Programme Category
Programme Name
Identifier Code
Call
Summary
The FCI4Africa project responds to the growing demand for sustainable, fair, and just food trade between Africa and Europe. Under the EU Green Deal, the Farm-to-Fork Strategy, as well as the Deforestation-Free Regulation, agri-food products entering the EU must meet stricter environmental, social, and ethical criteria.
Detailed Call Description
FCI4Africa launched its first Open Call (OC1) addressed to research and technology stakeholders (start-ups, SMEs, research organisations, and other multidisciplinary actors) to foster climate-neutral, social just fair-trade food systems within Africa.The FCI4Africa project aims to empower small-scale, informal, and vulnerable actors in Africa’s agri-food value chain, helping them participate in trade within Africa, between Africa and the EU, and globally.
FCI4Africa Open Call 1 (OC1) aims to provide financial support to research and technology stakeholders to contribute to one of the following objectives:
- Objective 1: To test, validate, and enhance the existing business concepts and tools of the project including those already developed within the Use Cases.
- Objective 2: To develop ideas and tools that address specific challenges of FCI4Africa.
Developed solutions do not necessarily have to be tied to FCI4Africa existing Use Case topics as long as they align with the broader objectives of the project. Specifically, solutions should address one of the following:
- Lack of sustainability, fairness and justness in the agri-food sector
- Difficulties in complying with new EU legislation and trade policies
- High certification costs creating barriers for African small-scale farmers
- Fragmentation of intra-African agricultural trade
- Limited transparency and data obstructing the integration of the informal sector
- Inconsistency of non-tariff measures across regions
Applicants are expected to collaborate with local stakeholders to ensure that solutions are contextually relevant and effectively address the unique challenges faced by African communities.
OC solutions are expected to start at TRL3-4 and reach TRL6 by the end of the project. All funded projects are expected to generate data sets that contribute to the refinement of tools, methodologies, and business concepts.
Call Total Budget
Financing percentage by EU or other bodies / Level of Subsidy or Loan
100%
The total available budget under the present call is €400.000. Project budget (maximum grant amount) is €50.000 per project.
The project will select a maximum of 8 sub-projects in total providing Financial Support to Third Parties (FSTP), as a mechanism to foster climate-neutral, social, just, fair trade food systems within Africa.
Selected projects will be launched in November 2026 having an implementation timeframe of 12 months (until October 2027).
Thematic Categories
- Agriculture - Food
- Environment and Climate Change
- Research, Technological Development and Innovation
- Rural development
- Trade and Commerce
Eligibility for Participation
- Businesses
- Legal Entities
- Non Profit Organisations
- Other Beneficiaries
- Researchers/Research Centers/Institutions
- Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs)
Eligibility For Participation Notes
FCI4Africa will only accept applications from one entity per proposal (no Consortia allowed) and proposed solutions must fit within the project’s objectives or one of the FCI4Africa Use Cases (as described in Section 1.3: Use Cases being developed within the FCI4Africa project, pages 7-11 at Applicants’ Guide) or relevant thematic areas.
An automatic filtering to discard non-eligible proposals will be based on the following criteria:
- Legal entity established in countries eligible for funding through Horizon Europe (as defined in Section 2.2.5, page 19- 21 at Applicants’ Guide);
- Only 1 entity per proposal, namely a research or technology stakeholder, including universities and research institutes, technology developers and R&D SMEs, and innovation-driven start-ups among others. The proposal is submitted by a single applicant (consortia are not allowed). Particularly, for Universities and Research Institutions, the rule applies to each Department. Different departments of the same university or research organisation may participate in different proposals, provided that no single department participates in more than one application;
- Third-party activities are under the domain of African food systems. This requires that the sub-projects’ activities are implemented within Africa and directly target local food system actors and value chains;
- Uniqueness of the proposal (one proposal per applicant). Each third party can participate in only 1 proposal. If any applicant is found to participate in multiple applications, all such project applications will be rejected;
- In case multiple versions of the same application are submitted, only the last version will be evaluated.
- The proposal must align with the Open Call’s objectives;
- Proposals are not pre-selected in the other projects’ open calls funded under the same topic (HORIZON-CL6-2024-FARM2FORK-01-11), e.g., STREAMING;
- Proposed work to be carried out after the selection process;
- Existing consortium members of the FCI4Africa project and their affiliated entities are not eligible for the OC.
Call Opening Date
Call Closing Date
EU Contact Point
Questions can be submitted until 26 June, 2026, 17h00 (Brussels time) through email to the FCI4Africa support team at fci4africa@opencalls.fund or the FAQ section of the opencalls.fund platform.