At a Glance

Program Name: FCI4Africa Open Call 1 (OC1) – Short term grants for research and technology actors to test, validate, or develop tools that make African food trade fair, sustainable, and climate resilient.

Support Type: 12 month sub project funding for single entities to work in real African food systems, linked to FCI4Africa use cases or related themes.

Funding Amount: Up to 50,000 EUR per project; up to 8 projects, total OC1 budget 400,000 EUR.

Application Deadline: Call planned to run 7 April 2026–30 June 2026, 17:00 CEST; applications only via the opencalls.fund platform.

Program Focus

OC1 supports projects that either test and enhance existing FCI4Africa business concepts and tools or develop new ideas and tools that address FCI4Africa challenges.

Projects must generate datasets and practical results that improve tools, methods, or business concepts for fair, just, and climate neutral African food systems.

Location

Funded activities must take place in Africa and directly target African food system actors and value chains (e.g., farmers, processors, traders, regulators).

Solutions should be grounded in real life settings and involve local stakeholders using a multi actor, user centred approach.

About the Program

FCI4Africa bridges stricter EU sustainability rules and the AfCFTA single market by supporting ethical, traceable, climate resilient agri food trade.

OC1 is one of two open calls providing Financial Support to Third Parties (FSTP), with simple lump sum payments linked to clear implementation phases instead of complex cost reporting.

Program Benefits

Single entities can access focused project funding to develop or test solutions that can later be introduced to the market.

Grants are paid as lump sums in three phases: 20% after design and activity plan, 50% after development and results, and 30% after validation and dissemination report.

Eligibility Criteria

• Eligible applicants are single research and technology stakeholders: universities and research institutes, technology developers and R&D oriented SMEs, and innovation driven start ups from Horizon Europe eligible countries (no consortia).
• Projects must be implemented in Africa, align with OC1 objectives, and start from about TRL 3–4 aiming to reach TRL 6 by project end.
• One proposal per applicant (and per university department); if an entity appears in multiple applications, all are rejected.
• Applicants must be active legal entities with a valid VAT or equivalent registration, not part of the FCI4Africa consortium or in a paid relationship with it for FCI4Africa activities.

Application Process & Timeline

How to Apply

Applicants must use the official OC1 kit: Applicants’ Guide, call text, proposal template, budget template, Declaration of Honour, SME Declaration, and model Sub grant Agreement.

They register and submit all required PDF documents (proposal, budget, declarations) in English via the opencalls.fund platform; submissions by email or other channels are discarded.

Key Timeline Notes

OC1 publication is planned for 7 April 2026; the call remains open until 30 June 2026, 17:00 CEST.

Eligibility check and evaluation run July–October 2026; selected sub projects are expected to run November 2026–October 2027, with no pre financing and payments tied to accepted deliverables.

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