Professional, scientific and technical activities

The Challenger Digital and Green Accelerator Programme (Challenger D&G) is an innovative, multi-country initiative dedicated to fostering impactful digital, green, and circular solutions for sustainability across Southern Africa. The programme directly addresses urgent regional and global challenges - climate change, food and water security, ecosystem resilience, energy transition, green mobility, smart built environments, waste management, and environmental data capacity.

The Technology Innovation Agency (TIA), South Africa, and BioCubaFarma (BCF), Cuba, invite South African biotechnology companies, research institutions, universities, and healthcare innovators to express interest in collaborative R&D, technology transfer, and joint ventures for innovative biotech products.

The Innovation Hub, Gauteng’s flagship innovation agency, is inviting applications for its comprehensive Business Incubation Programme for startups driving innovation in the Green Economy (energy, water, waste), Bio-economy (health, agro/food-processing, diagnostics, medical devices, smart agriculture), and Smart Industries (ICT, advanced manufacturing, gaming, animation, VR/AR, industrial IoT, cyber security, AI, additive manufacturing).

The Motsepe Presidential Research Accelerator Fund for Africa, supported by the Motsepe Foundation, empowers Harvard faculty-led teams and their collaborators to undertake innovative projects that directly address the continent’s most complex challenges and transformative opportunities.

Globalstars is a multilateral funding initiative enabling international research and development collaboration. The current call supports joint R&D projects between Japan and participating EUREKA countries, including South Africa, Austria, Belgium (Flanders), Canada, Denmark, France, Israel, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Norway, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom.

The CMT Research Foundation is committed to delivering treatments and cures for Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease (CMT) through targeted funding for high-potential scientific research. Grants support research leading to the development of therapeutics for all CMT types, based on the foundation’s research priorities, though innovative new approaches are also welcomed.

The Climate Change and Health Innovation Hub for West and Central Africa (CHINNOVA) is inviting proposals for its first Small Grants Call, dedicated to advancing locally led, interdisciplinary research and innovation aimed at tackling urgent climate-related health challenges across West and Central Africa.

D-Prize is an annual global competition dedicated to combating extreme poverty by catalyzing the launch of new social impact organizations. With a vision to make proven, high-impact poverty solutions universally accessible, D-Prize awards startup grants of up to $20,000 to bold entrepreneurs and teams who design, pilot, and scale solutions that address some of the world’s most urgent development needs.

The Global Sustainability Challenge is a prestigious annual competition open to university students worldwide including those from South Africa inviting bold, tangible solutions to sustainability challenges. Backed by Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability, SEforALL, and a network of global partners, the challenge empowers student teams to address pressing issues under two transformative pillars: Sustainable Energy and Adaptation & Resilience.

Participants move through three high-impact phases:

The FemFocus - Encouraging Women’s Entrepreneurship programme, funded by the Government of the Netherlands and administered by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, is designed to accelerate women’s economic empowerment in selected African countries. Targeting civil society organizations (CSOs), FemFocus supports sustainable business growth through substantial financial grants and comprehensive capacity-building initiatives. The programme focuses on two strategic tracks: