Launch of the Africa Health Innovation Platform

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AfOx in collaboration with partners across the UK and Africa has received a Wellcome Institutional Strategic Support Fund to establish an Africa Health Innovation Platform.

Africa’s population is expected to double by 2050 and will account for more than half of global population growth. Africa is also the youngest continent in the world, with a median age of most African countries under 20 years. There is an explosion of talent in innovation, entrepreneurship, new ideas and technology-led solutions across the continent.

The Africa Health Innovation Platform will be a multi-disciplinary platform to support African innovators to develop new solutions to Africa’s health challenges. The Platform will bring together researchers, entrepreneurs, investors, technologists, policymakers, and change leaders to develop new approaches towards prevention, early detection and treatment of diseases.

The Africa Health Innovation Platform will initially run for two years. Each year 50 outstanding emerging African innovators proposing new solutions for health challenges will be competitively selected. The candidates will receive bespoke interactive on-line training and an opportunity to use virtual workrooms to further work on their ideas.

Out of the 50 candidates, a number of candidates with the top outstanding projects will be awarded AfOx Innovation and Entrepreneurship Fellowships for face-to-face training, mentorship and technical collaborative support in Oxford.

The Africa Health Innovation Platform has been co-developed with our partners,  Grand Challenges Africa at the African Academy of SciencesThe Royal Academy of Engineering and  Reuben CollegeThe Institute of Biomedical EngineeringSkoll Centre for Social EntrepreneurshipOxford FoundryTORCH and The Said Business School Africa Initiative.

Applications will open in 2021. Sign up to our mailing list to keep informed about the application process: http://www.afox.ox.ac.uk/sign-up/.