Open Call
The Efficiency for Access Research and Development Fund launched its first open call in November 2018 for innovative off- and weak-grid appliance technology or products, with the goal of benefiting end-users and promoting social inclusion.
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The open call aimed to cast a wide net for impactful projects and provide Efficiency for Access with market intelligence on emerging technologies and the barriers and issues they face. The R&D Fund committed to supporting a wide range of technologies and products from cross-cutting horizon and enabling technologies to near-to-market products.
Funding
Efficiency for Access received 65 applications for the 2019 open call. Of the 65 applications, 41 projects totalling £5.1m were deemed eligible for review. A panel of experts reviewed the 41 projects and shortlisted 12 projects for due diligence. A portfolio approach was employed to ensure funding was spread across technology areas, geographic locations, stages of R&D, and project lengths and costs.
Nine projects were supported totalling over £1m in funding. An additional £680,000 in matched funding was unlocked from the nine recipients.
The open call also received 13 cooking appliance applications, of these, 12 were assessed in partnership with the Modern Energy Cooking Services (MECS) programme and six projects were awarded funding totalling approximately £750,000 from MECS.
Please see our first call Infographic and Insights page for more.
About the projects
The winning projects sought to unlock commercial viability of both near-to-market products and horizon technology. The successful organisations were:
- BBOXX – Iron for the off-grid market
- M-KOPA – Smart batteries that enable DC appliances
- Solaris Offgrid – Open source standardised Pay-As-You-Go communication protocol
- Agsol – Smarter, efficient solar enabled mill
- Sure Chill – Improved controls for off-grid domestic refrigerators
- DGrid Energy – Solar powered cold chain for farmers
- Innovex Uganda – Improved remote monitoring of appliances
- Basil Energetics – Highly efficient, low cost motors for off-grid appliances
The projects included field trials to take place in a number of countries over the next two years, including Kenya, Uganda, Togo, Tanzania, Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda. The last project was completed in April 2021.
For more details of each project, please read our Project Spotlights Report