Descrição

Overview

The FS4Africa project has launched Open Call 2 (OC2) to provide Financial Support to Third Parties (FSTP) for innovation hubs that can deliver training, mentoring, and business acceleration services to food safety innovators in Africa and Europe.

The call aims to strengthen innovative food safety solutions by supporting innovation hubs in building the capacities of FS4Africa Use Case partners and Open Call 1 (OC1) beneficiaries, with a particular focus on mentoring, social innovation, business development, and market readiness.

Objectives

The Open Call seeks to:

• Strengthen the capacity of food safety innovators through structured training and mentoring.
• Accelerate innovative business concepts addressing food safety challenges in the African informal food sector.
• Promote social innovation, business sustainability, and market uptake.
• Support collaboration among innovation hubs and FS4Africa partners to maximise project impact.

Funding

• Total budget: €200,000
• Projects to be funded: At least 5
• Maximum funding per project: €40,000

Who Can Apply?

The call is open to innovation hubs capable of designing and delivering structured capacity-building programmes.

Applications must be submitted by a single legal entity; consortia are not permitted.

Required Activities

Each selected project must implement at least six structured training–mentoring activities during the project period, including:

A. Support to Open Call 1 Beneficiaries

• Deliver at least two training activities supporting at least two different OC1 sub-projects.

B. Support to FS4Africa Use Cases

• Deliver at least four training–mentoring activities targeting actors involved in one or more FS4Africa Use Cases.
• Coordinate with other OC2 beneficiaries to ensure complementary thematic coverage across all FS4Africa Use Cases.

Training activities may include:

• Online courses.
• Webinars.
• Interactive workshops.
• Mentoring clinics.
• Other structured capacity-building formats.

Indicative Training Topics

Training and mentoring activities may focus on:

• Refining value propositions and identifying target markets.
• Strengthening business models and financial sustainability.
• Social innovation and community engagement.
• Scaling and replication strategies.
• Market access and regulatory awareness.
• Impact measurement and investment readiness.

Project Duration

Selected projects are expected to begin in February 2027 and will run for 8 months until September 2027, following three implementation phases:

Phase	Duration	Grant Payment	Key Deliverable
Design	February 2027 (1 month)	20%	Training Activity Plan
Development	March–July 2027 (5 months)	50%	Training Delivery Report
Validation	August–September 2027 (2 months)	30%	Final Report

Key Dates

• Application deadline: 31 August 2026 (17:00 CET)
• Project start: February 2027
• Project completion: September 2027

How to Apply

Applications must be submitted electronically through the opencalls.fund platform.

Applicants should review the complete Open Call Kit, which includes:

• Open Call Text
• Applicant Guide
• Proposal Template
• Budget Template
• Declaration of Honour
• Model Sub-Grant Agreement
• Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)