Call for Proposals: South Africa-Russia Joint Innovation Programme

Aims

• The aim of the Call is to facilitate the scaling up of joint – projects undertaken through the above-mentioned programme with a view to enable them to progress and a better promotion of targeted social impact and market-oriented innovation partnerships between SA and Russia.

Purpose

• The purpose of the TIA – FASIE Call is to facilitate partnership between South African and Russian small medium enterprises (SMME’s), innovators, Universities, science councils and research institutes through a process of bridging their financial requirements by leveraging bankable joint – projects for further development and commercialization.

Focus Areas

• The Call is open to the following Technological Areas:
  • Digital technologies
  • Medicine and health-saving technologies
  • New materials and chemical technologies
  • New devices and intelligent manufacturing technologies
  • Biotechnology
  • Resource-saving energy

Funding Information

• Grant funding for 24 months
• The project must contribute to the development of intellectual property. Any deviation from this requirement should be well motivated, demonstrating a clear link between the projects objectives in contributing to socio-economic development
• Up to R 5,447,790.00 ($300 000.00) will be provided per project in total. Any amounts in excess of this approved amount should be well motivated, with clear indication of the cost breakdown, linked to deliverables
• TIA and/or FASIE will retain the first right of refusal to fund any further development of the outputs of the project
• The duration of the project shall be for a maximum period of 24 months. Any period in excess of this should be well motivated, clearly indicating the deliverables associated with the extended period and reasons why it is not feasible to achieve the project within the given period

Eligible Activities

• The following is a list of fundable activities:
  • initial product, process (comprehensive technology package) and prototype development
  • sourcing of intellectual property opinions
  • production of market samples and/or associated testing
  • refining and implementing designs
  • conducting field studies to test the assumptions made about the technology, market and/ or customer needs
  • support of certification activities and specification sheet development
  • piloting, and technology scale-up
  • techno-economic evaluation studies
  • detailed primary market research
  • business plan development

Ineligible Activities

• early stage research projects
• student bursaries, research projects and extended periods of work. Students can be contracted to perform specific tasks that are only directly related to the project
• equipment, except for specialized equipment that is within the budget constraints and required to enable qualifying activities

Eligibility Criteria

• The joint application for funding must include, at least two Principal parties, i.e. one representative from South Africa and one representative from Russia

For more information, visit TIA.