A significant financing deficit lies between Africa’s current reality and the mobility that it both needs and aspires to. Unmanned aerial vehicles and cargo drones have the potential to leapfrog transport infrastructure for millions of people in the region while also addressing the sustainable development goals.
Tanzania is committed to develop better transport solutions for their citizens, and the shores of the Lake Victoria basin are home to over 30 million people who are ready for change – public health services and medical supplies delivered by aerial robotics.
Lake Victoria Challenge Flying Competition
The Lake Victoria Challenge is the first event of its kind in Africa, focusing on emerging transport technologies that can leapfrog the continent’s infrastructure deficit and address its public health and mobility challenges.
Drone innovators will compete in a series of real-world scenarios between Juma Island in Lake Victoria, and a temporary droneport in Mwanza City, Tanzania. $100,000 is available to the winner in each of three categories:
- Emergency Delivery: Safely deliver an emergency package from the droneport in Mwanza to Juma Island at a distance of 20 km; then come back and safely land at the origin.
- Sample Pick-Up: Pick up as many 250g modules as possible from Juma Island and return them to Mwanza. Several packages may be carried at one time.
- Find and Assess: Successfully identify the GPS locations of pre-placed markers on Juma Island and perform a change detection analysis with minimum resolution of 20cm.
The event is designed to showcase and test business models, processes and mature e-VTOL UAV technologies with high potential of near-term adoption for routine use in the Lake Victoria Region.
Apply Now! Deadline is April 25, 2019
UAV Opportunity in Mwanza
The Mwanza Region in Tanzania borders Lake Victoria, and includes more than 86 inhabited islands in Lake Victoria. With an overall population of 2.7 million, which is second only to the commercial capital, Dar es Salaam, Mwanza has one of the highest rural population densities in the world. This means that there is a vast medical supply network ready for UAVs:
- Mwanza Region has 286 health facilities, and all public sector facilities receive supplies from the Medical Stores Department in Mwanza city.
- Bugando Medical Centre, located in Mwanza city, is a referral, consultant and university teaching hospital and serves a catchment population of over 14 million people.
- Laboratory samples (including viral load samples and dried blood spots) that are collected by health facilities must be sent and tested at Bugando Medical Centre.
The vision of the Lake Victoria Challenge is to connect the facilities in Mwanza City with the hard-to-reach facilities in the region using drone cargo transports and droneport infrastructure.
More Funding Opportunities
Do you want to get advice on how to apply for USAID grants or get startup investments for technology entrepreneurs?
Then please sign up now to get our email updates. We are constantly publishing new funding opportunities like these:
Dear Sir/madam,
How do we apply for this funding available, is there a link for the application? And what are the deadlines ?
regards,
Moses
You can apply to the Lake Victoria Challenge via this link and the deadline is April 25.