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Land Degradation Neutrality Fund

Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs

The LDN Fund invests in projects which reduce or reverse land degradation and thereby contribute to ‘Land Degradation Neutrality’. The LDN Fund is co-promoted by the Global Mechanism of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) and Mirova. It is a public-private partnership using public money to increase private sector investment in sustainable development. The fund invests in sustainable agriculture, forestry and other land uses globally. The Fund was launched at the UNCCD’s COP 13 in China in 2017.

Programme Id GB-GOV-7-PO009-LDN
Start date 2019-12-12
Status Implementation
Total budget £10,000,000

Global Programme on Sustainability

Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs

The programme supports sustainable economic growth that is both long-lasting and resilient to climate-related stressors. It does this through the integration of natural capital into decision making by governments, the private sector and financial institutions. The inability to value natural capital can undermine long-term growth and critically, the livelihoods of the poorest people dependent on ecosystems for their livelihoods. This programme directly addresses this challenge by (i) investing in data and research on natural capital; (ii) assisting countries to integrate this analysis into government policy making; and (iii) integrating this data and analysis into financial sector decision making.

Programme Id GB-GOV-7-ICF-PO014-GPS
Start date 2018-2-1
Status Implementation
Total budget £20,000,000

Sustainable Cooling and Cold Chain Solutions

Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs

This activity supports a number of different areas of work which aim to accelerate the climate benefits of the Kigali Amendment (KA) to the Montreal Protocol (MP) and encourage uptake of energy efficient and climate friendly solutions. This includes (1) The creation of an African Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Cooling and Cold Chains (ACES) in Rwanda. ACES will accelerate deployment of sustainable (environmental, economic and social) cold-chain solutions throughout Africa. (2) The development and deployment of an HFC outlook model to address information gaps on energy use and energy related CO2 emissions from the refrigeration, air-conditioning and heat pumps (RACHP) market. It will assist in reducing cost of the transition for Article 5 countries to the Montreal Protocol and increase the climate benefit of action under the MP. (3) Increasing countries technical capacity and providing insights on global best practice of EE improvements of cooling products in parallel with HFC phase down, through model regulations and sustainable public procurement in ASEAN and Africa.

Programme Id GB-GOV-7-32CPL-00499-KA
Start date 2021-4-1
Status Implementation
Total budget £21,080,834.90

A contribution to Financial Sector Deepening Africa (FSDA) the United Nations Development Programme Biodiversity Finance Initiative (Biofin) to support delivery of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.

Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs

The programme will support low and lower-middle income countries to grow their economies in ways that help to protect and restore their natural capital and so drive sustainable economic development. It is designed to provide practical support to governments, businesses, and financial institutions to integrate nature into their economic and financial decision-making, understand and manage nature-related risks, and capitalise on growing opportunities to invest in their natural assets. As such, it will support low and lower-middle income countries to transition to nature positive, net zero economies and so protect the poorest communities. Through an integrated set of activities, the programme will deliver the following outcomes: • Private Sector Disclosure Readiness: private sector actors in low and lower-middle income countries – including financial institutions, businesses, and policy-makers - will have the tools they need to understand and manage nature-related financial risk. In particular, the programme will ensure that key institutions have the tools and capacity to respond to growing demand to disclose nature-related financial risk. • Integrating nature at country level: governmental and regulatory decision-makers in low and lower-middle income countries will have the knowledge, skills and data to design and implement policies and programmes that will help to manage nature-related risks, unlock new nature markets, and rebuild natural capital. • Action Plans for Nature: partner governments will develop clear and comprehensive plans to finance the protection and restoration of nature. These plans will act as platforms to mobilise and guide both public and private financial flows. • Evidence Sharing Mechanisms on Nature: better evidence will be available to, and used by, decision makers in low and lower middle-income countries to guide their work. The programme will help to build the evidence about how to best integrate consideration of the natural environment into economic and financial decision making. It will also help decision-makers in governments and the private sector to access and use that evidence easily by building communities of practice and robust approaches to sharing knowledge and information. The outcomes will support the implementation of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KMGBF), agreed at the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) meeting COP15. As protection and restoration of critical ecosystems is also critical to tackling climate change, it will also support the UK goal to keep global temperature rises within 1.5c degrees.

Programme Id GB-GOV-7-NPE
Start date 2023-2-1
Status Implementation
Total budget £7,200,000

Darwin Initiative

Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs

The Darwin Initiative is the UK’s flagship international challenge fund for biodiversity conversation and poverty reduction, established at the Rio Earth Summit in 1992. The Darwin Initiative is a grant scheme working on projects that aim to slow, halt, or reverse the rates of biodiversity loss and degradation, with associated reductions in multidimensional poverty. To date, the Darwin Initiative has awarded more than £195m to over 1,280 projects in 159 countries to enhance the capability and capacity of national and local stakeholders to deliver biodiversity conservation and multidimensional poverty reduction outcomes in low and middle-income countries. More information at https://www.gov.uk/government/groups/the-darwin-initiative. This page contains information about Rounds 27 onwards. For information about Rounds 1 to 26, please see the Darwin Initiative website -https://www.darwininitiative.org.uk/

Programme Id GB-GOV-7-DarwinInitiative
Start date 2021-4-1
Status Implementation
Total budget £105,647,380

Fleming Fund - Country and Regional Grants and Fellowships Programme

UK - Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC)

The Fleming Fund helps low- and middle-income countries to fight antimicrobial resistance. A management agent has been appointed to deliver: country grants 24 low- and middle-income countries, regional grants in West Africa, East and Southern Africa, South Asia and South East Asia, and a global fellowships programme. These initiatives aim to improve laboratory capacity and diagnosis as well as data and surveillance of antimicrobial resistance (AMR). Through the country and regional grants and the fellowships programme the Fleming Fund will: build laboratory capacity for diagnosis; collect data on drug resistance, drug quality, drug use and the burden of disease associated with AMR; enable the sharing of data relevant to AMR locally, regionally, and internationally; encourage the application of data to promote the rational use of antimicrobials; shape a sustainable system for AMR surveillance and data sharing; and increase national leadership in addressing AMR. Projects funded through Fleming Fund will benefit people in low- and middle-income countries, where the burden of drug resistant infection is greater.

Programme Id GB-GOV-10-FF_MA
Start date 2016-10-10
Status Implementation
Total budget £258,497,532.75

British Council - Convening for strategic collaboration: the ISPF Kenya Collaborative -International Science Partnerships Fund

DEPARTMENT FOR SCIENCE, INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY

Building on the British Council's convening power and strong partnerships in Kenya, the programme will engage potential Kenya ISPF partners and grantees through initial consultation to scope out a process for regular peer-to-peer exchanges once the fund is underway. This initiative aims to foster robust cross-partnership collaboration, enhancing efficiencies and maximizing impact. It is expected to result in thematic convenings, the sharing of best practices, and the identification of lessons learned through a structured process overseen by the British Council in Kenya. The process will address scalability and replicability of approaches and outputs, aiming to foster cross-partner and cross-grantee connections while integrating sustainability and long-term impact from the outset. The British High Commission, fully supportive of this approach, has suggested co-chairing the collaborative effort with the British Council, which provides an excellent opportunity to link with other UK-funded programmes. The proposed strategy promises a more coherent portfolio of work, enabling DSIT and the UK in Kenya to develop a stronger offer and narrative when engaging with Kenyan Government counterparts. Furthermore, this programme is ODA eligible, as its primary objective is to promote the economic development and welfare of Kenya, a country eligible for Official Development Assistance, by enhancing collaborative networks and fostering sustainable development initiatives.

Programme Id GB-GOV-26-ISPF-BC-4NM9289
Start date 2023-3-1
Status Implementation
Total budget £465,000

Solar Hospital EnergyLeasing Demonstrator (SHIELD)

DEPARTMENT FOR SCIENCE, INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY

Kenya's public hospitals struggle with electrical power. They experience blackouts, instability in provision and have to pay variable and often quite high costs. The results of this are disastrous. When the power fails, so do the fridges and this breaks the 'cold chain'. Vaccines can be lost and expensive medicines perished, but even worse, surgeries have to be cancelled or abandoned. Even though the power is not reliable, it is still expensive and hospitals must pay significant sums each month to keep the lights on. Unfortunately, things are likely to get worse: as the climate changes extreme weather is likely to cause more significant impacts and this will cause closures and disruptions to service. Public hospitals in Kenya serve the most vulnerable populations - those who have no other options. Hence, reducing their access to healthcare has devastating consequences and can hold back the development of the cities, and towns that rely on these important healthcare providers. More positively, onsite solar energy generation provides a technological solutions with huge potential to address these key issues. We aim to install a solar system at one of Kenya's most important public hospitals. We will show that the installation can offer huge advantages to the hospital in terms of cost, reliability and stability, with the positive result that they are able to be a more effective healthcare provider to desperate patients in need of care. Solar is currently perceived as being a private sector solution, but we will work with stakeholders to show that the benefits far outweigh the risks for large consumers of energy such as hospitals. We will install a system at Meru Teaching hospital - a well known Level 5 facility - and collect a range of data on how much energy can be generated, how it is used, what operational effects it has, and how much carbon and money is saved . We want to share this data through a representative steering group with the government and other stakeholders so that they can make better choices about how energy is funded. We believe this project will make Kenya's hospitals more resilient so that they can save more lives and work through the extreme weather they face in the years ahead. We want to use this project to show other hospitals in Africa that installations such as this can be cost-effective and value-adding.

Programme Id GB-GOV-26-ISPF-IUK-2BC54TT-QEVK3CS-4JN5J5Y
Start date 2024-6-1
Status Implementation
Total budget £0

Solar-Hydrogen Powered 100% Renewable Modular Mini-Grid (Solar-H2)

DEPARTMENT FOR SCIENCE, INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY

In developed countries across the globe, we take reliable energy access for granted. Although progress on energy access is being made in developing regions, 770m people worldwide are still living without access to modern energy services \[World Bank 2020\], including 600m in Sub-Saharan Africa. Grid connection and solar PV systems have improved energy access for Sub-Saharan African urban populations, with 74% now benefiting from electricity access. However, in rural Sub-Saharan Africa, only 26% of the population have access to electricity \[WEO2019 database, IEA 2020\]. These rural areas are deprived of clean, reliable, and cost-effective energy to supply domestic, commercial and community buildings. This leads to a reliance on biomass fuels (creating life-threatening health hazards and decimating ecosystems) or expensive, polluting diesel plants \[Oxfam, 2020\]. Stand-alone systems and clean mini grids have been identified as a solution, with IEA predicting they will make up 70% of rural connections by 2030 \[ADGB, 2020\]. In this project, Sun Harvester will work with Kenyan partners, Hope Bright Future Centre (local agent, NGO Hope for the Nations) to design, develop and field test an affordable community mini-grid solution, powered by solar panels. Working directly with local communities, the partners will address all the gender and social inclusion aspects related to design and end-user needs. We will further develop our stand-alone Instant Grid (IG) modular energy storage technology for use in a mini-grid. Our mini-grid solution will be scalable, so we can achieve enough power supply capacity to supply entire communities. We will replace diesel generator back-up with hydrogen fuel cell technology to deliver a 100% renewable mini-grid solution. Elimination of diesel brings extensive, environmental, fuel saving, security of supply and health benefits. For example, carbon dioxide currently emitted by generators in Sub-Saharan Africa is equivalent to 22m passenger vehicles on the road. \[The Dirty Footprint of the Broken Grid, World Bank 2019\]. Sun Harvester's solution will reduce mini-grid Levelised Cost of Electricity (LCOE) from $0.39/kWh \[Irena, 2020\] to $0.24/kWh. Cost savings are achievable through: easy installation, replacement of individual battery cells and battery monitoring/management for increased lifetime. Furthermore, our modular design allows correct sizing of mini-grid installations, reducing entry level CAPEX costs from c.$100k to $10k. Our solution will be economically viable and specifically designed for deployment in remote, rural areas of Kenya, and sub-Saharan Africa. This will unlock affordable, secure, energy access for all, bringing benefits to sub-Saharan Africa's most at-risk and impoverished communities.

Programme Id GB-GOV-26-ISPF-IUK-2BC54TT-4PCSDLJ-7ZVM67B
Start date 2023-3-1
Status Implementation
Total budget £312,776.68

Energy Makers Academy: A mobile learning platform for universities to train rural energy innovators

DEPARTMENT FOR SCIENCE, INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY

The number of people without access to electricity in Africa dropped from almost 860 million in 2018 to 770 million in 2019 (IEA et al., 2021). However, without more sustained efforts, it is predicted that 650 million people will still live without access to electricity in 2030, despite universal access to affordable, reliable, and sustainable electricity by 2030 being a key Sustainable Development Goal (United Nations, 2015).

Programme Id GB-GOV-26-ISPF-IUK-2BC54TT-QEVK3CS-7YZQZU6
Start date 2024-8-1
Status Implementation
Total budget £0

Energy Innovation for Reducing Post Harvest Loss

DEPARTMENT FOR SCIENCE, INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY

The project uses patented heat recovery and airflow technology, coupled with solar thermal technology for agri-processing in Kenya. Working with producers and processors in value chains such as Moringa and mango - the project will deliver value for smallholder farmers by reducing post-harvest losses that occur when products are spoiled before they can reach the market. The project will demonstrate the effectiveness of solar-thermal drying for Moringa processing by designing, building and commissioning a high capacity dryer able to operate 24/7 powered entirely by renewable energy at a Moringa facility that serves 500 farmers. The solar thermal system has considerable benefits in comparison to existing technology - including faster drying, the delivery of a constant temperature that can be remotely monitored; lower cost and ease of installation. This will facilitate the production of higher-quality products that meet the quality requirements of international buyers looking to expand supply chains in the East-African region. Besides this, the project will carry out capacity building and training, including practical demonstrations of the solar thermal drying systems to increase awareness of the potential for renewable energy to deliver economic and social benefits in agricultural value chains.

Programme Id GB-GOV-26-ISPF-IUK-2BC54TT-QEVK3CS-TG8S9GB
Start date 2024-4-1
Status Implementation
Total budget £0

An inter-disciplinary approach to understanding the contribution of household flooring to disease burden in rural Kenya

DEPARTMENT FOR SCIENCE, INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY

Access to adequate, safe and affordable housing plays a fundamental role in human health. This includes thorough limits our exposure to infectious diseases such as those that cause diarrhoea, which remains a leading cause of death in children under five. Conventional approaches to reducing environmental exposure to faecal pathogens include ensuring universal access to safe water and basic sanitation. Recent evidence has suggested that this alone may be insufficient to reduce the high levels of environmental contamination seen in poor rural communities, and that transformative cross-sectoral approaches will be required to see real impacts in child health. For example, these approaches fail to address the fact that most poor rural homes have rudimentary (earth, sand or dirt) floors that are difficult to sanitise, providing an ideal environment for the survival of faecal pathogens and other parasites. These floors can also host parasitic infections including intestinal nematodes and sand fleas, both of which are responsible for considerable morbidity and poor quality of life. We propose to examine flooring and its impact on enteric and parasitic diseases in three culturally and environmentally diverse settings in Kenya, and aim to address two related questions: 1. What is the importance of household flooring as a driver of enteric and parasitic infection risk in rural communities, and does this vary across wider social and environmental contexts? 2. Can infection risk be mitigated by replacing existing rudimentary (earth, sand or dirt) floors with improved (sealed, washable and durable) materials, and what additional behaviour changes are required to ensure impact? We expect that successful installation and ongoing maintenance of improved flooring will reduce the transmission of enteric and parasitic infections, by preventing direct exposure and through an intermediate effect of improved domestic hygiene. This will however be influenced by local context. A priority in each setting will therefore be to explore the interplay between domestic flooring, water and sanitation infrastructure, domestic hygiene behaviours, and the wider socio-cultural and environmental context. Our planned approach involves comprehensive formative research, intervention development conducted in collaborative partnership with recipient communities and key stakeholders, and then implementation trials to test the effects, feasibility and acceptability of the resulting intervention. We will assess the impact of the intervention on a range of child health outcomes, including prevalence of enteric and intestinal worm infections, prevalence of tungiasis, and incidence of gastrointestinal illness. We will also monitor levels of environmental contamination, and explore the impact of the intervention on domestic routines and self-reported wellness. During implementation, we will work with recipients and stakeholders at community, regional and national level to assess the extent to which interventions are acceptable to target communities, feasible given existing resource constraints, and can be scaled-up across Kenya and elsewhere. This includes work undertaken to understand options for scale-up should the intervention prove successful. This study is the first of its kind to comprehensively assess feasibility and effects of combining improved flooring technologies with tailored behaviour change programming on a wide range of parasitic and enteric outcomes. In doing so, we aim to provide important policy and technical guidance on the impact and effectiveness of new transformative approaches to community health. This is an important first step towards the establishment of transformative, community-driven and cross-sectoral approaches to building out water, sanitation and hygiene-related diseases.

Programme Id GB-GOV-13-FUND--GCRF-MR_T029811_1
Start date 2020-10-1
Status Implementation
Total budget £2,011,328.50

E Ochodo, Stellenbosch University, Evidence synthesis for building a translation pipeline to eliminate infectious diseases

DEPARTMENT FOR SCIENCE, INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY

MRC African Leader Scheme Award to formally develop a pipeline approach to translating evidence into policy and practice through evidence synthesis and recommend methods for improving translation of evidence into policy and practice. Within Africa.

Programme Id GB-GOV-13-OODA-MRC-C7R3CT3-DH5K5VV-49287Y7
Start date 2020-2-1
Status Implementation
Total budget £759,572

Evaluation of low birth weight infant post-discharge outcomes and development of community-based follow-up and monitoring strategies in Africa

DEPARTMENT FOR SCIENCE, INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY

MRC ARL to evaluate low birth weight infant post-discharge outcomes and development of community-based follow-up and monitoring strategies in Africa

Programme Id GB-GOV-13-OODA-MRC-C7R3CT3-DH5K5VV-ULHPWRW
Start date 2022-12-1
Status Implementation
Total budget £291,740.75

Measuring the medium-term impact of school-based interventions as girls transition into adulthood

DEPARTMENT FOR SCIENCE, INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY

MRC AGHRB Award to Measure the medium-term impact of school-based interventions as girls transition into adulthood in Kenya

Programme Id GB-GOV-13-OODA-MRC-TH84KLN-ETG3BGR-N9JL6JQ
Start date 2022-4-1
Status Implementation
Total budget £1,065,218.50

Building Equitable African Partnerships

DEPARTMENT FOR SCIENCE, INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY

The project aims to establish African-led equitable partnerships focusing on gender, conflict, and creative economies. Building on ten years of previous work in East and Southern Africa, it employs decolonial methodologies and participatory methods. The initiative spans Kenya, South Africa, Mozambique, Namibia, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Uganda, Ethiopia, Sudan, Rwanda, and Lesotho, engaging local communities, activists, grassroots organizations, and stakeholders for broad-based participation and impact. Key themes include digital humanities and the creative economy, women and girls, and conflict/post-conflict humanitarian protection and modern slavery. The project acknowledges the digital divide while promoting inclusivity, primarily focusing on the creative economy. It emphasizes gender equality, addressing challenges faced by women and girls in conflict settings, and explores initiatives to combat modern slavery and promote peacebuilding. The methodology involves comprehensive stakeholder and rights holders identification and engagement, using open calls and mapping to include disadvantaged groups and historically disadvantaged universities. Standards for decolonization ensure equitable management, ethics, data sovereignty, and dissemination. Risk mitigation addresses potential exploitation, inter-group dynamics, and controversial topics through active listening and transparency. The project is divided into four phases: workshop preparation (July - October 2024), two-day workshops (October-November 2024), co-producing outputs (December 2024 - March 2025), and ongoing meetings for future actions (April and May 2025). Gender equality is central, ensuring equal opportunities for participation, leadership, and decision-making. Targeted outreach and a gender-sensitive budget facilitate the involvement of women and underrepresented genders. The project promotes gender equality, reducing discrimination, and fostering solidarity among women. A comprehensive risk assessment and monitoring mechanisms address potential negative impacts on gender equality. The project aims to stimulate innovation, build local capacities, empower marginalized groups, and create sustainable impacts. By enhancing gender equality and fostering relationships between policymakers, decision-makers, civil society, and government officials, it contributes to Sustainable Development Goals like gender equality, decent work and economic growth, and partnerships for the goals.

Programme Id GB-GOV-26-ISPF-AHRC-UR27QMP-WQKLV42-763CHSA
Start date 2024-7-22
Status Implementation
Total budget £0

Nanoparticle based rapid diagnostics for TB disease

DEPARTMENT FOR SCIENCE, INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY

Tuberculosis (TB) caused by the Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M. tb) bacterium is one the three major causes of infectious disease deaths worldwide. Approximately one quarter of the global population is infected, with annually 10 million new cases and 1.4 million deaths. While TB is treatable with suitable antibiotic combinations, disease symptoms are variable and easily confused with other conditions, meaning that individuals with active disease and capable of infecting others are not always quickly identified, allowing continued transmission. Fast, accurate identification of these patients is key to achieving the prompt antibiotic administration necessary to prevent infected individuals spreading disease. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has identified new diagnostic technologies to detect TB disease as one research focus for their End TB Strategy designed to reduce TB incidence by 80 % by 2030. This proposal aims to develop and evaluate tools to capture and detect M. tb in samples from patients with possible TB disease: specifically sputum coughed up by infected adults. The long term goal is to create a rapid diagnostic method capable of identifying TB disease and that is able to be used in resource-poor settings (i.e. the low and middle-income countries where the TB disease burden is greatest and medical infrastructure is limited). Our method combines three complementary technologies to capture and identify M. tb: 1. generation of specific sugar molecules able to bind selectively and tightly to the M. tb cell; and their attachment to 2. magnetic and 3. fluorescent particles. This will create two types of material able to bind M. tb - a magnetic particle, making the bacterium magnetic and enabling its capture in a magnetic field; and a fluorescent particle making the bacterium fluorescent and able to be detected using a microscope. Combining these particles will enable us to capture, concentrate and visualise M. tb from patient samples. Our experimental approach divides into three workpackages (WPs): WP1 focuses on using a range of innovative approaches to synthesise sugars able to bind M. tb; WP2 focuses on attaching these sugars to magnetic and fluorescent particles and investigating the physical properties (size, shape, magnetic and optical characteristics) of the resulting materials; and WP3 on evaluating the binding of these materials to bacteria. We will first test binding to the weakened BCG (vaccine) strain of M. tb in laboratory media mimicking the composition of sputum, comparing this with binding to other bacteria that may be present in these samples to establish their selectivity for M. tb over other species. We will extend these experiments to study M. tb strains isolated from patients. Finally we will evaluate our method on samples from patients presenting with possible TB infection, comparing our results with parallel tests carried out on the same samples using traditional methods (growth in culture, sputum microscopy or the GeneXpert system that detects M. tb genetic material). The results will determine whether this new approach can detect bacteria in the quantities present in patient samples and is able to discriminate between M. tb and other bacteria. Workpackages 1 and 2 will take place at the University of Bristol (UoB), workpackage 3 at UoB and the Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI) where all experiments with patient-derived bacteria and samples will take place. Kenya is a WHO High Burden TB country; KEMRI has the expertise and infrastructure necessary to evaluate TB detection methods. Our proposal combines novel science (development of new materials that selectively bind M. tb) with support for posts, infrastructure and bidirectional exchange visits that will develop research capacity in Kenya. The diversity of our research team and the strong links between KEMRI, healthcare practitioners and policymakers will ensure delivery of impact in both the research community and potential end users.

Programme Id GB-GOV-13-FUND--GCRF-EP_T020288_1
Start date 2020-4-1
Status Implementation
Total budget £518,643.73

Towards Low Cost Soil Fertility Sensor Systems for Smallholder Food Security in Kenya

DEPARTMENT FOR SCIENCE, INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY

Food security is one of the "big four" agenda initiatives championed by the Kenyan Government. More than 80% of Kenya's population is dependent upon agriculture for employment, income, or food security needs (FAO) and a large proportion of the population are food insecure, for example 26% of children under 5 years of age suffer from malnutrition (UNICEF). The food security challenge is intensified by: reducing size of land parcels as a result of population growth; farmers being pushed into dryer lower quality land areas vulnerable to drought; conflicts resulting from competition for land; and people dropping out of nomadic life to move to settled communities dependent upon food aid (FAO). To address this, increases in agricultural productivity are needed. An important way to improve crop yield relates to better soil fertility. Optimising fertiliser strategies for soil can be summed up as: Right Source, Right Rate, Right Place, Right Time. For the greatest impact, this requires in-field measurement tools that can be used by farmers to understand the spatial changes in nutrient concentration within a field, and how these vary over time. No technology currently exists that allows this to be carried out at very low cost. The alternative to in-field testing is the use of soil laboratories in Nairobi, but these are expensive to use, far away from the farm and provide a single measurement which is not representative of the whole area farmed. In consequence, most smallholders are in the dark about the nutrition status of their soil and how it changes in response to different soil amendment approaches. This project will help address the measurement challenge by developing a new kind of sensor that can be used by farmers at very low cost to regularly test for two key soil macro-nutrients, called nitrate and phosphate. The project will take inspiration from ancient art and design based printing processes, combined with locally available natural materials (e.g. chimney soot, egg, newspaper and enzymes from plants and bacteria available within Kenya) to make extremely low cost soil sensors. By adopting a "co-creation" based philosophy, the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, Kenyatta University in Nairobi and Glasgow School of Art in Glasgow will build a collaboration to deliver a step change in sensing technology for smallholder farmers in Kenya. This will be achieved by initially developing the sensor in the UK, employing a researcher from Kenya. Once a proof of concept has been created, the researcher will return to Kenya with the knowledge and understanding to recreate the sensor and test performance in greenhouse trials. The project will also involve a series of workshops where we will engage communities, industry and policy makers to ensure that we create user led solutions to address food security within Kenya. In the long term, this could be delivered to farmers either as a "factory in a box" containing the tools needed for sensor manufacture, or simply as an information pack that shows how to gather the resources required and print sensors. The project could also influence the wider region: 20 million people across Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia are food insecure (Worldbank, 2022), and face similar challenges. Parallel benefits also exist for UK innovation, where knowledge and learning from this project could support the manufacture of nature based and zero waste sensors to support UK agriculture and the transition to net zero.

Programme Id GB-GOV-26-ISPF-EPSRC-9VWMU7J-ZP76NK2-A8NU6WZ
Start date 2024-2-1
Status Implementation
Total budget £171,609.44

Core - International Collaboration Awards

DEPARTMENT FOR SCIENCE, INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY

International Collaboration Awards enable outstanding researchers in the UK to partner with the best research groups in developing countries on projects that address issues faced by developing countries.

Programme Id GB-GOV-13-RS-GCRF-07
Start date 2016-10-1
Status Implementation
Total budget £14,996,913

Kenya - Leaders in Innovation Fellowships Programme

DEPARTMENT FOR SCIENCE, INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY

Kenya - Leaders in Innovation Fellowships Programme is funded through the UK Government’s Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Newton Fund and delivered on the UK side by the Royal Academy of Engineering. This activity contributes to the Newton Fund’s work in building research and innovation partnerships with countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America to support economic development and social welfare, tackle global challenges and develop talent and careers.

Programme Id GB-GOV-13-NF-RAEKELIF
Start date 2015-1-1
Status Implementation
Total budget £73,858