Call for projects – VaRRIWA Improving research and innovation results in West Africa

The VaRRIWA (Evaluation Research Results and Innovation in West Africa) project is an initiative funded by the ACP Innovation Fund, one of the components of the organization’s research and innovation program in African, Caribbean and African countries. Pacific (OEACP) European Union Financial Contribution (11th EDF).

The overall objective of the project is to create an environment that promotes technology transfer and sustainable innovation in the four countries of the West African region (Benin, Burkina Faso, Senegal and Togo).

This call for proposals is aimed at selecting candidate third-party companies that will help create an environment that promotes technology transfer and sustainable innovation in Benin, Burkina Faso, Senegal and Togo through their projects.

A total of two million eight hundred and forty thousand euros (8 2,840,000) will be provided to 14 candidate third party companies. The distribution of grants among these candidate companies will be done in accordance with the priorities and the locations described below:

• 4 candidate companies (one per target country) to develop training classes on research-innovation (R&I) and their economic exploitation (priority 1) evaluation of results;
• (R&I) (Priority 2) 8 candidate companies to create support system for development (two per target country);
• 2 candidate organizations (at the sub-regional level) to facilitate collaboration through networking and organization of public-private exchanges and partnerships (Priority 3).

Candidate:

Applications (Independently or in a federation) must be submitted by an applicant through a third party (in the case of a federation, this organization will be the project coordinator) that meets the following general eligibility criteria:

• Be a legal person (i.e., a company with a legal personality, granting rights and obligations in lieu of the natural or legal persons who composed or created it);
• And must be established from 2017 in at least one of the following countries: Benin, Burkina Faso, Senegal and Togo;
• Over the past three years (2018-2020) at least 75,000 euros have been spent directly on research and innovation projects;
• And be directly responsible for the preparation and management of funded activities.

The following companies are eligible for financial assistance:

• Educational and research institutions;
• Innovation support companies (technology centers, innovation labs, technology transfer offices);
• Incubators and openings;
• Companies born out of university research;
• Other similar companies with specific experience in the field covered by this call.

Projects are submitted only through the deposit site: https://formulaires.auf.org (Pre-account creation)

It is strongly recommended that you do not wait until the last day to submit your plan. AUF will not be liable in any case if technical issues prevent the project submission due to congestion at the project submission site.

Contacts

Any request for clarification can be sent until 23:59 GMT until August 31, 2021 at: [email protected]

No personal reply will be sent to the applicant. All answers will be recorded in a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) Available for download and will be updated regularly until 1 p.m.^{There is} September 2021.

Before starting the application process, the applicant companies are invited to consult the guidelines for grant applicants and download the sample documents to be attached with the application:

Two optional support webinars for submitting proposals will be organized on July 07 and 21, 2021 for the benefit of the candidate companies. Webinar logs are retrieved [email protected] July 30, 2021 at 23:59 GMT.