AgriFood Africa Launch Event

The GBP 26 million Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) AgriFood Africa programme will be launched by Knowledge Transfer Network (KTN) on 9 December 2019 in central London, UK. The programme will be funded for 5 years by the GCRF and the Department for International Development (DFID) to realise sustainable management of the food production systems in Africa in a way that alleviates poverty, enhances economic prosperity and delivers improved wellbeing. This funding will extend activities initiated through the  funded Agri-Tech Catalyst and will be delivered through three core activities, led by Innovate UK in partnership with UKRI and DFID, including: 1) Technology Accelerator Programme; 2) Skills Training Programme; 3) Dissemination and Coordination Activities. You can request registration until 22 November here.

The launch event will share success stories and lessons learnt from ongoing collaborative initiatives between stakeholders in the UK and Africa, and highlighting funding opportunities to support new activities in this area. The morning session will include presentations providing an overview of the new GCRF AgriFood Africa programme to support collaborations between the UK and Africa. This will be used as the formal launch to raise awareness amongst key stakeholders and begin early stage engagement to build a community. The afternoon session will showcase collaborative projects between the UK and Africa which were funded through the AgriTech Catalyst. This will be used to highlight successes, identify key issues relevant to the programme e.g. potential focus areas of work etc. The event will also provide time for exploring synergies and collaboration opportunities and identifying new project ideas which could be submitted to funding schemes including the AgriTech Catalyst.

The event will also see the launch of the GCRF AgriFood Africa Innovation Awards, a programme providing £40K pump-priming funds for UK university partners in collaboration with African partners. The Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) is a GBP 1.5 billion fund to support cutting-edge research which addresses the problems faced by developing countries. GCRF forms part of the UK’s ODA commitment.