The Royal Academy of Engineering - Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation 2021

About

The Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation, founded by the Royal Academy of Engineering, is Africa’s biggest prize dedicated to engineering innovation. It awards crucial commercialisation support to ambitious African innovators developing scalable engineering solutions to local challenges, demonstrating the importance of engineering as an enabler of improved quality of life and economic development.

An eight-month period of tailored training and mentoring culminates in a showcase event where a winner is selected to receive £25,000 along with three runners-up, who are each awarded £10,000.

How To Apply

Applicants must have developed, or be in the process of developing, a new technological innovation. Applicants should have the ambition to take a leading role in creating a new business to commercialise this innovation.
The Africa Prize is part funded by the UK Government’s Global Challenges Research Fund, and as such all activities must be compliant with Official
Development Assistance (ODA) rules. Innovations must:

• Aim to promote the welfare and economic development of a country or countries in sub-Saharan Africa
• Be designed to address a development need or specific challenge facing that country.

For more information on the ODA guidance please visit:
www.oecd.org/dac/stats/What-is-ODA.pdf

• Angola
• Benin
• Botswana
• Burkina Faso
• Burundi
• Cameroon
• Cape Verde
• Central African Republic
• Chad
• Comoros
• Republic of the Congo
• Democratic Republic of the
• Congo
• Cote d'Ivoire
• Djibouti
• Equatorial Guinea
• Eritrea
• Ethiopia
• Gabon
• The Gambia
• Ghana
• Guinea
• Guinea-Bissau
• Kenya
• Lesotho
• Liberia
• Madagascar
• Malawi
• Mali
• Mauritania
• Mauritius
• Mozambique
• Namibia
• Niger
• Nigeria
• Rwanda
• Sao Tome and Principe
• Senegal
• Seychelles
• Sierra Leone
• Somalia
• South Africa
• South Sudan
• Sudan
• Swaziland
• Tanzania
• Togo
• Uganda
• Zambia
• Zimbabwe

Eligibility Criteria

• Applicants must be individuals or small teams
• Individual applicants must be citizens of a country in sub-Saharan Africa
• For teams of two or more, the lead applicant must be a citizen of a country in sub-Saharan Africa
• The innovation must be based in a country in sub-Saharan Africa
• Applicants must have an engineering innovation, though are not required to be an engineering graduate or student
• Applicants must provide a letter of support from a university, research institution, innovation hub or previous incubator programme. This can be as
• simple as stating that an individual studied at or was involved with that institution. If applicants are not affiliated with any organisation, another
• document proving the status of your organisation or innovation, such as a document of incorporation or patent certificate may be used.
• The lead applicant must be over the age of 18 by 1 September 2020. There is no upper age limit.
• Industrial researchers and establishments are not eligible.

The applicant’s innovation can be any new product, technology or service, based on research in engineering defined in its broadest sense to
encompass a wide range of fields. This includes but is not limited to:

• agricultural technology, biotechnology, chemical engineering, civil engineering, computer science, design engineering, electrical and electronic
• engineering, ICT, materials science, mechanical engineering, and medical engineering. If you are in any doubt that your area of expertise would be
• considered engineering, then please contact the Academy to discuss your application.
• Applicants should have developed, and be in the early stages of commercialising, an engineering innovation that:
• Will bring social and/or environmental benefits to a country/countries in sub-Saharan Africa;
• Has strong potential to be replicated and scaled-up;
• Is accompanied by an ambitious but realistic business plan which has strong commercial viability.

Eligibility Criteria
All applications must be submitted via the online grant system, available here: https://grants.raeng.org.uk. You must register though the system
before you can apply. The application form has six sections and will take approximately one and a half to two hours to complete.

After logging in to the online grant system please select Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation 2020/21. This will take you to the ‘Instructions’ screen. Here you will see some general instructions on how to use the system as well as the six sections of the application form:

• Applicant details
• Your Innovation
• Your Business Plan
• About You
• Supporting Information and Declaration
• Marketing

At any stage in the application process you can save your work and return to it later. The system will automatically save when you change pages but we recommend that you also save your work at regular intervals to avoid loss of data. You can answer the questions in any order so you may skip sections and return to them later if you wish. In order to submit your application, all sections and all required questions must be completed.
Once you have completed all sections of the application a 'Submit Application' button will become available at the bottom of this summary page.
How to Apply
The Royal Academy of Engineering is committed to diversity and inclusion and welcomes applications from all under-represented groups across engineering.
It is the Academy's policy to ensure that no applicant is disadvantaged or receives less favourable treatment because of:

• Age
• Disability
• Gender reassignment
• Marriage and civil partnership
• Pregnancy and maternity
• Race
• Religion or belief
• Gender and sexual orientation

The Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation welcomes applicants from all backgrounds, and particularly encourages women and applicants from countries with less established engineering or entrepreneurial ecosystems to apply.
Diversity Statement
If you try logging in and the grant management system displays the below message, please try clearing your cookies and browsing history, closing the window(s) and opening again in a new window. Alternatively, you can try using a different browser, or opening your application in an incognito window. If you still have issues please email the Africa Prize team

If you would like to know more or are interested in being involved please contact the Africa Prize team.

To be eligible:

• Applicants must be individuals or small groups.
• Individual applicants must be citizens of a country within sub-Saharan Africa*. For teams of two or more, the lead applicant must be a citizen of a country within sub-Saharan Africa.
• The innovation must be based in a country in sub-Saharan Africa*. 
• Applicants must have an engineering innovation, though are not required to be an engineering graduate or student.

• Applicants must provide a letter of support from a university, research institution innovation hub or previous incubator programme. This can be as simple as stating that an individual studied at or was involved with that institution. If applicants are not affiliated with any organisation, another document proving the status of your organisation or innovation, such as a document of incorporation or patent certificate may be used.

• Industrial researchers and establishments are not eligible.
• The lead applicant must be over the age of 18 by 1 September 2020. There is no upper age limit.
• The applicant’s innovation can be any new product, technology or service, based on research in engineering defined in its broadest sense to encompass a wide range of fields, including: agricultural technology, biotechnology, chemical engineering, civil engineering, computer science, design engineering, electrical and electronic engineering, ICT, materials science, mechanical engineering, and medical engineering. If you are in any doubt that your area of expertise would be considered engineering, then please contact the Academy to discuss your application.
• Applicants should have developed, and be in the early stages of commercialising, an engineering innovation that:
• ​Will bring social and/or environmental benefits to a country/countries in sub-Saharan Africa
• Has strong potential to be replicated and scaled up
• Is accompanied by an ambitious but realistic business plan which has strong commercial viability

Login Here To Apply  https://www.raeng.org.uk/login?ReturnUrl=https%3a%2f%2fgrants.raeng.org.uk%2fdefault.aspx

See The Complete Details Here  https://www.raeng.org.uk/global/sustainable-development/africa-prize

Staff Writer

This article was written and edited by a staff writer.