Eligibilities
- Applicants must be a female founder or co-founder. Note that the individual can be from a mixed team of co-founders
- 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 they are not required to be an engineering graduate or student themselves.
- Industrial researchers and establishments are not eligible to apply.
- The lead applicant must be over the age of 18. 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.
- Applicants should have an early stage engineering innovation and/or startup that:
- Will bring social and/or environmental benefits to a country/countries in Sub-Saharan Africa
- Is accompanied by an ambitious but realistic business plan which is near-ready or has been tested for commercial viability
- Has strong potential to be replicated and scaled up
Eligible Regions: Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Côte d'Ivoire, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Liberia, Lesotho, 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/eSwatini, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
