COOPEN Mentoring and Achievement Grant
In context
This call is open to startups, small and medium-sized businesses and social enterprises and 1 other, at prototype and pilot stage, pre-seed and seed stage. Coverage is read from the notice itself: Africa and Subsaharan-Africa.
A mentoring programme that supports early-stage projects to launch and scale in African markets across circular economy, food-agriculture, and health sectors following incubation. The programme provides business development and market-entry support rather than direct project funding.
About this grant
COOPEN is an open innovation programme promoted by Innovazione per lo Sviluppo that facilitates participative collaboration between Italy and Africa to develop impactful solutions for international development challenges. The programme operates across three thematic areas: Food and Sustainable Agriculture (improving agricultural productivity, increasing biodiversity, and mitigating climate change), Circular Economy (promoting sustainable production and consumption models based on sharing, reusing, and repairing), and Health and Well-being (developing innovative digital health services with focus on mobile platforms and capacity-building for medical personnel). The programme follows a four-phase process: Build (call for interest and participative roundtables), Challenge (calls for innovators), Test (incubation and acceleration with partnership activation and funding), and Execute (mentoring and achievement with market launch support). COOPEN aligns with UN Sustainable Development Goals 2 (Zero Hunger), 3 (Health and Well-being), 12 (Responsible Consumption and Production), and 17 (Partnerships). The overall resources dedicated to COOPEN are 1.8 million euros for 2020-2021.
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Eligibility
The programme is open to innovators and entrepreneurs working on solutions in the three designated thematic areas. While the page does not explicitly state all eligibility criteria, the programme focuses on creating partnerships between Italy and Africa, with specific geographic focus on Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda, Ethiopia in East Africa and Senegal, Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger in West Africa.
Key requirements
- ✓Project must have completed or be in incubation phase
- ✓Target launch or scaling in African markets
- ✓Focus on circular economy, food-agriculture, or health sectors
- ✓Mentoring and business development support model (not direct capital)
Frequently asked questions
- How much funding does COOPEN offer?
- COOPEN Mentoring and Achievement offers $2M.
- Who can apply for COOPEN Mentoring and Achievement?
- Eligibility covers organisations in AFRICA, SUBSAHARAN-AFRICA; startup, sme, social-enterprise, nonprofit. 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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