Deadline: 17 October 2024
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is calling for applications from ambitious innovators, particularly women and youth, working in groups of 2-5 individuals or entities not older than one year, with innovative ideas on green renewable energy solutions tailored for sustainable agriculture in Sierra Leone.
University Innovation Pods (UniPod) Project is part of the new UNDP Africa Timbuktoo Initiative involving 13 countries (Sierra Leone, Mali, South Sudan, Malawi, Rwanda, Uganda, Mauritania, Togo, Liberia, Lesotho, Guinea, Zambia and Benin). Timbuktoo initiative is a new development model bridging the gap between research and development on the one hand, and product creation on the other, to ensure that Africa’s youth are the catalysts sparking the continent’s industrial drive.
The UniPod Project is multi-pronged and focuses on supporting and growing innovative, scalable, and impactful entrepreneurship by African young people, while relying on a springboard of partners who together contribute meaningfully to building an African youth innovation and start-up ecosystem.
One of the UniPod interventions is to identify and scale-up renewable green energy innovative solutions for women and youth entrepreneurs. This will entail investment grants, technical assistance, and incubation through UniPod to scale up the selected solutions, focusing on affordability, sustainability, and community empowerment.
Focus Areas
- Through the UniPod initiative, these innovators will receive targeted support to scale and refine their ideas in the following renewable energy areas:
- Solar Energy: Solutions that harness solar power for agricultural production and energy needs.
- Wind Energy: Innovations using wind power to support farming and processing activities.
- Biomass Energy: The use of organic materials, such as agricultural waste, for sustainable energy production.
- Hydropower: Small-scale water energy solutions to support agricultural systems.
- Energy Efficiency Technologies: Solutions focused on improving energy usage and reducing waste in agricultural processes.
Eligibility Criteria
- You must be a woman or youth innovator in a group of 2 – 5 individuals or part of an entity not older than one year.
- Your proposed solution must focus on green renewable energy for sustainable agriculture in Sierra Leone.
For more information, visit UNDP.
