New, ongoing, and concluded
opportunities
Africa App Quest is a search for Africa's top travel
app in which developers will compete for a top
prize $10,000 by building home-grown travel apps, specially
designed for the tourism sector in Africa. It is sponsored by Visa
and South African Tourism, the application rules are here, and the deadline (D/L) is 16 August.
Airbus: Vote for the Team Aero Bamboo Engineering (Team A.B.E.) from the University of Nairobi, in the Fly Your Ideas contest where their project which engineers bamboo for aircraft cabin materials in competing against four other ideas shortlisted from 618 entries from
82 countries. Votes are open till June 3.
Art Moves Africa: AMA supports mobility of artists and cultural professionals within the African continent by
paying for their costs of travel, visas and travel insurance. Performers in visual arts, music,
cinema, literature and cultural advocacy are eligible, and the next deadline is 1 September for travel planned after 27 October.
For Carnegie Mellon University students interested in pursuing M.S. in Information Technology degrees in Rwanda, the Rwandan Government
has scholarships for qualified students from the East African
Community that cover 50% of the tuition fee and, for citizens of
Rwanda there is an additional study loan to cover the remaining 50%
of the tuition, plus living expenses if needed.
Connected Kenya: The Innovation
Awards at the Connected Kenya Summit provide a platform to showcase
Kenyan companies that are contributing to improving productivity and
efficiency in the country through ICT innovation. For 2013, the awards are
sponsored by Google and the deadline for applications is May 19 – apply here.
Diageo: The Diageo Africa Business Reporting
Awards 2013 a.k.a DABRA's finalists were announced this week and the short-listed pieces include stories like;
- Africa’s healthcare technology revolution
- Barry Bateman and Oscar Pistorius: Inside the Twitter explosion
- Ivory Coast’s Women Reject Equality in Household Law Debate
- Mozambique - Coal, gas: boom for all or just a few?
- Revisiting Tinapa
- Malawi: Beautiful Destination with limping tourism
- The Chinese loan conundrum: Who is benefitting from Zambia’s phantom growth in construction?
GAIN: The Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition invites public and private
entrepreneurs to partner with to improve nutrition in Africa and selected innovations will receive business advice, technical assistance, and funding.
Google: Doodle 4 Google competition is open to students aged between 6 and 18 years
to draw on themes of 'My Kenya' to celebrate Kenya's 50 years of
independence. The winner
will get ~$9,400 worth of school fees, as well as a similar amount as a
technology equipment grant for his/her school and will have their
doodle displayed on the Google Kenya homepage. An
Android tablet device will be the prize for the teacher involved and D/L is June 14
GSK: Trust In Science Africa invites high
quality African (Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda) medical researchers
to submit proposals for collaboration and funding. The maximum grant
duration is 3 years and the maximum amount of funding is $100,000 with a D/L of 31 May.
Kofi Annan Fellowship for outstanding students from developing countries provides the
opportunity for 3 student from developing
countries to study management at the European School of Management and
Technology (ESMT) in Berlin and graduate with an MBA. The value of the fellowship is € 58,000, other details are here, and the D/L is 30 September.
Nairobi Securities Exchange: The Investment Challenge 2013 is an online simulation of live
trading targeting Kenyan youth who are in universities, technical
institutions and other post secondary colleges in which where groups are
given (virtual) capital to invest over 3 months to see who ends up
with the highest value portfolio. Prizes may
internships at NSE partner organizations.
Orange: The African Social Venture Prize promotes social
innovations in support of development that use ICT. In addition to prize money ranging
from €10,000 to €25,000, three winners will also receive
support from professional entrepreneurs and ICT experts for a period
of six months. D/L September 20.
Pivot East: The semifinalists in the 2013 Pivot East contest have been announced, and some of the selected apps
include:
- ChamaPesa (gives investment groups a way to pool savings and invest in diverse instruments)
- Inforex (enables foreign exchange trading between Forex bureaus)
- EZsacco (allows savings societies to receive mobile payments, generate reports, and send members statements by SMS)
- Juakali (a service that links informal sector workers with potential clients)
- Smart Blackboard (gives students 1-on-1 interactive tutorials with real teachers, without the need for access to the internet)
- iDaktari (information management system for doctors with private practice)
- Kyatabu (a micro-leasing textbook subscription application)
- CancerBank (mobile app that makes for easier self diagnosis, early detection, triage and treatment of cancer)
- GreenHouse Pro (a guide for green house farmers to cultivate six different crops)
- Ma3Route (crowd-sources up-to-date traffic & transport information)
TED: TED Prize is an annual $1
million prize that is awarded to an extraordinary individual with a creative
and bold vision to spark global change. D/L 1 June.
Safaricom: AppWiz challenge targets new mobile application
developers in Kenya with the aim of equipping participants with
entrepreneurial & technological skills, to launch apps into
the market that cover agriculture, health, financial inclusion,
education games, utilities, safety etc. D/L 28 June.
Wellcome Trust: International Engagement Awards support health research projects with grants of up to £30,000, and is open to media professionals,
educators, science communicators, health professionals and
researchers in bioscience, health, bioethics and history. D/L 19 August.
