*** Closing date for applications: Friday, October 21, 2022***
Background
In March 2022, the Alliance for Entrepreneurial Universities in Africa was launched in Rwanda during the Africa Regional Science, Technology and Innovation Forum 2022. The main aim of this call is to advance entrepreneurship through education, research and innovation among university students. The call is open to all university students below the age of 35 that are bringing innovative products (i.e. goods and services) or start-ups to market.
About Innovation Call
This call for technological and non-technological innovations offers start-ups, nascent firms and other entities founded and managed by university students the opportunity to showcase the innovations and potentially get support from hundreds of technical expertise that are in the ECA’s Solvers Database. The selected entities will also have the chance to meet potential partners, seasoned innovators and entrepreneurs, investors, public funders and industrial research institutes.
To get the most out of this opportunity, it is important that your submission addresses or showcases the novelty of the product, process or business model, its current limitations and/or requirements to enable judges, potential supporter and partners fully appreciate your innovation.
The benefits of participation
The top 10 short-listed teams may be invited to the Forum on Promoting Entrepreneurship through Education for a Stronger Recovery from 25-27 October 2022, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, where they will get the opportunity to share their case to a wider audience of potential partners. The final winning teams will be selected by a team of independent judges and announced on 27 November 2022. Furthermore, the winning teams will also be invited to share their cases at the Africa Science, Technology and Innovation Forum for Sustainable Development in March 2023. You may also be linked to technological and investment entities that may support you to overcome product design, development, production, standards of safety, environment and business registration bottlenecks, among others.
Eligibility criteria
All legal entities – individual entrepreneurs and innovator and, firms in Africa founded and run by student university students - may submit ONLY one application. Beyond these generalities, the following criteria need to be met:
- The entity submitting the application must be the same as the owners of the innovation or its legal representative.
- For this call, application should have at least one working prototype and/or at least a few clients. Please note that research or business proposals and/or concepts of innovations that one wishes to develop in the future will NOT be considered.
- University students studying in the diaspora and youths whose solutions target Africa and are linked to an African university may be considered irrespective of their current location or nationalities.
- Your entity should be at least one (1) year old – be it formal or informal
*****All are encouraged to apply, especially women and persons with disability******
Send your applications to
Complete the application Here Online or send your application as per the attached PDF File to:
- Asfaw Yitna – yitna@un.org
- Gedion Workneh – workneh@un.org