Research and Development Impact Voucher Facility Phase 2

 

Early-stage companies in low- and middle-income countries underinvest in research and development (R&D), lack internal R&D capabilities and have limited interactions with public research organizations (PROs), which constrains their growth and innovation potential. This project seeks to incentivize R&D collaboration to improve the products and services these companies seek to bring to underserved markets and populations in low-income settings or help them anticipate or overcome technical and operational obstacles.

To encourage business-driven R&D activities, this project provides matching grants to early-stage companies to collaborate with PROs that possess the talent, knowledge and infrastructure capable of supporting private sector innovation. The project will work with two impact investors who will support early-stage companies in West and East Africa, respectively. Each investor will establish an R&D Impact Voucher Facility which will finance responsive and time-limited R&D collaborations between their portfolio companies and PROs.

R&D collaborations funded through the Facility seek to complement the financial and business support these investors provide to their portfolio companies to realize their social and economic impact. For researchers and graduate students, demand-driven research and experimental development projects will create opportunities for them to apply their skills, develop new networks and identify new research directions.