FS4Africa Open Call 1 (OC1) addressed to research and technology stakeholders

Description

The implementation of the FS4Africa sub-projects will be divided in 3 phases: Design (M1-M3), Development (M4-M9), and Validation (M10-M12 months). Each of the 3 phases will be completed with submission of a deliverable, which summarises the work done during that phase. The review process will follow each phase of the implementation. Once the deliverable is received, it will be assessed by the FS4Africa Open Call Advisory Board members. A request for the deliverable's update may occur with specific requirements for what should be modified. Based on the results of the review and acceptance of respected deliverables, payment will be made towards the subgrantees in the following modalities: Phase 1 - Design (3 months / February 2026 – April 2026): Payment of 30% of the total grant [Deliverable: Activity plan]; Phase 2 - Development (6 months / May 2026 – October 2026): Payment of 50% of the total grant [Deliverable: Results demonstration]; Phase 3 - Validation (3 months / November 2026 – January 2027): Payment of the final 20% of the total grant [Deliverable: Report on market or community associated activities].

Beneficiary & submission

FS4Africa’s Open Call for proposals will be submitted digitally through the opencalls.fund (OCF) platform https://opencalls.fund/. All the documents needed for the application (FS4Africa Open Call Kit) can be found on the FS4Africa website, on the section dedicated to the Open Calls (https://foodsafety4africa.eu/open-call/). Interested Applicants should visit FS4Africa’s website (https://foodsafety4africa.eu/open-call/) for any updates and the FAQ section available in the opencalls.fund as well as on the project website. Submissions received through any other channel will not be considered and will be automatically discarded. Documents required in subsequent phases will be submitted via dedicated channels indicated by the FS4Africa consortium in the contracting phase. (e.g. via email). In case multiple versions of the same application are submitted, only the last version will be evaluated. All the previous ones will not be considered and will be discarded. Throughout the entire process, the confidentiality of applicants' identities and the contents of the proposals will be rigorously upheld. Any details pertaining to the proposed solution will be handled with the utmost discretion. By applying to FS4Africa Open Call, Applicants (single entities) automatically accept the terms and conditions of the Open Call as described in the Open Call Kit.  After the FS4Africa Open Call is closed, an eligibility check process will be carried out by the FS4Africa Advisory Board to discard non-eligible applications. Following the eligibility check, a remote evaluation will be done by carefully selected external reviewers. Each proposal will be reviewed by two (2) external evaluators with specific technical and/or business expertise related to the topics of the call. The evaluators will have to evaluate each proposal under specific evaluation criteria, namely: i. Concept and feasibility, ii. Technology readiness and innovation development, iii. Impact & Exploitation, iv. Organisational capacity and sufficiency in the team’s background. All award criteria have the same weight. Each award criterion can be scored from 1 to 5 with a threshold of 3 points in each category, and a minimum of 12 points in total.

Further information

FS4Africa will only accept applications from one entity per proposal (no Consortia allowed). Applicants are expected to test, validate and enhance the business concepts and tools of the project or develop ideas and tools that contribute to project’s objectives which can then be introduced to the market. Solutions do not necessarily have to be tied to FS4Africa existing UC topics as long as they align with the broader goals of the project and address one of the following challenges in areas such as: Food safety issues associated with weak channels for value chain organisation, traceability & authentication of safe food Mycotoxin contamination in multiple food crops including food and feed Pesticide residues in grains and vegetables Microbial contamination particularly contamination from coliforms (e.g. Escherichia coli) Food adulteration The project will select at least 10 subprojects (covering all 5 challenges mentioned above) in total providing Financial Support to Third Parties (FSTP), as a mechanism to maximise the project’s impact and accelerate network expansion.