Last chance for African entrepreneurs to win US$100,000 investment backed by UN

The deadline for applications to a competition led by the United Nations which will award US$150,000 in investment to African entrepreneurs is tomorrow.

The Innovation Prize Award 2013 for Africa (IPA) deadline was extended by one month to November 30 as the African Innovation Foundations (AIF) and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) hunt for advanced ways to solve the continent’s problems.

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Africa gathers in Lagos for Maker Faire

People from the tiniest African villages to some of its largest cities have converged on Lagos, Nigeria, this week to talk about making stuff.

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Innovation Prize for Africa (IPA) deadline extended

Entrepreneurs, innovators and inventors from Africa now have more time to submit their applications for the Innovation Prize Award for Africa (IPA) following the organisers’ decision to extend the application deadline to November 2013.

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Bringing Down the Cost of Remittances

Rwanda Innovation Endowment Fund to Support Researchers

Science Fund Backs Innovation in Arab Spring Countries

Botswana to Launch Health Hub with Support of Swiss NGO

Africa: Eye Health Innovations Get Funding Boost

Why We Need Innovation To Prepare For The Global Aging Society

Africa Analysis: Uganda must streamline its science

Kenya Launches World's First Climate Innovation Centre

Ghana Opens Space Research Centre

Ivorian Researchers and Government Unite to Fortify R&D

NATIONS UNIES: Commission économique pour l'Afrique, Un concours continental pour favoriser l'innovation

L’enjeu pour l’Afrique est que le continent puisse montrer au monde qu’il trouve lui-même des solutions à ses problèmes. C’est sur ce postulat que s’inscrit l’Innovation Prize for Africa. Survol avec Aida Opoku-Mensah, directrice de l’ICTs and Science & Technology Division à l’United Nations Economic Commission for Africa.

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US$150,000 prize for innovation in Africa

African researchers, entrepreneurs and innovators are being sought for to propose projects that will deliver market-oriented solutions for Africa-led development.

The projects should be under one of seven categories which include: agriculture and agribusiness, ICT applications, health and wellbeing, environment, energy and water, manufacturing and service industries.

The winning proposal will be awarded a cash prize of US$100,000, while the runner-ups will receive US$25,000 each. The registration deadline is 31 October 2012 with no possibility for extensions.

The initiative, which is dubbed “Innovation prize for Africa” is co-founded by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) and the African Innovation Foundation (AIF). Interested persons can apply online via www.innovationprizeforafrica.org.

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Africa Innovation Prize to Reward Aspiring Entrepreneurs

INTERVIEW
One of the organizations championing innovative approaches to Africa's problems is the African Innovation Foundation, launched by private equity investors, entrepreneurs, scholars and diplomats. Ambassador Walter Fust, a former director general of the Swiss Agency for Development Cooperation, chairs its board of directors.

African Innovation Foundation co-founder  Jean-Claude Bastos de Morais, a Swiss entrepreneur and equity investor with strong African ties, talked to AllAfrica's Lauren Everitt about the prize and its purpose. They chatted by voice and followed up the conversation by email. 

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Innovation Prize for Africa 2013 to recognize innovations that unlock African potential

Innovation Prize for Africa 2013 to recognize innovations that unlock African potential Prize will award $150,000 USD to winners who deliver market-oriented solutions for African-led development.

For detailed information of competition categories, conditions of entry, and submission procedures, please visit: http://www.innovationprizeforafrica.org/. For highlights and more information, follow us on Twitter (https://twitter.com/#!/IPAprize) and Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/InnovationPrizeforAfrica).

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2013 Innovation Prize for Africa to unlock African potential

The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and the African Innovation Foundation (AIF) has announced the call for entries for the 2013 Innovation Prize for Africa (IPA). The prize aims to support Africans efforts to develop new products, increase efficiency and drive cost-savings.

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Interview | Environment friendly pesticides: Innovation Prize for Africa Runner-up 2012

Innovation Prize for Africa is an annual award co-founded by the Africain Innovation Foundation and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa to mobilise and honour the achievements of African innovators and entrepreneurs who deliver market oriented solutions for African-led development. Inspire Magazine spoke with Zeinou Abdelyamine, the winner of the 2012 IPA Runner Up prize about his winning invention, work and future plans.

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How To Make Africa More Innovative And Entrepreneurial – Part II – Lessons From The Global Innovation Index 2011

Last time I promised to continue the discussion we started in How To Make Africa More Innovative and Entrepreneurial – Part I.  To do that, I would like to consider this question: Why are some nations more innovative than others?

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Africa needs local capacity for innovation research

Building a community of innovation scholars will promote locally relevant research and policy, say Bitrina Diyamett and Erika Kraemer-Mbula.

Africa has made remarkable progress in building capacity in natural and engineering sciences over the past decade. The endorsement of Africa's Science and Technology Consolidated Plan of Action (CPA) — which focuses on developing scientific and research capacity — by all African countries in 2005, shows continent-wide recognition of the importance of science and technology.

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Young African innovators showcase projects in Spain

Five young African innovators from Ethiopia and Senegal now have the chance to display their innovations after nine months of hard work at the CREATIC4AFRICA innovation lab in Spain.

This follows a special event organized by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and the Technology Centre for ICTs (CTIC) on ‘Innovation in ICTs – the CREATIC4AFRICA initiative’.

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Students at Makerere University make a bomb detection and disarming robot

Makerere University students have invented an explosive Ordinance Robot which is to be used to detect explosives.

The Explosive Ordinance Disposal Robot has been initiated by three former students of St. Mary's college Kisubi under the support of the iLab @makerere University project, a project which is currently promoting science and technology innovation among tertiary students.

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Uganda's Fast Rise To m-Health Hub

We tend to rewrite the histories of technological innovation, making myths about a guy who had a great idea that changed the world. In reality, though, innovation isn't the goal; it's everything that gets you there. It's bad financial decisions and blueprints for machines that weren't built until decades later. It's the important leaps forward that synthesize lots of ideas, and it's the belly-up failures that teach us what not to do.

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32 Innovations That Will Change Your Tomorrow

We tend to rewrite the histories of technological innovation, making myths about a guy who had a great idea that changed the world. In reality, though, innovation isn't the goal; it's everything that gets you there. It's bad financial decisions and blueprints for machines that weren't built until decades later. It's the important leaps forward that synthesize lots of ideas, and it's the belly-up failures that teach us what not to do.

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Africa 'needs to do more to boost innovation'

[ABIDJAN, COTE D'IVOIRE] The European Union and Sub-Saharan Africa must create an institutional environment to encourage innovation on the African continent, a conference has heard.

The second meeting of the Network for the Coordination and Advancement of Sub-Saharan Africa-EU Science and Technology Cooperation (CAAST-Net), held in Dakar, Senegal, last month (24–25 April), recommended that African governments bring together industry and academia to use innovation for the development of their respective countries.

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5 Tips for Sparking Innovation

How do you define innovation? The company 3M, one of the first organizations to fully embrace innovation as the essence of its corporate brand, defines it as "new ideas – plus action or implementation – which result in an improvement, a gain, or a profit."

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BIH steps up activities

The Botswana Innovation Hub (BIH) says it is working to improve on what was done in the past in order to get the organisation back on track to meet its mandate.

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Open Innovation Africa Summit²

Time: Monday, May 28th - Wednesday, May 30th
Location: Safari Park Hotel, Nairobi, Kenya.

Nokia, infoDev and Capgemini will be organizing the second Open Innovation Africa Summit (OIAS²) between 28th and 30th of May 2012 in Nairobi, Kenya and would be excited to have you participating at the profound debates and thought-leader presentations that help to shape the future of the African innovation society.

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Frugal innovation

Innovation is a major imperative for companies and governments worldwide. But post-downturn we can't solely rely on the tried-and-tested formula which has sustained innovation efforts in the West for decades: highly structured R&D processes that result in expensive top-down projects. Instead, how can we do more for less, while serving broader markets?

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Why Now Is the Time for Media Innovation in Africa

In Africa, where mobile news and digital innovation are growing but startup capital is too often scarce, innovators have a unique opportunity to help reinvent media: the African News Innovation Challenge.

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Uganda: Makerere Invents Pregnancy Machine

Makerere University students have invented a hand-held gadget that can be used to scan a pregnant woman's womb and detect problems such as ectopic pregnancy or abnormal foetal heart beats.

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