The fifth RUFORUM Biennial Conference 2016, also known as the “African Higher Education Week” takes place in Cape Town in October under the theme “Linking Agricultural Universities with Civil Society, the Private Sector, Governments and other Stakeholders in support of Agricultural Development in Africa”.

The main objective of the Conference is to discuss strategies for strengthening the African higher agricultural education sector and linking them more closely with economic development by actively sharing lessons and experiences as well as research findings.

The overall goal is to improve the performance of the agricultural sector in Africa by engaging all partners, particularly the private sector and ultimately people’s livelihoods.

The Conference this year is expected to bring together over 600 delegates, including 300 graduate students, 50 Vice-Chancellors, policymakers, development partners and several delegates from the African Union, SADC, and COMESA, fromall over Africa, Asia, Europe and USA.

The Biennial Conference is RUFORUM’s most comprehensive meeting for the diversity of stakeholders in agriculture.
The 2016 RUFORUM Biennial Conference will purposely link stakeholders in agriculture to new products and trends. Of great significance is that the Conference will expose young researchers to a professional gathering and will provide avenues for strengthening communication of university based research. It will also be an opportunity to create linkages between the diversity of stakeholders in agriculture to improve knowledge sharing.

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Young African Entrepreneurs Competition

The Young African entrepreneurs deserve every opportunity to be supported to succeed in their business ventures; they also deserve the opportunity to be heard, exposed and supported to increase their social capital and network horizon. RUFORUM invites young (<40 years) African entrepreneurs and incubatees, to compete for 10 conference awards to show case their innovations, enterprises and business concepts and propositions. The focus is for the young entrepreneurs to share their story at an International stage with close to 700 participants drawn from academia, business and industry, development organisations, practitioners and philanthropists.  It is hoped that through this competition, young entrepreneurs’ business concepts, impact, innovation and business opportunities can be expanded. While the focus of this competition is on innovation in agribusiness, other innovations, incubations, business enterprises and business concepts along ICTs, health, engineering, natural resources, meteorology,  urbanization, green economy, and transport and communication, among other areas, will be considered.

The ten (10) competitively selected business enterprises will receive all expenses paid trip (air ticket, conference registration, and hotel costs) for participation at the RUFORUM Biennial Conference (17th -21st October, 2016) in Cape Town, South Africa. The selected young innovators will also receive a competition cash price award.

Eligibility

Applications are invited from enterprises and individuals that meet the following eligibility criteria.

• Persons with an established business enterprise and/or those with innovations that can potentially be commercialized and/or those with business concepts
• The business enterprise/potential enterprise should have a defined business model that show case the innovativeness of the proposed enterprise/business/innovation.
• Submissions should be in English or French using the template provided.

Deadline for submissions is July 30, 2016. Results will be announced by August 30, 2016.

Application submission process

All applications should be sent to with copy to Dr. Egeru Anthony () and Dr. Uwituze Solange ().