{"id":572831,"date":"2026-08-03T05:48:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-03T05:48:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/572831\/"},"modified":"2026-08-03T05:48:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-03T05:48:11","slug":"apply-now-12-million-for-digital-technology-research-in-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/572831\/","title":{"rendered":"Apply Now: $12 Million for Digital Technology Research in Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>\u21d3 More from ICTworks<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\tBy Wayan Vota on August 3, 2026 &#13;\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-18008\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/africa-data-grant-funding.png\" alt=\"Political Economy of African Artificial Intelligence\" width=\"640\" height=\"386\"   \/><\/p>\n<p>Africa is home to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.weforum.org\/stories\/2025\/12\/investing-in-green-compute-in-africa\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">18% of the world\u2019s people but holds less than 1% of global data centre capacity<\/a>, and only <a href=\"https:\/\/mitsloan.mit.edu\/centers-initiatives\/ksc\/africa-not-ready-ai-era-and-few-are-willing-to-say-it\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">about 40% of its population is online<\/a>. That gap in compute, connectivity, and digital skills is what a new pan-African research call wants to close.<\/p>\n<p>$12 Million in Research Funding<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/call.sgci.africa\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Science Granting Councils Initiative<\/a> (SGCI), a platform of 20 national science funding councils across sub-Saharan Africa, has opened a call for Expressions of Interest to support the African Union\u2019s Science, Technology and Innovation Strategy for Africa 2034 (STISA-2034).<\/p>\n<p>One of five thematic streams targets Artificial Intelligence and Digital Technologies, framed around a more integrated and connected continent. It funds two research avenues:<\/p>\n<p>Applications: AI tools that address priority sectors like agriculture, health, environment, and education, plus scaling proven AI innovations and strengthening the use of AI in scientific research.<br \/>\nLearning and entrepreneurship: STEM and AI skills programs for African youth, women, and researchers, and support for digital and AI-enabled startups.<\/p>\n<p>Proposals are expected to build on existing continental efforts, including the African Union\u2019s Continental AI Strategy and work by AUDA-NEPAD.<\/p>\n<p>Each consortium needs at least three institutions from three different SGCI countries eligible under the AI stream, a group that includes Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, Ghana, and Tanzania. Public and private universities, research organizations, and government research bodies can lead or co-apply. Each member can request between CA$50,000 and CA$300,000, and projects run up to 36 months.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/call.sgci.africa\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Apply Now<\/a>! Deadline: September 25, 2026<\/p>\n<p>More Funding Opportunities<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/mailchi.mp\/inveneo\/subscribe-now\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Please sign up now <\/a>to get our email updates. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ictworks.org\/funding-sources-african-entrepreneurs\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Learn how to get startup funding<\/a> for your technology business, and find <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ictworks.org\/category\/funding\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">new funding opportunities<\/a> with donors.<\/p>\n<p>We are constantly publishing <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ictworks.org\/tag\/start-up\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">fundraising guidance<\/a>\u00a0and competitive insights like this:<\/p>\n<p>\n\tNow Read These Related Posts\n<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-top:10px;border-top:1px solid #ccc;\">Filed Under: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ictworks.org\/category\/funding\/\" rel=\"category tag nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Funding<\/a> <br \/>More About: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ictworks.org\/tag\/academic-research\/\" rel=\"tag nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Academic Research<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ictworks.org\/tag\/ghana\/\" rel=\"tag nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Ghana<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ictworks.org\/tag\/grant-funding\/\" rel=\"tag nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Grant Funding<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ictworks.org\/tag\/rwanda\/\" rel=\"tag nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Rwanda<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ictworks.org\/tag\/south-africa\/\" rel=\"tag nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">South Africa<\/a> <\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/b94941f6a8bc374844f084add8e01460.jpeg\" class=\"avatar avatar-68 photo wpfla round-avatars \" width=\"68\" height=\"68\" \/><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/wayan\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Wayan Vota<\/a> co-founded ICTworks. He also co-founded Technology Salon, Career Pivot, MERL Tech, ICTforAg, ICT4Djobs, ICT4Drinks, JadedAid, Kurante, OLPC News and a few other things.  Opinions expressed here are his own and do not reflect the position of his employer, any of its entities, or any ICTWorks sponsor.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u21d3 More from ICTworks &#13; By Wayan Vota on August 3, 2026 &#13; Africa is home to 18%&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":572832,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[11076,114,17098,7131,85,46,3266,9517],"class_list":["post-572831","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-academic-research","tag-business","tag-ghana","tag-grant-funding","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-rwanda","tag-south-africa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/572831","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=572831"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/572831\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/572832"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=572831"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=572831"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=572831"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}