The Joint Innovation Facility (JIF) is an Africa–Europe funding and collaboration mechanism designed to scale digitally enabled and commercially viable innovations through strong cross-border partnerships. Supported solutions embed climate-positive impacts while driving digital transformation and market expansion. JIF supports digital solutions that are ready to grow across markets between Africa and Europe.
Building on a successful pilot phase in 2025, the main JIF 2026 call focuses on cross-border cooperation projects between African and European actors that scale existing revenue-generating solutions. The objective is to further develop their digital components and enable cross-border market expansion.
The facility targets innovations where digital technologies – such as advanced data solutions or artificial intelligence – are central to the product, service, or business model rather than an add-on. All supported projects must be climate-positive, meaning they generate a measurable positive contribution to climate change mitigation, adaptation, and/or resilience or present a credible pathway to doing so through project design and implementation. A core priority of JIF is to support AI applications that go beyond generic or experimental use.
There are two tracks to choose from: an open track and an AI focus track. In each track the lead partner could either be a for-profit entity, an Entrepreneurship Support Organisation (ESO) or an Innovation Support Organisation (ISO) including Innovation Hubs.
JIF is implemented under the Africa-Europe Digital Innovation Bridge (AEDIB) and part of the EU’s Global Gateway Africa–Europe Investment Package. It is co-developed by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland, and the European Union (EU), and jointly implemented by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) and the Finnish Institute of Public Management (HAUS), leveraging their combined experience in international cooperation, innovation support and strengthening innovation ecosystems.
Eligible countries for JIF:
Benin, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire, Kenya, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia. European partners must be based in one of the 27 EU Member States.
Applications to the Joint Innovation Facility are open from 10th February to 30th April 2026 (23:59 EAT / 22:59 CET) via this link
Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis.