This call for applications aims to support companies interested in working with researchers and developers to experiment and evaluate the feasibility of a well-developed idea. Selected companies may apply for one or several activities that do not exceed a total grant of EUR 20,000.

Benefiting companies will contribute to a share of the activities’ cost (see below for more details).

The grants will be paid upon the successful completion of the project to the company and according to a grant agreement signed between the EBRD and selected companies.

This call for applications is open in Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Tunisia.

Covered R&D includes:

Climate adaptation projects:

• Review of crop selection and assessing alternatives;
• Assessment of engineering structures to deal with water shortage or saline issues;
• New irrigation systems that require less water.

Climate mitigation measures:

• Innovations and technologies that reduce GHG emission in production;
• Introducing new material that is more environmentally friendly;
• Promote circular economy.

Biodiversity measures:

• Improvement in crop rotations (longer rotations with higher diversity of crops to break pest development cycles and reduce pesticide use / improve soil biodiversity, cover cropping, etc.)
• Intercropping, agroforestry production: can offer higher resilience to climate change and benefits in terms of biodiversity (more diversity of species, etc.)
• Early warning systems for extreme weather events and pest infestation – can limit crop loss and reduce pesticide usage so beneficial for ecosystem, pollinators etc.
• Precision farming technologies (can reduce fertiliser and pesticide usage etc…) – Promotion of local / heirloom varieties.

The types of services that are eligible to the programme are:

• Research on feasibility of new product: opportunity analysis, market research, concept development, prototyping and testing
• Software development: (front-end, backend algorithm development)
• Hardware development (engineering, industrial product design, product adaptation)
• Formula development for non-tech innovation, such as recipes/shelf life for agrofood, mixes of inputs for new products, etc.
• Prototyping
• Testing
• Certification
• Intellectual Property protection
• IT component development
• Process improvement