Funding Opportunities For African Businesses

1. Future Women in Tech Scholarship 2022

Sanofi is pleased to partner with One Young World to offer the Future Women in Tech Scholarship. This global program will enable five women leaders to participate in the One Young World Summit 2022 as part of Sanofi’s global delegation; have a fast-tracked opportunity to join Sanofi’s early careers program and receive 1:1 mentoring to support their first career steps in Sanofi.

What does the Scholarship provide?

• Delegate access to the One Young World Summit 2022 which takes place in Manchester, United Kingdom from 5- September.
• Hotel accommodation in Manchester from 5 – 8 September.
• Return travel to Manchester.
• A fast-tracked opportunity to join Sanofi’s early careers program.
• 1:1 mentorship from a Sanofi Digital mentor to support their career choices.
• Membership of the One Young World Ambassador community.

Eligibility Criteria

You should apply for this programme if you:

• Are a woman
• English speaking
• Have an undergraduate qualification related to information technology or data received within the last five years
• Are motivated to pursue a technology focused career with Sanofi
• Are passionate about healthcare
• Have a track record of high-level performance and delivery

For more information, visit

https://www.oneyoungworld.com/scholarships/sanofi/2022

2. ARM Labs Lagos Techstars Accelerator Program in Nigeria

The ARM Labs Lagos Techstars Accelerator Program is now open for applications to invest in early -stage fintech and proptech companies based in Africa. Techstars accelerators have one goal: to help entrepreneurs succeed. During each three-month program, they surround companies with the best mentors and an unrivaled network of corporate partners, investors, and fundraising opportunities, workshops and curated resources, not to mention countless moments where you can learn from your peers. It is a proven model that has helped build thousands of successful companies, all over the world.

Benefits

• Access to Techstars resources for life;
• Acceleration in a 90-day Techstars mentorship-driven accelerator program with personal mentorship and office space;
• Lifetime access to the Techstars worldwide network of entrepreneurs, including more than 10,000 mentors, 10,000 investors, 1,600 alumni companies, and over 200 staff members;
• Access to $400k of cash equivalent hosting, accounting, and legal support – plus other credits and perks worth more than $5M;
• Demo Day exposure and other investor connections;
• Historically, on average, Techstars companies go on to raise more than $2M of outside capital after the program.

Eligibility Criteria

• Techstars funds all types of startups, working in all verticals, using any type of business models. Do keep in mind, however, that their focus is on startups rather than small businesses.
• They do require that you be primarily based on-site during the program, unless you are participating in one of their virtual programs. This benefits you because you can take advantage of the numerous learning opportunities, networking, and coaching that they provide. Th amount of serendipity, unannounced drop-in mentors, and camaraderie that is developed during the program is staggering.
• Techstars is a major commitment, and they expect you to be around most of the time. However, it is your company, you can call the shots, so traveling as necessary for business or family requirements is okay by them.
• Many companies do decide to relocate to the city where they went through their Techstars program because of the vast local network that they can continue to tap into once the program concludes.
• If you are accepted into Techstars, their local teams will provide additional resources to help you find housing.
• The primary language that they use in verbal and written communications during all accelerator programs – in every country – is English.

For more information, visit

https://www.techstars.com/accelerators/arm-labs-lagos

3. Tuition-free Product Immersion Program

 The Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism is pleased to launch the Tuition-free Product Immersion program for journalists and staff inside small to midsize news organizations who have little to no experience with product development and management but have an interest in adopting a product approach. Product Immersion for Small Newsrooms, an online, tuition-free training program for journalists by Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY, welcomes three new cohorts in 2022 – 2023, thanks to the support by partners News Product Alliance (NPA) and the Google News Initiative. Applications are open for the first cohorts, which will train 25 journalists from Europe, the Middle East and Africa from September to November, 2022.

Eligibility Criteria

• The program is now accepting applications from journalists based in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (GMT 0 to +4) through July 15, 2022. To be considered for the program, applicants must submit the online application, which includes several short responses about the applicant’s familiarity with and interest in product development and a letter of newsroom commitment from the applicant’s organization.
• In this new cycle, Product Immersion will serve three consecutive cohorts of 25 to 30 journalists; one in Europe/Africa/Middle East, one in Asia Pacific, and one in the Americas. Instruction will be in English and fluency in English is required.

For more information, visit

https://www.journalism.cuny.edu/2022/06/applications-open-for-new-product-immersion-cohorts/

4. SoilBON Archive Data Mobilization Grant

 The Global Soil Biodiversity Initiative (GSBI) is inviting researchers/research groups from the group of SoilBON collaborators, for projects and processes related to digital data mobilization of already collected soil biodiversity data. This initiative aims to substantially increase the amount of species distribution data openly available at GBIF and, with that, improve the capacity of soil ecologists around the world to address key ecological questions. These funds are made available through a collaboration between SoilBON and the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF). All data submitted through this initiative should make use of available standardization tools provided by GBIF and uploaded though the SoilBON GBIF node. Attribution of the data, as well as the credits for the dataset remain with the data provider.

Funding Information

Up to $5,000 USD per project; 5-7 projects funded

Criteria

• Applications (researchers and data) coming from underrepresented regions will be given preference.
• The applications should comply with open access criteria and the data mobilized through the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) in support of the soil Ecology community.

For more information, visit

https://www.globalsoilbiodiversity.org/soilbon-call-2

5. Harvard Radcliffe Institute Fellowship Program

 The Harvard Radcliffe Institute Fellowship Program is now open for applications. The Radcliffe Fellowship Program awards 50 fellowships each acidic year. Applicants may apply as individuals or in a group of two to three people working on the same project. They seek diversity along many dimensions, including discipline, career stage, race, and ethnicity, country of origin, gender and sexual orientation, and ideological perspectives. Although their fellows come from many different backgrounds, they are united by their demonstrated excellence, collegiality, and creativity. They welcome applications from a broad range of fields and perspectives. The strength of their fellowship program is its diversity.

Focus Area

They welcome proposals relevant to the Institute’s focus areas, which include:

• Law, education, and justice
• Climate change and its human impacts, especially projects that address the disproportionate impacts of the climate crisis on marginalized or under-resourced communities
• Legacies of slavery
• Reflecting Radcliffe’s unique history and institutional legacy, they welcome proposals that focus on women, gender, and society or draw on the Schlesinger Library’s rich collections
• Interdisciplinary exchange is a hallmark of the Radcliffe Fellowship, and they welcome proposals that take advantage of their uniquely diverse intellectual community by engaging with concepts and ideas that cross disciplinary boundaries.

Funding Information

Fellows receive a stipend of $78,000 plus an additional $5,000 to cover project expenses.

Eligibility Criteria

• Radcliffe supports engaged scholarship. They welcome applications from scholars, artists, and practitioners proposing innovative work that confronts pressing social and policy issues and seeking to engage audiences beyond academia.
• Applicants from throughout the world are encouraged to apply.
• Applicants in the humanities and social sciences must:
• Have their doctorate (or appropriate terminal degree) in the area of their proposed project at least two years prior their appointment as a fellow (December 2021 for the 2023 – 24 fellowship year).
• Have published a monograph or at least two articles in refereed journals or edited collections.
• Applicants in science, engineering and mathematics must:
• Have received their doctorate in the area of the proposed project at least two years prior to their appointment as a fellow (December 2021 for the 2023 – 24 fellowship year).
• Have published at least five articles in refereed journals. Most science, engineering, and math fellows have published dozens of articles.
• Applicants in creative arts must meet discipline-specific requirements; Film and Video, Visual Arta, Fiction and Nonfiction, Poetry, Journalism, Playwriting, Music Composition.
• Individuals who are applying as practitioners must have held senior leadership positions in non-profits, government, or the private sector. Practitioners should have at least ten years of relevant professional experience and be acknowledged as leaders in their fields.
• Former Harvard Radcliffe fellows (1999 – present) are ineligible to apply.

For more information, visit

https://www.radcliffe.harvard.edu/radcliffe-fellowship/become-a-fellow

6. Healthy Food Policy Advocacy Fund

 The Global Health Advocacy Incubator has announced the applications for the Healthy Food Policy Advocacy Fund. The Advocacy Fund provides critical support to help advance promising legislative or regulatory efforts on healthy food policy. These policy priority areas include: taxes on sugary beverages and/or ultra-processed food, front-of-package nutrition labeling, restrictions on marketing of unhealthy food and beverages, and healthy public sector food environments, including schools. The Advocacy Fund may also be used to block harmful policies that would set negative precedents and undermine a healthy food policy environment. The Advocacy Fund is managed by the Global Health Advocacy Incubator and supported by Bloomberg Philanthropies.

Eligibility Criteria

The Advocacy Fund provides grants to not-for-profit entities, with strong preference given to civil society organizations in low and middle-income countries. GHAI encourages joint applications from up to three groups working collaboratively toward a healthy food policy win. The applicant or co-applicants must be working on a SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, timebound) policy objective. Ideally, the objective will be achievable within a 12–24-month time frame. The policy may be national or subnational and should ideally have a broader regional or global impact.

For more information, visit

https://advocacyincubator.org/healthy-food-policy-advocacy-fund/

7. Hubiquitous Africa-Europe Accelerator Programme

Hubiquitous has launched an open call to accelerate 20 innovators in cross-border uptake and deployment of IoT digital solutions in five key sectors. The objective of this first open call is to support 20 African local entrepreneurs coming from Egypt, Ghana, Nigeria and Tanzania to improve their innovation creation capacities, to increase the investment opportunities for them and to facilitate the development of EU-African joint innovation project and ventures. Hubiquitous is a co-founded project from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 101016895. Hubiquitous will display relevant service implementations through a 6-month Accelerator Program.

Benefits

• A ready-to-use technical and business support package to entrepreneurs and startups.
• Solution Lab facilities that provide startups with the capacity to develop, test, experiment and pilot innovative products, using IoT, AI and Big Data technologies.
• The participants will have access to a permanent service (From Monday to Friday) to receive assistance and information. Furthermore, they will have the chance to connect with a network of Mentors, and receive support from then on specific issues upon request.
• Selected participants will have access to the training materials, courses, webinars, bootcamps and hackathons covering, amongst others.

Awards

• Overall winner of the 1^st Accelerator Program: 1,000€
• Winner in Nigeria: 1,000€
• Winner in Egypt: 1,000€
• Winner in Tanzania: 1,000€
• Winner in Ghana: 1,000€

Eligible Countries: Egypt, Ghana, Nigeria, and Tanzania.

Eligibility Criteria

• Entrepreneurs
• Startups/scaleups
• SMEs
• They especially encourage application from women ang young talents, as well as African-European partnerships.

For more information, visit

https://hubiquitous.eu/first-open-call/

8. Palladium Call for Proposals for 2022 Challenge Fund

 Applications are now open for the Palladium Challenge Fund which brings in ideas from their network in over 90 countries and partnership with over 1,600 organisations globally to source innovative responses to global challenges. The fund organisations and initiatives that:

• Pilot new technologies and innovative approaches
• De-risk start-up ventures
• Deliver outcomes from innovative financial mechanisms
• Support the convening of innovative challenges

Funding Information

To apply for funding up to AU$75,000.00

Eligibility Criteria

• The Palladium Challenge Fund is open to applications from all types of organisations. They particularly welcome applications from small and/or start-up organisations that demonstrate innovation and scalability.
• The application process (for referring projects for funding) is both open and accessible to employees, external partners, and other interested parties.
• Only applications presented in the Palladium Challenge Fund Application Form and related to annual theme will be considered. Any other letters of requests for grant support cannot be considered.
• Applications to the Palladium Challenge Fund are deemed eligible for funding if they are:
• From a for-profit, non-for profit or grassroots entity including small and /or start up organisations;
• For single year activity however multi-year applications are considered on a case-by-case basis.

For more information, visit

https://thepalladiumgroup.com/news/Palladium-Launches-Call-for-Proposals-for-2022-Challenge-Fund

9. 3^rd Edition of the Restoration Stewards Program (EUR 5,000)

 Under the banner of Generation Restoration, the Youth in Landscapes Initiative (YIL) and the Global Landscapes Forum (GLF) are launching the third edition of the Restoration Stewards program to support and highlight the work of young restoration practitioners and their teams, who represent the next group of ‘Restoration Stewards’. The year-long program provides funding, mentorship, and training to deepen the impact of youth-led restoration projects. The Restoration Stewards program supports young restoration professionals and their teams to further develop their restoration projects and raise awareness among their local communities about the importance of ecosystem restoration and healthy landscapes.

Funding Information

They receive a grant of EUR 5,000 to develop their restoration project.

Eligibility Criteria

• They will consider applications from anyone between the age of 18 and 35 years old who has initiated a restoration project in any of the following ecosystems: forest, mountains, oceans, peatland/wetlands, drylands/rangelands. Applicants must understand and be willing to adhere to and model the GLF vision, pillars and values.
• They will give priority to projects that are:
• Run by a person or a group of young people who are either local, indigenous or nationals of the country in which the restoration project operates;
• Already in the early development stage and have been running for a minimum of one year.
• Note that you do not necessarily have to create a new project from scratch to be eligible; you can also build on any activities you are already running.

For more information, visit

https://stewards.globallandscapesforum.org/about/

10. The Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism (WSCIJ) Collaborative Media Project

The Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism (WSCIJ), under its Collaborative Media Engagement for Development, Inclusivity, and Accountability (CMEDIA) project, invites investigative story pitches with a focus on subnational issues from journalists from all genres across Nigeria. The collaborative media project is designed as a multi-level intervention for media independence and government accountability. The project seeks to strengthen the media’s independence and presence and presence, especially at state and local government levels in a bid to improve public awareness and the ecosystem for accountability there. It is initiated by the WSCIJ, and funded by the MacArthur Foundation.

Journalists applying for this grant will be expected to investigate, produce and publish human interest stories issues at the subnational (state and local) levels of government, including but not limited to; health, rural dwellers, education, road infrastructure, girls and women, water, housing, insecurity, persons, with disability, electricity and agriculture or a mix of the issues.

WSCIJ will choose a maximum of three best story pitches per category.

Note: Journalists from reputable local media organisations focused on specific states and local governments are encouraged to apply.

For more information:

Visit the Official Webpage of the WSCIJ Collaborative Media Project