Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation for Students and Engineers in Sub-Saharan Africa

Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation

Course(s) Offered: Engineering, Entrepreneurship
Course Level: Students, Engineers (Individuals, Groups)
Provider: Royal Academy of Engineering
Country to Work in: Africa

Scholarship Description
The Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation has entered its sixth year and will again this year look for entrepreneurs, engineers, or engineering students, in ALL disciplines (civil, electrical, biomedical, mechanical, IT/computer/software, oi/gas/mining, agricultural etc.) who are innovating solutions to everyday problems.

The Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation aims to stimulate and reward engineering entrepreneurship in sub-Saharan Africa. The Africa Prize will encourage ambitious and talented sub-Saharan African engineers from all disciplines to apply their skills to develop scalable solutions to local challenges, highlighting the importance of engineering as an enabler of improved quality of life and economic development.

The Africa Prize is open for ambitious and talented sub-Saharan African engineers to demonstrate innovative and engineering entrepreneurship skills. The overall winner will receive £25,000 (or local currency equivalent). Runners-up will also receive a cash prize.

Eligibility
To be eligible:

• Applicants must be individuals or groups of no more than three people.
• Individual applicants must be citizens of a country within sub-Saharan Africa and currently reside there. For teams of two or three, the lead applicant must be a citizen of a country within sub-Saharan Africa and currently reside there.
• Applicants must have an engineering innovation and provide a letter of support from a university of research institution.
• 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, 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 achieved the development of, and be in the early stages of commercialising, an engineering innovation that:
  
  1. ​will bring social and/or environmental benefits to country/countries in sub-Saharan Africa;
  2. has strong potential to be replicated and scaled up;
  3. is accompanied by an ambitious but realistic business plan which has strong commercial viability.

Eligible groups
Citizens of Sub-Saharan African countries.

For the purposes of the competition, sub-Saharan countries include:

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, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Participating Institutions
Individual and/or teams of 2 or 3 people in Africa

Fields of innovation
All engineering disciplines

Number of awards
Not specified by sponsors

Sponsorship duration
Crucial commercialisation support is awarded to a shortlist of innovative applicants, through a six month period of training and mentoring.

Scholarship benefits
Following the period of mentorship, finalists will be invited to present at an event held in Africa and a winner will be selected to receive £25,000 along with runners-up, who will each be awarded £10,000

Method of Application
All applications must be submitted via the online grants system, applicants should ensure they read the guidance notes before submitting their application. You must first register an account, which you will be prompted to do on the Online grants system.

It is important to read through the Guidance notes - Africa Prize, and also to visit the official website (link to it is below) for complete information and access to the Online grants system.

DEADLINES:
The 2020/2021 Africa Prize is open, and closes for applications at midnight on 14 September 2020 at 4pm GMT+1.

PLEASE NOTE:
The Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation is an initiative of the Royal Academy of Engineering. It is generously supported by the Shell Centenary Scholarship Fund, The Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Consolidated Contractors Company, ConocoPhillips, and the Mo Ibrahim Foundation.

The Royal Academy of Engineering is the UK’s national academy of engineering. The Academy brings together the UK's leading engineers, from across all engineering sectors, to advance and promote excellence in engineering.

The Academy was founded in June 1976 as the Fellowship of Engineering with support from Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, who became the first Senior Fellow and, as of 2016, remains so. The Fellowship was incorporated and granted a Royal Charter on 17 May 1983 and became the Royal Academy of Engineering on 16 March 1992.

Application Deadline: 14 September 2020
Open to International Applicants: No (ONLY Africans)

More Scholarship Information and Application

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