FS4Africa Open Call 2 (OC2) addressed to innovation hubs

Description

The implementation of the FS4Africa sub-projects will be divided in 3 phases: Design (M1), Development (M2-M6), and Validation (M7-M8 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 (1 month / February 2027: Payment of 20% of the total grant [Deliverable: Training Activity plan]; Phase 2 - Development (5 months / March 2027 – July 2027): Payment of 50% of the total grant [Deliverable: Training Delivery Report]; Phase 3 - Validation (2 months / August 2027 – September 2027): Payment of the final 30% of the total grant [Deliverable: Final Report of the training activities]. Each Open Call 2 proposal must propose and implement a structured programme consisting of at least six (6) training–mentoring activities during the implementation period. The required activities must include: A. Support to Open Call 1 (OC1) Beneficiaries Applicants must deliver at least two (2) training activities to support at least two (2) distinct Open Call 1 beneficiaries i.e. sub-projects (minimum two trainings in total, joint or dedicated sessions permitted). The two activities must involve at least two different OC1 sub-projects (i.e. not both activities mapped to the same OC1 beneficiary). The content should be tailored to the needs of the supported OC1 sub-projects and aligned with the relevant food safety challenges. B. Support to FS4Africa Use Cases Applicants must deliver at least four (4) training–mentoring activities targeting actors involved in one or more FS4Africa Use Cases in collaboration with other OC2 projects. Following selection, Open Call 2 sub-projects will coordinate among themselves, with support from the FS4Africa Executive Board (WP Leaders) and the Open Call team, through structured information exchange and alignment meetings to ensure balanced thematic coverage across all four FS4Africa Use Cases. Collaboration among OC2 sub-projects implies structured coordination of thematic focus, training design, delivery schedules, or mentoring approaches to ensure complementarity, avoid duplication, and maximise collective coverage of FS4Africa Use Cases. Training–mentoring activities may take the form of online courses, webinars, interactive workshops, mentoring clinics, or other structured capacity-building formats. Joint or co-organised activities between OC2 sub-projects are optional but encouraged. Where such joint activities are implemented, they may count towards the minimum number (at least four) of required training–mentoring activities for each participating sub-project, provided that each sub-project’s role and contribution are clearly defined.

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 (single entities) should visit FS4Africa’s website (https://foodsafety4africa.eu/open-call/) for any updates and the FAQ section available on the opencalls.fund as well as on the project website. Applications received through any other channel 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 be discarded. Throughout the entire process, the confidentiality of Applicants’ (single entities) 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 2 Kit documents. Evaluation: Once the Open Call is closed (August 31st, 2026, 17:00 CET) an eligibility check will be carried out by the FS4Africa Advisory Board to discard applications that do not meet the eligibility requirements. 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 Open Call 2 (OC2) aims to provide financial support to third parties (innovation hubs) and will only accept applications from single entities per proposal (no Consortia allowed). Applicants (single entities) are expected to provide mentoring and accelerating innovative business concepts, including social innovation and upscaling. The project will select at least 5 sub-projects in total providing Financial Support to Third Parties (FSTP), as a mechanism to maximise the project’s impact and accelerate network expansion.