Africa Oxford Health Innovation Platform (AfOx-HIP) 2021 for African Innovators

Deadline: March 31, 2021

Applications for the Africa Oxford Health Innovation Platform (AfOx-HIP) 2021 are now open. The Africa Oxford Health Innovation Platform (AfOx-HIP) is a multi-disciplinary programme to support African innovators develop new solutions to Africa’s health challenges. It does so by connecting research to industry to tackle prevention, early diagnosis, and treatment through impact investment and innovation.

AfOx-HIP is a University of Oxford collaborative platform supported by key researchers and led by the Africa Oxford Initiative (AfOx). AfOx-HIP is an extension of Africa-Oxford collaborations aimed at connecting research to industry to solve intractable societal challenges. AfOx-HIP helps ideas come to life as real solutions to big challenges through innovation and entrepreneurship by pursuing a broader purpose for sustainable futures. The shifting societal perceptions aligned to creating and sustaining value in the world provide an opportunity for promoting pursuit of purpose through impact investment and innovation.

Program Details

• AfOx-HIP will identify 50 outstanding emerging African researchers and innovators, proposing new solutions for health and facilitate their interaction with partners across Oxford, for the AfOx Innovation and Entrepreneurship Scheme.
• Successful applicants will benefit from a relevant and robust teaching course on Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Health for Africa. The course is delivered through a series of web-based sessions, available to all 50 candidates, creating an interactive network, including the use of virtual workrooms.
• At the end of the virtual course, an enhanced programme for 15 candidates with projects with the highest potential for further development, will be provided (top 15 of the 50 projects). The 15 innovators will be awarded AfOx Innovation for personalised support in Oxford to meet specific needs for mentorship and technical collaborative support.
• An alumni network for AfOx Innovation fellows to facilitate continued engagement with Oxford and its wider network.

Eligibility

• AfOx-HIP is open to work in any scientific discipline, including outside life sciences and engineering sciences, and any type of technology leading to the creation of solutions towards disease prevention, diagnosis, management and treatment.
• Solutions should demonstrate strong potential for health systems strengthening, and particularly, significant improvement in healthcare equity and access.
• Applications are open to all areas relevant to Africa’s health challenges.
• Novel solutions relating to maternal and neonatal care to improve mortality and morbidity outcomes; medical laboratory-related testing and diagnostic capacity to support treatment, monitoring and control of pathogens and to increase resilience to endemic diseases; and zoonotic disease-related solutions are highly encouraged.
• Applications from female and under-represented innovator/entrepreneurs are highly encouraged.

Application

This call for applications is for the AfOx Innovation and Entrepreneurship Scheme. Applications should be submitted through the AfOx on-line submission portal at the latest by 23:59 BST, Wednesday 31 March 2021. Outcomes of the application will be communicated in May 2021.

Click here to apply

For more information, visit AfOx-HIP.