New Earth Observation Frontiers Enterprise Innovation Support Fund 2025 (South Africa)

The initiative is a sub-program of NEOFrontiers, which is funded by SANSA and managed by the NRF to support skills, technology and product development.

Focus Areas

• The solution or proposals to be considered should focus on novel applications of EO, big data analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) including machine learning in the following areas but not limited to:
  • Applications and product development in banking, insurance, mining, health innovation, and community-based services. Cross cutting service areas/decision support tools to support the circular economy; blue economy; security and defence; food security/precision agriculture; disaster risk reduction; and early warning systems.
• The focus of this initiative will be on funding projects that develop downstream EO products and services. The proposals should focus on developing new solutions, decision-support tools or new products and services using advanced machine learning techniques
• Proposals that do not have explicit earth observation-based applications or solutions with clear image processing components and specifications of images to be used will not be considered.

Funding Information

• The grant that will be awarded to the funded enterprises will be through the incubation partner. Each project will be funded up to a R1 million for the duration of the project and the awarded funding will be restricted to the EO research and innovation related activities indicated below.

Eligible Activities

• Development of a technology, prototype or product
• Skills development
• Business support and advisory
• Piloting and conducting of field studies

Ineligible Activities

• The following activities will not be funded:
  • Salary contributions to team members of the funded enterprise
  • Working capital and company related costs
  • Basic research
  • Any activities that are not related to the approved project

Eligibility Criteria 

• Type of applicants
  • The following entities are eligible to apply. Enterprises that prefer to partner with experts at academic institutions will be assisted by the NRF to find relevant partners.
    • Earth Observation Startups
    • SMMEs in the EO sector in good standing which have been in existence for at least a year.
    • Non-profit companies/organizations that develop solutions related to technologies in the EO sector.
    • Must be a South African citizen with a Small Micro and Medium Enterprise registered with the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission (CIPC)
    • Must have a valid Tax clearance certificate
    • Must have a valid BBBEE certificate
• Technical expertise:
  • Lead applicant should have at least master’s degree in specializing in remote sensing or geospatial sciences and more than 5 years working experience in remote sensing field.
  • At least 50% of the team should have relevant qualifications and experience in remote sensing and geospatial sciences.
  • Lead applicants with Master’s degree in remote sensing or geospatial sciences with less than 5 year’s experience should partner with a university or science council with relevant expertise
  • Lead applicant or partner should demonstrate proficiency image processing and analysis using advanced image processing techniques relevant to the proposed project. Links to related work or research should be included.

For more information, visit TuksNovation.