The Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation 2022 is now OPEN!
Launched in 2014 by the Royal Academy of Engineering, the Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation awards crucial commercialization 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. The Prize has a track record of identifying engineering entrepreneurs with significant potential, many of whom have gone on to achieve greater commercial success and social impact.
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Each year, up to 16 shortlisted African innovators receive a unique package of support over seven months to help them accelerate their businesses. The benefits of selection include comprehensive and tailored business training, sector-specific engineering mentoring, communications support, pitching opportunities and access to the Academy’s network of high profile, experienced engineers and business experts in the UK and across Africa.
Benefits
- The overall winner will receive £25,000 (or local currency equivalent).
- Runners-up will also receive a cash prize of £10,000 each. This amount will be paid after the final event, which will take place in July 2022.
Eligibilities
- The application must be written in English.
- The lead applicant must be over the age of 18 when applications close on 20 July 2021. There is no upper age limit.
- Applicants can apply as an individual or as part of a team.
- The lead applicant must be a citizen of a country in sub-Saharan Africa*. For teams of two or more, the lead applicant (the person participating in training) must be a citizen of a country in sub-Saharan Africa.
- The lead applicant must be ordinarily based in sub-Saharan Africa; if based overseas, this must be temporary for studies or otherwise.
- The innovation must be based in a country in sub-Saharan Africa*.
- The lead applicant must have an engineering innovation, though they are not required to be an engineering graduate or student to apply.
- The lead applicant must provide a letter of support from a university, research institution innovation hub, or previous incubator program. 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 organization, another document proving the status of their organization or innovation, such as a document of incorporation or patent certificate may be used.
- Industrial researchers and establishments are not eligible.
- The 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.
- The innovation must be at technology readiness level 3 or above. Evidence of a prototype should be provided in the application. To learn more about technology readiness levels, please see: https://www.cloudwatchhub.eu/exploitation/brief-refresher-technology-readiness-levels-trl
- The lead applicant must provide a letter of consent from the originators/collaborators of the IP to this innovation, where relevant.
- The lead applicant must provide a technical diagram and photo that showcases the technical aspects of the innovation as part of the 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
Application Process
- All applications must be submitted via the online grant management system (GMS), available on Apply Now link.
- You must register through 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 on GMS. However, please allocate more time to gather the
relevant documentation and prepare your answers offline. - After logging in to the online grant system, please select Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation 2021/2022.
- This will take you to the ‘Instructions’ screen.
- There you will see some general instructions on how to use the system as well as the six sections of the application form:
- Applicant details
- About you and your team
- Your innovation
- Your business plan
- 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 your work when you change pages, but you recommended 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.
- To submit your application, all sections and all required questions must be completed.
- You may prefer to compose your answers offline and then copy and paste them into the form.
- Once you have completed all sections of the application a ‘Submit Application’ button will become available at the bottom of this summary page.
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Application Deadline: July 20, 2021
Application ClosedOfficial linkFor Further Queries
For any further enquiries, please contact the Africa Prize team. Email: [email protected]
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