COOPEN Incubation and Acceleration Grant
In context
This call is open to startups, small and medium-sized businesses and social enterprises and 2 others, at idea and R&D stage, prototype and pilot stage and pre-seed. Coverage is read from the notice itself: any country.
COOPEN provides incubation and acceleration funding for innovators developing solutions in circular economy, food-agriculture, and health sectors, with support for partnership activation and planning/development phases. The programme targets early-stage innovators moving from concept to market-ready solutions.
About this grant
COOPEN is an open innovation programme promoted by Innovazione per lo Sviluppo that creates impactful solutions between Italy and Africa. The programme addresses major challenges in international development cooperation across three key areas: Food and Sustainable Agriculture, Circular Economy, and Health and Well-being. It supports the achievement of UN Sustainable Development Goals, particularly SDG 2 (Zero Hunger), SDG 3 (Health and Well-being), SDG 12 (Responsible Consumption and Production), and SDG 17 (Partnerships to Achieve the Goals). The programme operates through a four-phase process: a build call for interest with participative roundtables, challenge calls for innovators in the three focus areas, an incubation and acceleration phase with partnership activation and funding for planning and development, and a mentoring and achievement phase for grounding projects and launching in target markets.
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Eligibility
The programme targets innovators and organisations working on solutions in the three key areas of Circular Economy, Food and Sustainable Agriculture, and Health and Well-being. Work must focus on East Africa (Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda, Ethiopia) or West Africa (Senegal, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger) with Italy-Africa partnerships.
Key requirements
- ✓Selected innovators only (competitive selection process)
- ✓Solutions must address circular economy, food-agriculture, or health sectors
- ✓Partnerships must be activated as part of incubation/acceleration phase
- ✓Focus on planning and development of solutions (pre-commercialisation stage)
Frequently asked questions
- How much funding does COOPEN offer?
- COOPEN Incubation and Acceleration offers $2M.
- Who can apply for COOPEN Incubation and Acceleration?
- Eligibility covers organisations in GLOBAL; startup, sme, social-enterprise, nonprofit, consortium. See the eligibility criteria above for the full conditions.
Relevant sectors
About this sector
Circular economy funding supports reuse, repair, remanufacturing, product redesign and secondary materials markets. Grants tend to back pilots with businesses and local authorities, while tenders buy collection, sorting and recovery services. Applicants are usually asked to show the material flows involved and who will buy the recovered output.
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