Follow us on the Scaling Out For Impact (SOFI 2) South Africa food, energy, and water collaborative project partners visit to the UK

Earlier this year, we shared the Scaling Out For Impact (SOFI 2) collaborative projects that are strengthening the UK-South Africa innovations by accelerating the development and deployment of affordable, accessible innovative solutions in food, energy, and water sectors through UK-South African partnerships. The primary focus is scaling strategic research and development projects that positively impact the local and wider community.

From the 4-7 November 2024, a cohort of 18 people from nine of these projects will come together in the UK to participate in several workshops to strengthen the partnerships between the UK and South Africa.

Participating organisations

Joint funding from Innovate UK Global Alliance Africa and the Technology Innovation Agency in South Africa (TIA) has led to nine innovative projects being backed under the SOFI-2 initiative. The SOFI 2 delegation consists of the South African projects led by:

• AGR-Smart Tech

• Agri Business Network

• Drone Eye Technology

• FarmRu

• Kasi Gas

• House Harvest

• Jwale Corporations

• NexClean

• Umbane Energy Investments

The SOFI 2 delegation will be joined by UK project participants from:

• Advanced nanostructured materials design and consultancy (Anamad)

• Aqsen Innovations

• Barefoot Lightning

• Concept Dairy

• EcoTechX

• Farmer Charlie

• Flybox

• Micrea

• Tecrea

Delegation agenda

The delegates will explore how they can strengthen their collaborations, create strategic roadmaps and progress toward scaling and commercialising their innovation in South Africa, the UK, and within international export markets. Whilst in the UK, the participants will get involved with the following activities throughout the week:

Project introductions

Innovate UK Business Connect will be welcoming everyone to London alongside the Technology Innovation Agency and mLab (the Business Support Consultants on the programme). A series of panel sessions will then take place which will focus on creating water, food, and sector collaborations and how to navigate innovative project management taking place across multiple countries to solve business operational challenges within these industries.

Commercialisation masterclasses

On day two, the delegation will join a series of masterclasses that will cover the following topics:

• ‘Deployment and Diffusion – Unlocking potential in the rural economy’ masterclass which will cover how to navigate rural challenges, working with tribal authorities, and implementing commercial business models that deliver social impact.

• ‘Commercialisation models for social impact’ – examining the various components of their partnership in determining what commercial model would best work to achieve the social impact they wish to realise.

• ‘Understanding the Food, Energy and Water nexus in the UK’ – getting a better understanding of the opportunities that may be open to their projects within the UK landscape.

• ‘Building an investment case – life beyond the SOFI-2 project’ that will cover the best commercial vehicles for partnering, managing project finances, and preparing a business for investment as well as exploring sector funding opportunities.

Research and development site visits

The third and final day will see the delegates undertaking several site visits to see some of the exciting research work taking place in the UK. This will be followed by a reflection, learning and wrap-up session to close-out the workshops.

Watch this space as we continue following the progress of these projects scaling out their innovative solutions in addressing key challenges in Limpopo, Mpumalanga and Easter Cape provinces of South Africa.

SOFI-2 is co-funded and delivered by Innovate UK and strategic partner Technology Innovation Agency (TIA) in South Africa. It is delivered through the Global Alliance Africa project as part of the collaboration research and development initiatives.