AESA Grand Challenges Africa

Application Deadline: February 17, 2017

Grand Challenges Africa (GC Africa) is a scheme of the Africa Academy of Sciences’ Alliance for Accelerating Excellence in Science in Africa (AESA) initiated to support innovations that address Africa’s health and developmental challenges. The scheme seeks to promote Africa-led scientific innovations to help countries better achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by awarding seed and full grants to the continent’s most impressive solutions.

AESA implements GC Africa in partnership with the New Partnership for Africa’s Development Agency (NEPAD) and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Round 1 is a joint initiative of GC Africa partners and the Paris-based, Institut Pasteur

The overall objective will be to focus African scientists to work in local and global partnerships to accelerate the development and deployment of interventions and innovations targeting communicable and non-communicable diseases that affect mothers, new-born babies and children.

Eligibility Criteria
The call will be open to African investigators working in African based, domestic organizations, including non-profit organizations, international organizations, government agencies, research and academic institutions.

The call is also open to non-African investigators with an appointment/affiliation with any of the nine Institute Pasteur institutes in Africa, who are resident in Africa, with at least 18 months left on their tenure of service/affiliation by the time of receiving the award.

Funding levels

• Phase I Funding: Funded up to $100,000 USD per two-year project. These awards are meant to provide an opportunity to test particularly bold, proof of concept ideas, including applying approaches from outside the fields indicated for this call. New approaches could be piloted as additions to ongoing projects.
• Phase II funding: Winners of Phase I grants will have an opportunity to apply for follow-on, phase II funding in future but please note that support for phase II funding is NOT part of this call. We expect that successful projects funded at Phase I by GC Africa, and by our partners BMGF and Grand Challenges Canada (GCC), and which demonstrate promising results, will have the opportunity to apply for Phase II funding either to GC Africa or directly to the other partners.

Timeline:

How to Apply
All applications must be made through our Ishango Grants Management system. Changes to the Rules and Guidelines will be posted on the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page of the Grand Challenges Africa website including any changes to the dates listed above.  Please read the current FAQ before submitting any questions or concerns.

Application Format
Subject to the AAS Data Privacy and Protection Policy, GC Africa may share information you provide to us (either orally or in writing) with third parties, including external reviewers, key partners and co-funders.