)

Can your technology contribute to a better environment and help reduce poverty? Do you want to explore a new market for your product? If yes, then apply for the Planning Grants program.

The Demo Environment programme, financed by The Swedish Agency for Development Cooperation (Sida) is seeking applications for its Planning Grants program to strengthen partnerships and explore new market opportunities for their technology or business model.

Focus Areas

• Climate change adaption/mitigation
• Ecosystem services
• Renewable energy
• Water and sanitation
• Urban development

Grant Information

The maximum amount you can apply for as a Planning Grant is SEK 350,000.

Eligibility Criteria

• Applicants must fulfill the following eligibility requirements:
  • The main applicant must be a company or organisation based outside one of the 14 countries, and its partner organisation (the potential customer) must be legally registered in the project country.
  • The partners must have signed a Memorandum of Understanding or similar agreement before applying.
  • As guiding principle companies or private organizations applying and their partners should have at least 3 employees and have been operating for about 3 years. They particularly encourage applications from small and medium-sized enterprises.
  • Both partners must exhibit sound finances and a reasonable turnover.
• Note that no organisation, private or public, is eligible for funds if it is involved in any of the following:
  • The manufacture of arms and/or their components
  • The tobacco industry
  • The alcohol industry

How to Apply

Interested applicants can apply online via given website.

Eligible Countries

• Africa: Kenya, Mozambique, Tanzania, Zambia
• Asia: Bangladesh, Cambodia
• Latin America: Bolivia, Colombia, Guatemala
• Western Balkans: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia
• Eastern Europe: Georgia, Moldova, Ukraine

Deadline: 4 March 2018

For more information, please visit Planning Grants.

Due date : 2 February, 2018

Eligible applicants: Scientists, researchers, innovators or entrepreneurs resident in the eastern African countries of Burundi, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda and who are not current recipients of a BioInnovate Africa project grant.

Partners per project: Minimum 3 and maximum 5 from at least three (3) of the eligible countries.

Grant period: Up to 3 years (2018–2021)

Grant amount per project: US$ 750,000 for Category 1; US$ 250,000 for Category 2; and US$ 500,000 for Category 3.

                                                                      http://bioinnovate-africa.org

Organizations seeking funding to promote policy change and implementation to promote safer road users will be required to submit a short concept note for consideration. Please carefully read the call for proposals to determine if you are eligible before you apply. Note that applications will not be accepted from all BIGRS priority cities in Round 13. After you log on to our on-line system, select the CN Safer Road User_RD13.

Proposals to promote policy change on vehicle standards will not be considered in Round 13.