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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/
Illegal Wildlife Trade Challenge Fund
Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs
Illegal wildlife trade (IWT) is a widespread and lucrative criminal activity causing major global environmental and social harm. The IWT has been estimated to be worth up to £17 billion a year. Nearly 6,000 different species of fauna and flora are impacted, with almost every country in the world playing a role in the illicit trade. The UK government is committed to tackling illegal trade of wildlife products and is a long-standing leader in efforts to eradicate the IWT. Defra manages the Illegal Wildlife Trade Challenge Fund, which is a competitive grants scheme with the objective of tackling IWT and, in doing so, contributing to sustainable development in developing countries. Projects funded under the Illegal Wildlife Trade Challenge Fund address one, or more, of the following themes: • Developing sustainable livelihoods to benefit people directly affected by IWT, • Strengthening law enforcement, • Ensuring effective legal frameworks, • Reducing demand for IWT products. By 2023 over £51 million has been committed to 157 projects since the Illegal Wildlife Trade Challenge Fund was established in 2013. This page contains information about Rounds 7 onwards. For information about Rounds 1 to 6, please see the IWTCF website -https://iwt.challengefund.org.uk/
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.
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.
ORRAA Programme
Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs
The Ocean Risk and Resilience Action Alliance (ORRAA) is a multi-sector alliance that aims to drive investment into coastal natural capital through the development of innovative finance solutions. These products will reduce vulnerability and build resilience in the most exposed and vulnerable coastal regions and communities. The UK has committed £13.9 million into ORRAA, delivered in two phases. A successful Phase 1 in 2021-22 provided £1.9m in grant funding, followed by Phase 2 from 2022-2026 with £12m committed in grant funding. The UK’s investment will address 2 challenges faced by coastal communities and the ocean environment: 1) Tackling the impacts of anthropogenic climate change and biodiversity loss. 2) Overcoming barriers that prevent finance flowing into nature-based solutions. The grant awarded to ORRAA will support their aims to drive at least $500 million of investment into coastal and ocean natural capital, and produce at least 50 new, innovative finance products, by 2030. This would positively impact the resilience of 250 million climate vulnerable people in coastal areas worldwide.
Newton Fund Kenya programme delivery
DEPARTMENT FOR SCIENCE, INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY
Newton Fund Kenya programme delivery to support the delivery of ODA activities in Newton Fund countries
Potential of sub-seasonal Operational Weather and climate information for building Energy Resilience in Kenya (POWER-Kenya)
DEPARTMENT FOR SCIENCE, INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY
Context and Challenges Kenya Vision 2030 identifies energy as a key infrastructural enabler for social and economic development, aiming for universal energy access and 100% renewable energy by 2030. Currently, 54% of Kenyans, and up to 84% in rural areas, lack access to sustainable modern energy, relying on traditional wood fuels for cooking and heating. Kenya's energy generation is particularly sensitive to weather variability, with nearly 50% of electricity coming from weather-sensitive sources like hydro, wind, and solar power. Achieving the ambitious goal of 100% renewables requires doubling the current capacity of these weather-sensitive sources. Despite the growing reliance on renewable energy, Kenya lacks reliable weather and climate information for effective energy planning, particularly on sub-seasonal timescales (weeks to months in advance). This gap impacts crucial decisions such as generator maintenance scheduling, international market trading, water conservation, and future energy storage management. In comparison, other regions like Europe have more advanced user-relevant tools for renewable energy decision-making. Aims and Objectives POWER-Kenya seeks to bridge the gap between Kenya's increasing dependence on weather-sensitive renewable energy and the lack of reliable weather and climate information to support energy planning. The project also aims to build capacity for integrated climate-energy research in Kenya. Its objectives are: Ob1: Deliver a step-change in the underpinning physical science to support affordable, clean energy by advancing understanding of sub-seasonal predictability of weather-sensitive demand and renewables. Ob2: Build combined climate-energy research capacity to continue improvements in maintaining reliable energy supply in Africa, facilitating the creation of risk-informed tools for energy decision-making to benefit both society and the economy. Acknowledging Kenya’s continent-leading capabilities in climate and energy fields individually, the POWER-Kenya project brings together UK and African expertise in electricity demand and renewable energy modelling (Bloomfield, Oludhe, Brayshaw, Olago), with the forefront of research on sub-seasonal predictability (Hirons, Gitau, Woolnough), and expert knowledge of East African climate (Wainwright, Mutemi, Hirons) to conduct world-leading energy-climate research to support this step-change in understanding (Ob1) and build partnerships and capacity (Ob2) capable of supporting Kenya’s climate-smart shift to reliable renewables. Applications and Benefits. Universal access to affordable, clean energy helps emerging economies like Kenya progress towards their Sustainable Development Goals by building businesses and societies capable of producing and consuming sustainably for a climate-resilient future. However, access to reliable energy has societal benefits far beyond sustainable economic growth. Reliable energy access can empower women, and other marginalised groups, by improving access to services such as mobile technology, online banking, educational materials, and employment opportunities. Access to clean energy, especially for currently unconnected rural households, can enhance health outcomes by reducing reliance on traditional wood fuels, which are linked to respiratory diseases. Achieving POWER-Kenya aims to ensure Kenya's shift to clean, weather-sensitive renewables is backed by current scientific thinking and proven techniques that will help deliver the country's aim for reliable energy for all businesses and households. Beyond Kenya, POWER-Kenya outcomes will inform and support the aims of the wider Eastern Africa Power Pool (EAPP) - an institution that coordinates regional cross-border power trade and grid interconnection. KenGen, a key project partner and regional leader, is a utilities member of the EAPP. Through iterative dialogue with POWER-Kenya, KenGen will help co-design the research, by defining energy stress case studies, and ensure it remains solutions-orientated and maximises benefits for Kenya and the broader region.
Sharing the sky – Using a global robotic telescope network for capacity and research community building in East Africa
DEPARTMENT FOR SCIENCE, INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY
We will provide a skills development programme for the astronomy communities in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, and Rwanda through observational projects with the Las Cumbres Observatory (LCO) 1m global telescope network. Acknowledging the specific value of fundamental sciences for long-term sustainable economic development, we address the prevalent barrier of lack of access to world-leading research facilities. Moreover, experience has shown that facility access needs to be paired with active engagement with potential user communities and a gradual development of expertise and experience in order to eventually develop strong research programmes. Our programme involves four national coordinators in each respective country who will act as focal point for their local community. Rather than building a single research project that focuses on a small number of individuals, we aim at supporting and growing whole communities at large, not only covering researchers with a PhD, but also PhD students and undergraduate research projects. Dedicated in-person workshops, covering observational and statistical techniques as well as campaign design and management, will accompany the target community along their research journey with the LCO network and support building inter-African collaborations, as well as path towards independence and African leadership (not being reliant on the strength of a non-African partner) as part of an integrated process. The opportunity for less resourced countries is in innovation, building on the creativity of its people to eventually shape new global trends. This provides potential to leap ahead rather than just trying to catch up. We will therefore particularly support research projects that trial new ideas or approaches, while providing pathways to larger projects and internationally competitive facility proposals. LCO uniquely combines the features of fast response, uninterrupted long-term monitoring, and full-sky coverage, resulting from a purpose-built design for observing astronomical transient events with durations ranging from seconds to several years. We will be getting astronomy research communities in East Africa ready for the unprecedented flood of alerts on transients of up to 10,000,000 per night from the LSST survey, expected from early 2026.
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.
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.
Compound-Semiconductor-Enabled Renewable Energy System for Powering Critical Buildings in Africa
DEPARTMENT FOR SCIENCE, INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY
Africa’s power supply systems for critical loads, such as healthcare facilities, are transitioning to a more sustainable, efficient and reliable future. This is driven by the integration of renewable energy, which includes AC and DC power conversion enabled by power semiconductors switching at increasingly high frequencies (e.g., 10–100 kHz). The semiconductors’ operation causes power loss, reducing energy efficiency, and they are the most vulnerable components, counting for 20%–30% of the failure of power conversion systems. Improving the performance of the semiconductors will thus provide significant benefits in energy saving and system reliability improvement. For example, a 1% increase in efficiency in solar photovoltaic (PV) inverters and a 1% in reliability will make 150 GWh more energy available to critical healthcare facilities in Africa. This project’s overarching aim is to leverage the latest advancements in Silicon Carbon (SiC) semiconductor technology to develop high-efficiency and reliable solar photovoltaic-battery energy storage system (PV-BESS) for critical loads. Such compound semiconductors have low conduction loss, fast switching speed, and high operating temperature, which provides all potential for developing low-carbon PV-BESS. Challenges are that high-frequency switching of SiC semiconductors can increase thermal stress and create electromagnetic interference (EMI) due to their high-speed voltage transients (e.g. dv/dt over 10kV/us), affecting the reliability of the PV-BESS and lifespan of critical components such as capacitors and batteries. SiC semiconductors exhibit various material defects and variability, leading to variations and high non-linearities in their electro-thermal performances. Integrating SiC semiconductors into PV-BESS requires a better understanding of induced parasitic parameters and their coupling with components, including capacitors, inductances and gate drivers. To address these issues, the project has three research work packages (WP1-3): Develop accurate characterisation and modelling methods for semiconductor devices (WP1): Accurate SiC electro-thermal models and lifetime models will provide a new understanding of SiC semiconductors, which will be built to evaluate component efficiency and reliability under various environments. Integration optimisation of SiC-based PV-BESS (WP2): This involves studying and modelling the multiphysics coupling between SiC semiconductors and other components, investigation of induced parasitic parameters and system-level topology design of PV-BESS to reduce power conversion stages, thus improving overall efficiency and reliability. Validation and operation optimisation of SiC-based BESS in various operation conditions (WP3): This will investigate integration strategies and verify the benefits brought by SiC devices' advantages to ensuring the BESS’s high-efficiency and reliable operation in both normal and fault conditions. The main deliverables will include validated tools and a testbed for modelling and characterisation of SiC semiconductors (WP1), hardware-in-the-loop demonstrator for validating the SiC-based PV-BESS (WP2), and optimal operation strategies for PV-BESS (WP3). These will be useful to physics R&D institutions, renewable equipment vendors, and power system operators. The project will involve international partnerships with the University of Nairobi, with support from Scottish Power Energy Networks (SPEN) and Toshiba Europe. Researchers involved will benefit from the unique collaboration and training, and the project will help Africa build new physics research capacities in the renewable energy and semiconductor sectors. The project output will boost the PV-BESS’ energy conversion efficiency by 1%–2%, and extend their mean-time-between-failures by 20%. Developed compound semiconductor technologies will have a wider impact across applied industries, including electrified transportation sectors, robotics and aerospace. The integration and BESS technologies can be extended to generic low—and medium-voltage energy systems.
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
Neonatal early warning score for hypothermia evaluation and treatment (NEWS-HEAT): a cluster randomised controlled trial with internal pilot phase
DEPARTMENT FOR SCIENCE, INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY
Globally, 15 million babies are born prematurely every year. One million babies die before their 5th birthday, many due to complications of prematurity. In Kenya, the neonatal mortality rate (death in the first month of life) is 20 per 1000 live births. This is 8 times higher than the UK and much higher than the Sustainable Development Goals' target of less than 12 per 1000 live births by 2030. Babies born premature (before 37 weeks) or low birth weight (LBW; less than 2.5kg) often become cold (hypothermia) after birth as they cannot keep themselves warm. In Kenya, around half of babies who are admitted for neonatal care have hypothermia on admission. Cold babies are more likely to die or have other life-threatening conditions. Keeping babies warm in the labour ward and during transfer for further care is vital. In 2018, our multidisciplinary UK-Kenya collaboration started a research programme, to investigate if an early warning score could help identify preterm babies who are sicker, where action needs to be taken quickly. An early warning score (EWS) is a simple, paper document which uses a traffic-light colour-coded system to record babies' vital signs, like temperature, offering a simple way for health professionals to identify babies who need additional care. This prompts them to act, monitor how the baby responded and decide if further action is needed. We found that using EWS is possible and health professionals, parents and policy-makers support its use. Labour wards in Kenya are often under-resourced and staff are not fully trained in newborn care. Although early essential newborn care (EENC) is standard care it is not well implemented. Without a clear process of how to record temperature, put in measures to keep babies warm, and monitor their progress, babies often get cold. NEWS-HEAT is a care bundle, which includes evidence-based actions to keep babies warm and prevent hypothermia. It is a paper chart with an EWS and decision-aid to trigger action and monitor babies. NEWS-HEAT could help staff and parents note when babies are cold, act to warm them, and continue to monitor to ensure babies stay warm. We will test if NEWS-HEAT will reduce the number of babies who are cold. We will randomly allocate 28 hospitals to use EENC, with or without the NEWS-HEAT bundle. Each hospital will take part for 8 months. In all hospitals, before any intervention takes place, we will collect baseline data on all preterm/LBW babies. Then, all hospitals will receive training in EENC, using a train-the-trainer approach. Finally, staff in half of hospitals will receive training on and then implement the NEWS-HEAT care bundle. The other half of hospitals will continue to use EENC alone. We will measure which group of hospitals has fewer babies who became cold by recording the temperatures at the point of admission for newborn care. We will also check other important outcomes including how many babies die within 1 week of birth. We anticipate 11,200 babies being involved. We will also conduct a process evaluation to check if NEWS-HEAT is implemented properly and staff views of it. Our partners include the Ministry of Health and a parent support group. NEWS-HEAT has the potential to reduce hypothermia and save babies' lives in Kenya and other low and middle income countries, contributing to reaching the Sustainable Development Goals.
BioGas MicroGrid in a box (BGMG)
DEPARTMENT FOR SCIENCE, INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY
BGMG (Bio Gas Micro Grid in a box) will develop a hybrid renewable energy hub for deployment in off grid communities. It combines solar, wind and biogas energy resources in one drop-in containerised unit with electrical energy stored and deployed from batteries and waste heat recovered for local utilisation. The project expands the work of the partners in the recent highly successful Energy Catalyst WEGEN project that resulted in development and subsequent commercial sales of a novel 6kW plug-and-play biogas generator technology. The partners include WEGEN collaborators CAGE Technologies Ltd (CTL)/OakTec (power system technology developer), Sistema Bio (biogas system OEM and system trial and demonstration) and Sutton Power Engineering ( generator OEM and supplier of solar hardware). The partners will develop an intelligent energy management platform to integrate, manage and distribute the bio/solar/wind energy inputs based on a development of the existing CTL/OakTec intelligent control platform. Additional outputs will be an application of the WEGEN biogas engine technology to a new modular liquid cooled engine family that will allow a range of power outputs to suit application requirements delivering world leading fuel efficiency and low emissions. The liquid cooled engines will employ CHP technology to capture waste heat for distribution. CTL and Sutton have considerable experience of hybrid power systems having deployed LPG-solar-battery systems for site welfare with the HS2 rail project at Euston, London and more recently hydrogen-solar-battery hybrid to power the cruise ship terminal in Orkney. BGMG will support the development of carbon neutral microgrids in sub-saharan Africa and India and a trial system will be deployed to Kenya and be tested in a high profile location. Applications include stand-alone power for large food and agricultural businesses, villages, schools, hospitals and health-centres and public buildings. Bio-waste from the immediate location including food can be used in the feedstock. As global energy prices rise the business case for BGMG becomes stronger. Whilst the system will be more costly than a simpler generator or solar array it can be funded to the customer on a 'machinery as a service' basis by Sistema's established easy payment business model and will enjoy minimal fuel and running costs over its lifetime giving it a much lower lifetime cost than conventional fossil based power systems. Immediate commercial opportunities include powering larger farms, food production businesses including rice mills where rice straw is used as part of the AD feedstock, agricultural processing and charging EV's.
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.
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.
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).
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
Weather & Climate Service Partnership (WCSSP) Kenya - Met Office
DEPARTMENT FOR SCIENCE, INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY
Extreme weather and climate change is an area of concern for Kenya and the southern African region, and in the coming decades many regions are expected to become hotter and drier. Kenya may also experience more extreme weather, such as droughts and floods. Working collaboratively to address the challenges presented by extreme weather and climate will help safeguard lives and livelihoods across southern Africa, especially in the most vulnerable communities and help reduce the costs of disaster recovery and adaption for the Kenyan government. Outputs from this activity are being translated into products and services to assist governments, businesses and communities in decision-making around weather and climate resilience and adaptation. Through tackling challenges in multiple sectors including water, energy, health and food security, these services will help inform disaster risk-reduction strategies within Kenya and the wider African continent.
SFC - GCRF QR funding
DEPARTMENT FOR BUSINESS, ENERGY & INDUSTRIAL STRATEGY
Formula GCRF funding to the Scottish Funding Council to support Scottish higher education institutes (HEIs) to carry out ODA-eligible activities in line with their three-year institutional strategies. ODA research grants do not represent the full economic cost of research and therefore additional funding is provided to Scottish HEIs in proportion to their Research Excellence Grant (REG). In FY19/20 funding was allocated to 18 Scottish higher education institutes to support existing ODA grant funding and small projects. GCRF has now supported more than 800 projects at Scottish institutions, involving over 80 developing country partners.