Application Deadline: April 1st 2020

Africa Innovation Fellowship, powered by WomEng and the Royal Academy of Engineering’s Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation is a nine-month leadership and business development opportunity for female African innovators with an early stage engineering innovation or startup. The Africa Innovation Fellowship aims to develop the talent pipeline for future cohorts of the Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation.

Africa Innovation Fellowship (AIF) kicks off with an in-person training week in Accra, Ghana from 14 to 17 June 2020, focused on idea and business incubation, leadership development, networking and getting pitch-ready. The Fellowship training week is followed by nine months of personalised virtual support with regular check-ins and milestones, ending in March 2021.

Fellowship candidates who apply and are subsequently shortlisted for the Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation will receive additional individual coaching and mentoring to support them in getting pitch ready.

Eligibility Criteria

• Applicants must be a female founder or co-founder. Note that the individual can be from a mixed team of co-founders
• Individual applicants must be citizens of a country within Sub-Saharan Africa*. For teams of two or more, the lead applicant must be a citizen of a country within Sub-Saharan Africa.
• The innovation must be based in a country in Sub-Saharan Africa.
• Applicants must have an engineering innovation, though they are not required to be an engineering graduate or student themselves.
• Industrial researchers and establishments are not eligible to apply.
• The lead applicant must be over the age of 18. There is no upper age limit.
• The applicant’s innovation can be any new product, technology or service, based on research in engineering defined in its broadest sense to encompass a wide range of fields, including: agricultural technology, biotechnology, chemical engineering, civil engineering, computer science, design engineering, electrical and electronic engineering, ICT, materials science, mechanical engineering, and medical engineering. If you are in any doubt that your area of expertise would be considered engineering, then please contact aif@womeng.org to discuss your application.
• Applicants should have an early stage engineering innovation and/or startup that:
• Will bring social and/or environmental benefits to a country/countries in Sub-Saharan Africa
• Is accompanied by an ambitious but realistic business plan which is near-ready or has been tested for commercial viability
• Has strong potential to be replicated and scaled up

Further requirements and information

• Successful candidates must be available to travel to Ghana from 13 to 18 June 2020 for the Fellowship training week in its entirety.
• WomEng will cover the costs of round-trip economy airfares to Accra, accommodation, transfers, meals and programme materials.
• Successful candidates must be able to commit at least two to five hours a month from June 2020 to March 2021 for online/virtual support.
• For teams applying, only the female lead applicant will be invited to attend the Fellowship training week.
• Only successful applicants will be notified by end of April 2020.

Application and Programme Timeline

• Applications open: 06 March 2020
• Applications close: 01 April 2020
• Successful candidates notified: 20 April 2020
• Fellowship Week Ghana: 14 to 17 June 2020
• Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation Submission deadline: 23 July 2020
• Online support & mentoring: June to March 2021

* For the purposes of this Fellowship, Sub-Saharan African countries are:
Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Liberia, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, South Sudan, Sudan, Swaziland/eSwatini, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

For More Information:

Visit the Official Webpage of the WomEng/RAEng Africa Innovation Fellowship 2020