U.S.- Kenya Higher Education Partnership Program

Objectives

• By 2050, one in four people, a quarter of the world’s population, and one in three working-age people will live in Africa. Africa is both the youngest continent and the last and largest emerging market.
• In the same way that American business schools previously established campuses in places like Singapore and Dubai to leverage international business opportunities in Asia, Nairobi is the place to build platforms now to access and benefit from the world’s last great emerging market, Sub-Saharan Africa. Kenya is already the regional financial hub for East Africa and the home to the Silicon Savannah, a vibrant technology community that makes Kenya the premier destination for tech sector investments and innovation in Africa, with many leading U.S. companies such as Google, Microsoft, IBM, and Cisco already here.
• As modern Kenya is trying to grow an Information and Communications Technology (ICT) marketplace for the future, the U.S. Embassy’s Public Diplomacy Section seeks to partner with U.S. higher education institutions through targeted grants to facilitate academic, research, and private sector-growth partnerships with Kenyan universities.  This is an opportune moment to increase U.S. engagement in Kenya’s ICT space for rising engineers and entrepreneurs to prioritize and benefit from U.S. partnership in expanding Kenya’s promising economic prospects, especially in ICT. University partnerships are intended to directly and demonstrably enhance U.S.-Kenya collaboration in science, engineering, mathematics, and tech-driven job growth.
• The basic parameters for this proposed program are:
  • Must include a long-term joint initiative with a Kenyan university and/or research institution. Proposed initiatives must demonstrate ways in which they will be sustainable over time.
  • Must focus on some combination of technology research and development as well as private-sector job growth.
  • Must include onsite activities through the proposed program in Kenya at the Kenyan partner university and/or research institution.
  • Ideally, the proposed program would result in mutually beneficial tech, education, and business developments for both U.S. and Kenyan students, researchers, startups, faculty and larger commercial enterprises.
  • Additionally, tech-specific student and faculty bidirectional exchanges could bolster these grant-funded university partnerships.
  • Must consider regional diversity in the selection of participating institutions.
  • The program should consider Kenyan government policy that may impact program deliverables.

Funding Information

• Length of performance period: 12 months
• Number of awards anticipated: Two – Three awards (Subject to availability of funds)
• Award amounts: awards may range from a minimum of $100,000 to a maximum of $200,000.
• Total available funding: $500,000 – Subject to availability of funds

Participants and Audiences

• Chartered Kenyan Universities/or research institutions

Eligibility Criteria

• This funding opportunity is only open to accredited U.S. higher education institutions.

For more information, visit Grants.gov.