Deadline: Ongoing Opportunity
Inviting all interested innovators and entrepreneurs with innovative and / or technology-driven solutions that need seed funding to apply for a grant from Botswana Innovation Fund (BIF).
Purpose
- promote innovation through technology, product and business development in the private sector by providing cash grants to
- companies and organisations registered with the Botswana Innovation Hub; and
- universities and research organisations inside or outside the Botswana Innovation Hub, to which companies and organisations registered with the Botswana Innovation Hub may subcontract part of the research and development work; and
- encourage companies and organisations registered with the Botswana Innovation Hub to transfer skills to citizen employees by providing cash grants to be utilised for
- institutionalised training, and/or
- approved on the job training programmes.
Focus Areas
- Botswana Innovation Fund seeks applications that address key national and/or global challenges from local solutions providers.
- Applications are open to innovations from all sectors and disciplines.
- BIF applications place emphasis on the facilitation of local Intellectual Property development and registration, innovative solutions at prototype development, technology transfer, and pre-commercialisation.
- They are seeking innovative solutions that have completed Technology Readiness Level (TRL 1-3) early-stage research, and now require funding for development stages (TRL 4-6) and Pre-commercialisation (TRL 7-8).
Bih is mandated to do the following
- Promote and facilitates collaboration between academia /scientists, entrepreneurs, public officials and the citizens whom they serve
- Initiate beneficial use of technology for business and society, resulting from local research and development, or acquired and adapted from elsewhere and deployed or applied locally
- Support of entrepreneurs and businesses to commercialise technology from novel ideas and/or research
- Promotes new ways of marketing and/or business processes, promoting innovation in business models, business process and also in product development
- Engage the youth in the future of knowledge intensive businesses
- Link with initiatives to allow more inclusive deployment of solutions to benefit society.
- Use the power of diverse local and international networks to stimulate creative problem solving.
Eligibility Criteria
- Botswana registered companies
- All entities whose project proposals shall be shortlisted will be required to register as BDIH members.
- Intellectual Property shall reside in Botswana
- General Selection Criteria for Projects
- Solutions to address National or Global challenges
- Beneficiaries to be in line with the BIF guidelines
- Towards the development of working prototypes with potential registrable intellectual property post the BIF funding phase.
- Projects proposals shall be with projects budget and timelines
- Projects from TRL 3 (Proof of Concept) to Pre-Commercialisation (TRL 8)
Required
- Market Need
- Value Proposition (a clear path towards operationalizing the product on-the-ground)
- Team Composition and Roles
- Customer Validation
- Clear Revenue Streams
- Alignment with Key Govt Objective/National Need
- Social Impact Identify a specific problem/challenge statement or need
- Articulation of proposed solution and approach
- A cohort based approach will be used to enroll successful applicants
For more information, visit Botswana Digital & Innovation Hub.