Call Opening Date:1st November 2026
Call Closing Date: 1st December 2026
1.0 BACKGROUND
The National Commission for Science and Technology (NCST) was established under the Science and Technology Act No.16 of 2003 with the mandate to advise Government and other stakeholders on all science and technology matters in order to achieve a science and technology-led development. Its mission is to promote, support, co-ordinate and regulate development and application of research, science, technology and innovation so as to create wealth in order to improve the quality of life. In pursuit of its mandate, NCST has secured a research grant from the Science Granting Councils Initiative (SGCI) in Sub-Saharan Africa funders Consortium to support and manage research and innovation projects in Agriculture and Food Security, Health and Biomedical Research, Energy, and Climate Change Resilience under the public and private partnership approach. The SGCI funders consortium include: Canada’s International Development Research Centre (IDRC), South Africa’s National Research Foundation (NRF), the UK’s Foreign and Commonwealth Development Office (FCDO), Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA), NORAD and German Research Foundation.
2.0 RATIONALE
Agriculture and Food Security, Health and Biomedical Research, Energy, and Climate Change Resilience are identified as some of the research priority areas in the National Research Agenda and also in the African Union’s STISA 2034. The research projects to be funded under this grant will incorporate a public and private partnership (PPP) approach, allowing academia to collaborate with industry. The key defining feature of the PPP grants scheme is its deliberate emphasis on the need to move from research to innovation. While, the academia and research institutions have been generating technologies and other research outputs, translating these into commercial products that could spur socio-economic development have been slow. These PPP grants are, thus, designed to break the barriers to the uptake and application of research for socio-economic development by facilitating universities and research institutes to be the champions of the process of translating outputs of their research (e.g. new technologies, new varieties, prototypes, new business models) into products and services in the market place. To achieve this, NCST will provide these PPP grants to fund research and innovation projects that involve collaborations between public research institutions with other actors who are not their traditional partners (particularly, the private sector). The grant will also promote multi-disciplinary research approach where necessary in order to build strong research teams of experts from diverse background to work together on an identified research problem within the priority area of research. The involvement of the private sector is key to the success in the implementation of this call. The private sector will be expected to support the process through additional financing and other forms including sharing of equipment; faculty and student placements, secondments and internships; etc. In return, the private sector will gain access to expertise within the universities and research institutions; aid in the renewal and expansion of technology; improve access to students as potential employees and leverage internal research capabilities.
3.0 THEMATIC FOCUS
Research and innovation project proposals that demonstrate public and private partnership in the following areas will be supported;
- Agriculture and Food Security;
- Health and Biomedical Research;
- Energy; and
- Climate Change Resilience.
4.0 FUNDING LEVEL
The maximum grant value for each research project proposal is US$ 72,000. Each research project will be implemented for a period not exceeding twenty- four months (24 months) from 1st April 2027 – 30th March 2029. Permissible budget items include the following:
- Material costs, if they are directly linked to the research project, in particular material of enduring value, the cost of expendable items, field expenses, travel expenses or third party charges.
- Direct costs incurred through the use of research infrastructure linked to the research.
- Costs of organizing conferences and workshops in connection with the funded research.
- Costs of national co-operation and networking activities directly associated with the funded research.
Note: Salaries of applicants are not eligible costs.
- ELIGIBILITY
- Each proposal must have a Principal Investigator (PI) as a main applicant, based in Malawi and of Malawian nationality. The PI will bear the overall responsibility for the project, including its technical and administrative co-ordination as well as the timely delivery of scientific and financial reports.
- Applications are open to bona fide researchers from public and private research and higher learning institutions in Malawi.
- Support letters from the host institutions of the PI are a prerequisite. Proposals without institutional approval through support letters will not be considered.
- The Grant will fund only applied research projects in the listed thematic areas. Research proposals shall need to demonstrate the application of scientific principles or basic scientific discoveries to solve real life challenges. Basic or purely theoretical research will not be considered.
- PIs at the point of application must fulfil the following requirements:
- Hold a primary appointment in a local publicly or privately funded institution (Minimum of 12 months’ employment with a local institution);
- Have done previous research in any of the focus thematic areas and have some results published;
- Be an independent PI with a track record of leadership ability in co-ordinating research programmes; and
- Providing mentorship to research teams, as well as having productive research outcomes.
Application guidelines are available on www.ncst.mw/pppnewsgciphasetwo.
6.0 PROPOSAL PREPARATION, SUBMISSION AND PROCESSING
Guidelines for proposal preparation and submission are provided in the Application Guidelines that are downloadable on www.ncst.mw/pppnewsgciphasetwo. Applicants are expected to pay particular attention to all the details provided in the Guidelines.
7.0 DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSION OF PROPOSALS
The deadline for submission is 1st December 2026 at 16:30 Central Africa Time.
8. 0 CONTACT INFORMATION
Any enquiries should be directed to directorgeneral@ncst.mw with a copy to Lkampira@ncst.mw