Deadline Date: July 05, 2026
The BioSustainability Design Programme in Ethiopia is seeking applications to support research-based innovations that address critical challenges in food systems and school feeding programmes in the Somali and Tigray regions.
The focus areas include climate-smart food production, nutritious and locally sourced school meals, and clean cooking solutions for schools, along with climate resilience in arid environments, irrigation and water management, soil restoration, post-harvest systems, food storage and preservation, supply chain coordination, digital traceability, food safety and quality assurance, and sustainable institutional cooking technologies.
The programme addresses key challenges affecting smallholder farmers and school feeding systems in Ethiopia. In agriculture, farmers face climate pressures, droughts, land degradation, water scarcity, limited access to inputs and technologies, weak extension services, and poor market linkages, all of which reduce productivity and resilience. In school feeding systems, challenges include weak supply chain coordination, inadequate storage, lack of cold chain infrastructure, and limited traceability, leading to food spoilage and reduced nutritional quality. In clean cooking, schools rely on traditional biomass fuels and inefficient systems due to limited access to affordable technologies and weak technical support, affecting efficiency and sustainability.
The programme promotes solutions such as climate-smart agricultural technologies adapted to arid environments, affordable irrigation and water management systems, improved post-harvest handling and storage, farmer aggregation models, and digital tools for extension services and market access. It also supports innovations in cold storage, food processing, procurement planning, and food safety systems to improve meal quality and nutrition. For clean cooking, it encourages affordable institutional technologies, renewable energy solutions, kitchen retrofitting, financing models, and maintenance systems to enable sustainable adoption in schools.
Eligible applicants include research-based innovators based in Ethiopia with at least two team members in the country. Applicants must be multidisciplinary teams committed to developing scalable enterprises for low-income and rural communities. They must also be available for training, field immersion, and testing activities in the Tigray and Somali regions, along with in-person and online coaching sessions throughout the programme.
For more information, visit Novo Nordisk Foundation.
