Open Call 1 addressed to research and technology stakeholders

Description

Selected projects will be launched in November 2026 having an implementation time frame of 12 months (until October 2027). The implementation period will be divided into 3 phases: Phase 1 – Design (3 months / November 2026-January 2027): Payment of the 20% of the total grant [Deliverable: Activity plan]; Phase 2 – Development (6 months / February 2027-July 2027): Payment of 50% of the total grant [Deliverable: Results demonstration]; Phase 3 – Validation (3 months / August 2027-October 2027): Payment of the final 30% of the total grant [Deliverable: Report on dissemination activities and lessons learnt]. In all selected projects, payments are deliverable based, meaning that the Sub-grantees have to deliver a specific report after the end of each phase in order to receive the payment (no pre-financing is foreseen).

Beneficiary & submission

FCI4Africa Open Call 1 for proposals will be submitted digitally through the opencalls.fund platform at https://opencalls.fund/open-call/fci4africa-open-call-1. All the documents needed for the application (FCI4Africa Open Call 1 Kit) can be found on the FCI4Africa website, on the section dedicated to the Open Call (https://fci4africa.eu/open-calls/). Interested Applicants should visit the FCI4Africa website for any updates and the FAQ section available in the opencalls.fund platform (https://opencalls.fund/open-call/fci4africa-open-call-1/faq). Submissions received through any other channel will be automatically discarded. Documents required in subsequent phases will be submitted via dedicated channels (e.g. via email or via the opencalls.fund platform), which will be indicated by the FCI4Africa consortium in the contracting phase. 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' 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 FCI4Africa Open Call 1, Applicants automatically accept the terms and conditions of the Open Call as described in the Open Call 1 Kit. Evaluation After the FCI4Africa Open Call 1 is closed, an eligibility check process will be carried out by the FCI4Africa Open Call 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 experience in the agrifood sector and their academic, technical and/or industry knowledge surrounding agriculture, food safety, climate change, biodiversity and sustainability. The evaluators will have to evaluate each proposal under the specific evaluation criteria: Concept and feasibility Technology readiness and innovation development Impact & exploitation Organisational capacity and sufficiency 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

FCI4Africa Open Call 1 will accept the submission of proposals from single applicants of research and technology stakeholders, including universities and research institutes, technology developers and R&D SMEs, and innovation-driven start-ups, as well as other multidisciplinary food system actors. Selected applicants will receive funding for testing, validating, and enhancing the business concepts and tools of the project or developing ideas and tools that contribute to the project’s objectives which can then be introduced to the market. The Open Call 1 will fund up to 8 sub-projects (single entities) with the maximum grant budget to be €50,000 per sub-project. The total amount of the Open Call 1 will reach at maximum €400,000.