Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation 2026 (up to £50,000) – YOA

Deadline: September 23, 2025

Applications for the Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation 2026 are actually open. The Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation, based by the Royal Academy of Engineering, is Africa’s greatest prize devoted to engineering innovation. The Prize awards commercialisation help to African innovators growing scalable engineering options to native challenges. These improvements present the significance of engineering in bettering high quality of life and financial improvement.

The Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation was launched in March 2014 to stimulate, rejoice and reward innovation and entrepreneurship throughout sub-Saharan Africa. Since then, it has supplied invaluable coaching, mentoring and communications help to 165 companies throughout 22 nations. It additionally has a longtime alumni programme with 71% of Africa Prize alumni at the moment producing income. Their alumni have additionally raised $39 million in grants and fairness.

Benefits

The Africa Prize affords a singular advantages bundle for up to 16 shortlisted members to assist speed up their enterprise together with: 

• Eight month tailor-made coaching programme.
• Two totally-funded coaching weeks: one within the UK and one in a significant African metropolis.
• Access to enterprise and technical experience and sector-particular engineering mentoring.
• Bespoke press protection and communications help.
• Access to the Academy’s community of excessive-profile engineers and enterprise specialists within the UK and Africa.
• The OPPORTUNITY for finalists to current their innovation to a judging panel on the Africa Prize showcase occasion.
• Prize cash of up to £50,000.

Eligibility

• Applicants can apply as a person or on behalf of a crew.
• The applicant have to be a citizen of a rustic in sub-Saharan Africa. For groups of two or extra, the lead applicant (the individual collaborating in coaching) have to be a citizen of a rustic in sub-Saharan Africa.
• The applicant have to be ordinarily primarily based in sub-Saharan Africa; if primarily based abroad, this have to be short-term for research or in any other case.
• The applicant have to be over the age of 18 when purposes shut on 23 September 2025. There is not any higher age restrict.
• The applicant will need to have a excessive stage of English proficiency, which can permit them to totally take part in all the programme. The application have to be written in English.
• The applicant can’t be an alumni of the Africa Prize or part of the identical crew, enterprise or innovation that has been via the Prize.
• Industrial researchers and institutions are usually not eligible.
• Alumni of the Academy’s Advance programme or alumni of the Leaders in Innovation Fellowship (LIF) programme who participated after June 2024 are usually not eligible to apply to the Africa Prize. LIF alumni who participated within the LIF programme earlier than June 2024 could also be eligible if they will proof via their application why participation within the Africa Prize is critical and/or will add worth to them and their enterprise.

Application

The programme makes use of a two-stage application course of. Submit your first-stage application by Tuesday 23 September 2025, 4pm UTC+1 to be thought-about for the second stage.

Click here to apply

For extra data, see FAQ and go to Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation.