WomEng and the Royal Academy of Engineering’s Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation has partnered to power the African Innovation Fellowship for competition for women. The competition invites female entrepreneurs for a nine-month leadership and business development opportunity. It aims at developing the talent pipeline for the Africa Prize in early stage startups. Fellowship candidates who apply and are subsequently short-listed for the Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation will additionally receive individual coaching and mentoring to support to get them pitch-ready
Co-founded by Naadiya Moosajee and Hema Vallabh, WomEng is an authentic value-driven organization meant for women in engineering. The initiative is predominantly driven by women engineers who have developed a program to address the issues facing women in the engineering sector from school all the way through to industry..
The Royal Academy of Engineering was founded in June 1976 as the Fellowship of Engineering with support from Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, who became the first Senior Fellow and, as of 2018, remains so. The Fellowship was incorporated and granted a Royal Charter on 17 May 1983 and became the Royal Academy of Engineering on 16 March 1992. The Fellowship focuses on championing excellence in all fields of engineering.
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The Africa Innovation Fellowship will begin with an in-person fellowship training week in Kampala, Uganda at the start of June, with focus on idea and business incubation, leadership development, networking and getting pitch-ready. Followed by nine months of personalized virtual support. The overall winner will secure an all-expenses paid trip to London to attend the Global Grand Challenges Summit in September.
To be eligible to apply:
Applicants must be female individuals or small groups with a female lead applicant.
Individual applicants must be citizens of a country within Sub-Saharan Africa*.
For teams of two or more, the lead applicant must be a citizen of a country within Sub-Saharan Africa.
The innovation must be based in a country in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Applicants must have an engineering innovation, though are not required to be engineering graduates or student themselves.
Industrial researchers and establishments are not eligible to apply.
The lead applicant must be over the age of 18. There is no upper age limit.
Applicants should have an early stage engineering innovation
Interested? Click here.
Applications close on April 1.