Announcement:Call for concept notes 2013: Innovation Incubator Fund, by 20 July 2013

This is a call for innovative ideas to incubate from MAEF’s Innovation Incubator Fund (IIF).

Maendeleo Agricultural Enterprise Fund (MAEF) is a grant-making fund that aims to sustainably improve the livelihoods of smallholder farmers in East Africa by investing in innovative agri-business enterprises that seek to either create or adapt technologies for improving agricultural productivity, increasing profitability and linking smallholder farmers to viable, profitable and sustainable markets.

• The key focus is that it will lead to a proof of concept that has the potential to develop into successful, sustainable, scalable, replicable and viable commercial businesses that would profit and improve the livelihoods of smallholder farmers in the East Africa region.
• The applications MUST be submitted by email to maef-info@farmafrica.org by 20 July 2013.
• The Innovation Incubator Fund will invest in innovative ideas with recognised potential at an early stage. It will help grantees to refine and strengthen their ideas and, where appropriate test their modifications/adaptations at a limited scale (a few farmers groups with about 100 farmers). It will be a channel to promote and strengthen agricultural innovation and ‘Research and Development’ at the field level.
• The Innovation Incubator Fund will further develop innovations that meet the priorities and needs of smallholder farmers.
• It will fund project ideas for a period of 12 to 18 months. The funding grant level is GBP13,650.
• Farm Africa’s MAEF team will guide and monitor the project development and build the capacity of grantees. At the end of the grant period, the grantees will have a fully developed proposal and will be in a stronger position to apply for further funding to implement their approach from MAEF’s Competitive Value Chain Fund and other grant-making organisations / financing institutions.

Country and geographical focus: This application is open to applicants operating within thespecified regions of East Africa that is Kenya (Central and Nairobi Counties), Uganda (Central and peri-urban Kampala regions) and Tanzania (Morogoro and Pwani Regions)
Applicants should have a track record in agricultural development and agri-business in those countries; have proven capacity to manage grant funds and fall under the categories as listed below

Category 1: Local non-governmental organisations (LNGOs), community-based organisations (CBOs), farmer associations

Category 2: Private companies (agri-business firms, small and medium enterprises -SMEs, cooperatives, farmer business agencies), academia, and research organisations and individuals