Funding & consultancy opportunities

Aim

Integrate and implement digital literacy in Kenya’s Competency Based Curriculum through gender-inclusive strategies.

Objectives

• Review and support implementation of digital literacy within the Competency Based Curriculum.
• Apply gender-inclusive approaches and address digital literacy needs across the curriculum.
• Support the Kenya Digital Economy Acceleration Project through a 40-week consultancy assignment.

Best ACAII role

ACTS could lead only if it can demonstrate firm eligibility and a strong track record in curriculum/digital-literacy implementation, gender inclusion and education-sector delivery. Otherwise associate with a Kenyan education/curriculum implementation firm or education NGO; ACAII can contribute AI-era digital literacy, responsible-AI safeguards, teacher capacity and evaluation. Identify curriculum specialists, gender-inclusion expertise and school/teacher delivery partners; confirm whether association is permitted and how qualifications are evaluated.

Aim

Support collective action that helps disadvantaged learners benefit from education that evolves responsibly for the AI era.

Objectives

• Directly address poverty or disadvantage for a clearly identified learner group.
• Bring multiple organizations together around shared goals, delivery and learning to address a systemic education challenge.
• Help education adapt to emerging technology in ways that close learning gaps, with appropriate AI safeguards or a considered rationale for not using AI.

Best ACAII role

Join or convene a coalition with Kenyan schools/education implementers, teacher or learner groups and relevant public/technology partners. ACAII can lead responsible-AI safeguards, policy, mentoring and evaluation; the initiative must include shared education delivery and direct benefit to disadvantaged learners.

Aim

Produce practical, policy-relevant white papers that strengthen digital entrepreneurship and innovation policy across Africa.

Objectives

• Develop an original evidence-based paper on a priority digital entrepreneurship or innovation policy topic.
• Translate research into practical recommendations for African policymakers and ecosystem actors.
• Contribute to continental knowledge exchange through publication, mentorship and presentation opportunities.

Best ACAII role

Lead or co-author a policy white paper connecting responsible AI scaling with African digital entrepreneurship and innovation policy.

Aim

Help shape and connect the skills, services and tools needed to make AI work effectively, reliably and responsibly across local contexts and markets.

Objectives

• Identify promising AI evaluation, assurance, localization, adaptation and integration capabilities and the gaps limiting their scale.
• Connect AI practitioners, institutions, users, professional communities and markets.
• Inform programme design and ecosystem approaches that strengthen local participation and value creation.

Best ACAII role

Ecosystem and convening partner; contribute responsible-AI scaling practice, African innovator networks, mentoring, evaluation frameworks/tools and market/implementation insights.

Aim

Promote emerging research on AI ethics and strengthen connections between scholarship, public policy and practice.

Objectives

• Submit an 800–1,000-word extended abstract addressing AI ethics, with interdisciplinary, empirical, comparative or practice-oriented perspectives welcomed.
• Contribute emerging scholarship on areas such as governance, fairness, human rights, inclusion, gender, public policy and African knowledge systems.
• Selected authors present at the 10 December 2026 academic event; selected papers may contribute to proceedings/publication.

Best ACAII role

Nominate or support an ACAII-affiliated early-career PhD researcher with an original African or cross-sector AI ethics contribution; ACTS can support research framing and policy/practice connections, but must not submit as an organization.

Aim

Help proven social ventures develop and deliver a credible pathway to scale impact through funding, a 16-week accelerator and a longer-term 100x partnership.

Objectives

• Strengthen a tested, distinctive social-impact model with adoption and validated outcomes.
• Develop a specific pathway to mass adoption with evidence and realistic mitigation of scaling risks.
• Improve scaling strategy, impact measurement and leadership, with access to LSE research expertise, funders, advisers and peers.

Best ACAII role

First identify ACAII-mentored or African responsible-AI ventures with proven adoption and outcome evidence, and refer/support them to apply directly. ACTS/ACAII could apply as the venture only if it can evidence a deployed, distinctive social-impact solution and a realistic mass-scale path; no consortium is indicated.

Aim

Prequalify learning providers to co-design and deliver high-impact staff learning programmes for the African Development Bank.

Objectives

• Provide learning and development services across leadership, development banking, digital and data skills, organisational effectiveness and professional certification pathways.
• Co-design and deliver programmes for AfDB learning needs under a framework agreement.

Best ACAII role

Potential learning and development provider or specialist partner for responsible-AI, digital/data skills and governance capacity building; verify category fit and evidence requirements before preparing an EOI.

Aim

Prequalify digital learning platform providers for subscription- or licence-based access to curated content catalogues, platform services, analytics and LMS integration.

Objectives

• Provide digital learning platform access and associated platform services.
• Offer curated content catalogues, analytics and learning-management-system integration.
• Qualify as a firm consultant for the African Development Bank's digital learning framework agreement.

Best ACAII role

Most plausible as a responsible-AI and learning-content specialist alongside an established platform provider, contributing AI-era learning content, safeguards and contextualization for African users. Identify a qualifying LMS/platform provider and confirm whether a joint or subcontracted submission is accepted; ACAII should lead only if ACTS can demonstrate the platform and integration capabilities itself.

Aim

Deliver gender-transformative business support and improve access to appropriate finance for women agripreneurs and agricultural MSMEs across eleven African countries.

Objectives

• Provide business support that helps women agripreneurs build sustainable enterprises.
• Improve women-led agricultural MSMEs’ access to appropriate finance.
• Deliver a results-oriented program across the AFAWA countries of intervention.

Best ACAII role

Most plausible as a specialist consortium member for responsible digital/AI adoption, digital business skills, mentoring and safeguards for women-led MSMEs, with an experienced African agribusiness business-development lead. Identify women’s agribusiness associations, country-level BDS providers, agriculture extension and financial-inclusion/financial institution partners across all required countries; do not lead alone unless ACTS can evidence the full delivery footprint and sector experience. Confirm whether the 11-country geography includes Kenya and whether a consortium is accepted under the TOR.

Aim

Assess digital-market gaps and digital-skills needs across six SAMA countries to inform inclusive innovation, youth employment and programme baselines.

Objectives

• Map digital-market adoption, solutions, barriers and opportunities among small traders, including disadvantaged young women.
• Assess digital skills gaps, employer demand and employment pathways, including future-of-work skills such as AI, cloud, cybersecurity and data science.
• Establish country-level baselines and make recommendations aligned with the SAMA results and monitoring framework.

Best ACAII role

Potential consortium lead only if ACTS meets the full institutional and six-country delivery thresholds; otherwise join an experienced lead consultancy as the responsible digital-skills, AI-readiness, inclusion or policy/research partner, and provide Kenya research leadership. Identify qualified country leads/partners in Benin, Ghana, Rwanda, Uganda and Zambia, plus French and local-language research capacity.

Aim

Assess and address policy, regulatory and interoperability barriers preventing young people from participating in digital markets across six SAMA countries.

Objectives

• Assess policy, legal, regulatory, institutional, governance, technical and operational conditions affecting KYC, digital public services, interoperability and data exchange in each country.
• Identify barriers affecting young people, particularly young women and youth-led enterprises, and connect them to market consequences and practical recommendations.
• Develop country-level findings and actions relevant to inclusive participation in digital markets.

Best ACAII role

Join an experienced eligible consultancy lead as Kenya policy/research and responsible-AI/digital governance partner; alternatively lead only if ACTS satisfies the firm qualification and six-country delivery requirements. Identify qualified country research partners in Benin, Ghana, Rwanda, Uganda and Zambia, plus French and relevant local-language capacity.

Aim

Support researchers and teams to use existing Lacuna Fund datasets to train or scale machine-learning models and develop AI applications with equitable benefits across SDG domains.

Objectives

• Train, scale, fine-tune or apply ML models and tools using one or more existing Lacuna Fund datasets.
• Build a pilot-stage MVP that addresses a concrete local SDG need and benefits underserved populations.
• Assess fairness, privacy, ethics and responsible downstream use, and publish accessible, documented outputs with a credible maintenance plan.

Best ACAII role

First obtain written confirmation that ACTS/ACAII may apply despite ACTS administering and screening the call. If cleared, ACAII can lead or co-lead the responsible-AI, fairness, governance, stakeholder-engagement and policy-translation work, but must name qualified ML/data/software engineers and a substantive SDG-domain team. If ACTS is conflicted, support an independent Kenya-based nonprofit or research institution as lead only where the call permits ACAII’s participation; identify an eligible dataset, local domain specialists, and affected-community partners. A consortium is optional, but a technical/domain team is necessary for a credible proposal.

Aim

Build openly licensed tools and workflows that help developers integrate education public goods into AI-enabled formative assessment and improve teacher-AI coordination.

Objectives

• Create an open-source harness, reference architecture or starter kit for education public goods.
• Improve teacher oversight and agency in AI-enabled formative assessment.
• Engage multiple public-goods creators and AI developers.

Best ACAII role

Seek a specialist or subcontract role under an eligible U.S. lead for responsible-AI safeguards, evaluation or implementation research. The bid also needs a U.S. K–12 education partner, technical open-source team, and participation from multiple public-goods creators and downstream AI developers.

Aim

Fund responsible AI solutions developed with city governments that improve access to and quality of public services for underserved communities.

Objectives

• Develop, pilot or scale a frontier-AI solution in one city service focus area: economic mobility, environmental resilience or civic engagement (public health is another focus area, but not the suggested ACAII route).
• Demonstrate meaningful frontier generative AI use, city-government demand and ability to integrate into public services.
• Show responsible AI safeguards, a 24-month delivery and learning plan, measurable community benefit and sustainability; funded outputs carry open-source obligations.

Best ACAII role

Most plausible as lead only if ACTS can clear nonprofit/grant-receipt checks and secure a Kenyan municipal partner with a specific service problem and frontier-AI solution; otherwise join an eligible nonprofit/technology lead as responsible-AI, safeguards, community engagement and evaluation partner. Identify a municipal government or city-controlled service agency in a qualifying Kenyan city, an AI/product implementation partner, and affected-community/service-delivery organizations. Prefer civic engagement, economic mobility or environmental resilience; do not propose a health-focused project.