About UCIF

The lack of adaptation to climate change and unsustainable land management mean that Uganda is ranked as the world’s 12th most climate vulnerable country. Based on current technologies and business models, Uganda’s natural capital base will continue to depreciate, permanently hindering its long-term development prospects. As such, there is a need for innovation and technology-based solutions to drive transformative changes to increase sustainability and climate resilience of the Ugandan agriculture sector.

The private sector, on its own, will not address or provide the answers Uganda needs to promote climate resilience, mitigation, and sustainable land management. In part, this is due to the high costs of capital, high risks of early-stage innovation, and the significant organisational hurdles to creating a coalition of stakeholders capable of testing the workability of novel means to adapt to and mitigate the effects of climate change. With funds from the UK Government, the UCIF will support innovators and entrepreneurs to pilot, incubate and accelerate new climate smart products and services. It aims to drive innovation in Uganda’s efforts to adapt to and mitigate climate change and promote sustainable land management in the agriculture sector.

The UCIF will run three funding windows from 2023 through to 2025, supporting innovations for genuinely new ideas to tackle challenges in agriculture. As examples, this innovation could be in the form of developing a good or service that is new or significantly improved, an improved production or delivery method, a new marketing method, or a new organisational method in business practices. The UCIF targets potential pioneers (i.e., enterprises, organisations, and individuals) that have pre-proof-of-concept innovation(s) that offer potential for long-term transformational change in Uganda’s ability to adapt to and mitigate climate change and promote sustainable land management practices. The pioneer may propose to be supported themselves to undertake the proof of concept, or they may wish to test the idea/innovation through collaboration with CSJ lead implementer, Palladium, or its partners, Swisscontact, Stanbic or CABI, and an additional implementing partner.

Available Support

Seed Funding: Potential pioneers will benefit from seed funds (grants) of between £10,000 to £200,000.
Technical assistance (TA): In partnership with the Stanbic Business Incubator, the UCIF will provide a holistic package of TA to the pioneers, stretching from shortlisting to the stage of where the product or service has found its "sweet spot" in the market and is well-positioned for future growth and success. TA will be delivered through boot camps, training workshops, one-on-one coaching, and mentorship, as well as peer-to-peer learning and networking. Pioneers which are successful in their bid for support will be offered support for at least 12 months. Pioneers may be supported as needed to identify short-term technical experts (for example agronomists, engineers, software developers, marketing specialists, financial analysts) during their innovation processes.
Pitch preparation boot camps: Potential pioneers will benefit from pitch training, development, and rehearsal to enable them to effectively communicate their ideas.
Match making: The UCIF team will guide pioneers in showcasing their innovations at various events, including matchmaking sessions / investor round tables, forums, and trade shows, as well as facilitating one-on-one connections with potential investors. This will include national, regional, and international networks.
Linkage to growth capital: Pioneers will be profiled and linked to the most appropriate sources of funding to grow and scale their businesses, including grants, equity, and debts.
Linkage to innovation hubs: Where appropriate, pioneers will be linked with local innovation hubs that could offer them a space to design, build and test their prototypes.

Who is Eligible to apply

The UCIF will have no restrictions on who can submit ideas and potential innovations for consideration. Individuals and entities may include but are not limited to the following:

Both startup and well-established businesses can apply, as can registered and non-registered businesses. There is no requirement to provide evidence of a history of operations. No financial history is required.

Who is not eligible to apply

Applications to the UCIF will be deemed ineligible if the funding is of benefit to an individual only; if the funding will be used for retroactive funding, debt retirement, or reserves; if the funding is for endowment grants; if the individual(s) and/or organisation(s) have been convicted of any criminal offense; if the individual(s) and or organisation(s) have been declared to be in serious breach of contract for failure to comply with their contractual obligations in connection with a procurement procedure or other grant award procedure; if the individual(s) or the organisation(s) is owned by an employee or family member of the Climate Smart Jobs Programme; if there is credible evidence that the applicant discriminates against any group based on age, gender reassignment, disability, race, colour, ethnicity, sex and sexual orientation, pregnancy and maternity, religion, or belief; if individual is a politician; and/or if the organisation is a political party and government organisation.

What is the geographical scope of the Fund?

The Fund will be implemented in the following Sub Regions of Uganda. Therefore, the innovation must be trialled in one or more of these locations.

What costs and activities are eligible?

What costs and activities are ineligible?

The purchase of real estate; purchase of vehicles; payment of income and corporation tax; payment of recoverable VAT (if the company is VAT registered); bank charges; replacement or refund of any funds lost to fraud, corruption, bribery, theft, terrorist financing or other misuse of funds; contingency or risk premium; costs incurred prior to a formal agreement being executed, including those associated with preparing bid or grant proposals; and costs that are not directly related to the proposed project and/or which are not needed for successful outcome of the project's objectives.

Selection process

Application Process

The application will involve two stages:

Potential pioneers are initially required to submit their Concept Note through the CSJ website. CNs will first be assessed for eligibility and then merit (see below). Shortlisted applicants will be requested to submit a full proposal.

2. Submission of Full proposal:

Shortlisted entities will be invited to participate in “boot-camps” that will provide opportunity to develop a quality, viable proposal and compelling pitch. Afterwards, the applicants are expected to complete and submit a full online proposal and then defend it during a pitching workshop whereby independent reviewers will evaluate the proposal and make recommendations for further review by the CSJ Board. Finalist(s) will be subjected to due diligence and client approval prior to the grant award.

Interested applicants (potential pioneers) are expected to complete the application through the CSJ website by following these steps:

Go to web browser and type- csj.co.ug
Click on UCIF tab.
Click on apply.
Click the declaration of conflict-of-interest tab, read, and sign off that there is no conflict of interest.
Click continue apply.
Complete the online concept note template.
Click submit after completing.

The potential pioneer must first satisfy the following eligibility criteria for the concept note to be reviewed.

Eligible Concept Notes will then be assessed based on the following criteria:

The potential pioneer will be expected to complete an online concept note template following the format below: