West African countries are facing urgent climate challenges, including environmental degradation, desertification, rainfall variability, heat waves, flooding and reduced agricultural productivity. The accelerating impacts of climate change, in addition to socio-economic factors such as population growth and urbanization, accentuate the climatic challenges. The "Climate Services for Risk Reduction in West Africa" (CS4RRA) initiative, launched in 2023, is a joint action by European countries in collaboration with West African institutions, including ACMAD, AGRHYMET/ CILSS, WASCAL, African Centers of Excellence and African funding agencies. This initiative aims to strengthen climate resilience through Knowledge, Innovation and Capacity Building (KICB), mobilizing the results of previous European Union (EU) and African Union (AU) programs such as (Horizon2020, Joint Programme Initiative Climate/SINCERE, Copernicus CCS).

Themes

Research and innovation proposals submitted under this call for proposals must address one or more of the following themes:

1. Improving Early Warning Systems;
2. Improved operational assessment and prevention of climate-related security risks;
3. Improved financing mechanisms and institutional integration of climate services.

In addition, each proposal must:

• Respond to the three pillars of CS4RRA: Knowledge, Capacity Building and Innovation (SIRC);
• Follow inter- and trans-disciplinary approaches encouraging the co-creation of activities between academic and non-academic partners (policy-makers, society and economy);
• Respond to the specific needs related to climate change expressed by West African stakeholders;
• Combine research and innovation (including social innovation), linking scientific excellence and social impact.

Countries participating in the call

Funding agencies from Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, France, Germany, Ghana, Italy and Norway are participating in the call. Contributions from funding agencies in Burkina Faso and Ghana are currently being finalized.

Eligible for funding are organizations from the countries represented by the funding organizations, and organizations located in one of the 16 West African countries: Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Côte d'Ivoire, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo; excluding the overseas territories of the United Kingdom: St Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha.

Closing: September 2025

We invite you to consult the documents listed below, which are also available on the call website, to find out more about the themes and submission procedures for this call.

Find out more on the ANR website.