{"id":7566,"date":"2026-04-17T12:30:06","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T12:30:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fci4africa.eu\/?p=7566"},"modified":"2026-04-17T13:20:40","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T13:20:40","slug":"fci4africa-launches-e400000-open-call-to-advance-fair-and-inclusive-food-systems-in-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fci4africa.eu\/el\/fci4africa-launches-e400000-open-call-to-advance-fair-and-inclusive-food-systems-in-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"Open Call to advance food systems in Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"<div data-elementor-type=\"wp-post\" data-elementor-id=\"7566\" class=\"elementor elementor-7566\" data-elementor-post-type=\"post\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-78f41d37 e-flex e-con-boxed e-con e-parent\" data-id=\"78f41d37\" data-element_type=\"container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"e-con-inner\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-2e9eefb0 sc_fly_static elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"2e9eefb0\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p><span style=\"font-size: inherit;\">FCI4Africa, a Horizon Europe-funded project working to enhance fairness, resilience, and inclusivity in food systems across Africa, has officially launched its first Open Call (OC1). With a total budget of \u20ac400,000, the initiative will fund eight sub-projects, each eligible for up to \u20ac50,000.<\/span><\/p><p>The Open Call aims to support research and technology stakeholders in developing and testing innovative solutions that contribute to fairer and more sustainable food value chains across the continent.<\/p><p>Through Open Call 1, FCI4Africa invites applicants to contribute to one of two key objectives:<\/p><ul><li><strong>Objective 1: <\/strong>To<strong> test, validate, and enhance <\/strong>the existing business concepts and tools of the project, including those already developed within the Use Cases.<\/li><li><strong>Objective 2<\/strong>: To<strong> develop ideas and tools <\/strong>that address specific challenges of FCI4Africa.<\/li><\/ul><p>All selected projects are expected to generate valuable datasets that will support the refinement of FCI4Africa tools, methodologies, and business concepts.<\/p><p><strong>Funding and timeline<\/strong><\/p><p>The Open Call has a <strong>total budget of \u20ac400,000<\/strong> and will support <strong>eight<\/strong> selected <strong>\u03c5\u03c0\u03bf\u03ad\u03c1\u03b3\u03b1<\/strong>, each receiving <strong>up to \u20ac50,000 in funding<\/strong>. The call officially <strong>launches on April 7, 2026<\/strong>, with a <strong>submission deadline of June 30, 2026<\/strong>, at 17:00 CEST (Brussels time).<\/p><p>Selected projects will run from November 2026 to October 2027 and will follow a structured three-phase process, including a design phase focused on developing an activity plan, a development phase dedicated to demonstrating results, and a final validation phase centred on dissemination activities and lessons learned.<\/p><table style=\"font-size: 1.28571rem; height: 342px;\" width=\"631\"><tbody><tr><td width=\"201\"><p><strong><u>Phase 1 &#8211; Design<\/u><\/strong><\/p><p>November 2026-January 2027<\/p><p>Duration: 3 months<\/p><p>Deliverable: Activity plan<\/p><\/td><td width=\"201\"><p><strong style=\"font-size: inherit;\"><u>Phase 2 &#8211; <\/u><\/strong><strong style=\"font-size: inherit;\"><u>Development<\/u><\/strong><\/p><p>February 2027-July 2027<\/p><p>Duration: 6 months<\/p><p>Deliverable: Results demonstration<\/p><\/td><td width=\"201\"><p><strong style=\"font-size: inherit;\"><u>Phase 3 &#8211; Validation<\/u><\/strong><\/p><p>August 2027-October 2027<\/p><p>Duration: 3 months<\/p><p>Deliverable: Report on dissemination activities &amp; lessons learned<\/p><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><p><strong>Who can apply?<\/strong><\/p><p>The call is open to <strong>single applicants only<\/strong> (no consortia allowed). Eligible applicants include:<\/p><ul><li>Universities and research institutes<\/li><li>Technology providers and R&amp;D SMEs<\/li><li>Innovation-driven start-ups<\/li><li>Industry actors developing new technologies<\/li><li>Other multidisciplinary stakeholders<\/li><\/ul><p><strong>How to apply<\/strong><\/p><ul><li>Applications must be submitted online via the Open Call platform: <a href=\"https:\/\/opencalls.fund\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">fund<\/a><\/li><li>All proposals must be submitted in English before the deadline on June 30, 2026, at 17:00 CEST (Brussels time).<\/li><li>By applying to the FCI4Africa Open Call 1, applicants automatically accept the terms and conditions described in the Open Call 1 kit.<\/li><\/ul><p>For questions or clarifications, please contact: <a href=\"mailto:fci4africa@opencalls.fund\">mailto:fci4africa@opencalls.fund<\/a><\/p><p>Learn more at: <a href=\"https:\/\/fci4africa.eu\/el\/\">https:\/\/fci4africa.eu\/<\/a><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Up to \u20ac50,000 per project to support innovative solutions addressing key food system challenges<\/p>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7574,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":6,"footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7566","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-press-releases"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fci4africa.eu\/el\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7566","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fci4africa.eu\/el\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fci4africa.eu\/el\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fci4africa.eu\/el\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fci4africa.eu\/el\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7566"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/fci4africa.eu\/el\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7566\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7589,"href":"https:\/\/fci4africa.eu\/el\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7566\/revisions\/7589"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fci4africa.eu\/el\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7574"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fci4africa.eu\/el\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7566"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fci4africa.eu\/el\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7566"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fci4africa.eu\/el\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}