Catalyzing small and medium-sized enterprise growth through scalable research and development impact vouchers in Africa

About this project

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are central to Africa’s economic development, yet they face significant barriers to structured and affordable research and development (R&D) support that is essential for innovation and competitiveness. This project seeks to address the systemic barriers that limit SME access to R&D in Africa by designing a scalable and structured framework to expand their access to R&D impact vouchers. It will foster inclusive collaboration among researchers, entrepreneurs, investors and policymakers in Africa. The project will generate high-impact outputs that can strengthen Africa’s innovation systems, including a scalable, open-access R&D Voucher Toolkit suitable for replication by innovation hubs, research councils and government ministries. It will also develop a new SME–Researcher Matchmaking Framework to facilitate engagement between start-ups and public research organizations (PROs). The project also plans to develop an equity-aware impact assessment tool for measuring the sustainability impact of voucher-funded projects. Gender equality and social inclusion are priorities for this research and will be systematically integrated into all phases of the project, from design to implementation and learning. The refined voucher framework will be tested through six new pilot vouchers with new implementing partners selected through an open call. To ensure the model’s financial viability beyond the pilot phase, long-term financing strategies that ble…

Published by

International Development Research Centre · Other public sector

Countries

Kenya, Senegal, Tanzania, Burkina Faso, South Africa, Uganda, Ethiopia

Sectors

Research/scientific institutions

Focus

Good governance · Also contributesBiodiversity · Also contributes

Published by International Development Research Centre to the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI), last updated 1 Sept 2026 and imported automatically. IATI identifier: XM-DAC-301-2-110837-001.

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