LEAP-RE (Long-Term Joint European Union – African Union Research and Innovation Partnership on Renewable Energy)
MECS is a funding partner in LEAP-RE, an African-EU funding programme aimed at addressing the issues relating to the uptake of sustainable and clean sources of energy.
Low Energy Inclusive Appliances (LEIA)
In November 2018, the Efficiency for Access (EForA) Coalition launched a new grant fund worth £1.05 million for research and development (R&D) projects on highly efficient appliances which can reach populations in developing countries not served by the national grid.
MECS – COSMO (Cooking Support on Mini-Grids)
The COSMO (Cooking Support on Mini-Grids) challenge fund competition enabled the MECS programme, funded by the Foreign and Commonwealth Development Office (FCDO) and delivered by Loughborough University, to address key barriers to electric cooking uptake on mini-grids with the aim to strengthen the utilization of mini-grids for electric cooking.
The phase one projects have completed their initial study and three projects have been supported to develop the system highlighted in phase one. Click below for more information about the successful awardees.
MECS – ECO
The Electric Cooking Outreach (ECO) competition focused on scaling up the outreach of electric cooking through community scale pilot studies and market assessments.
MECS-SC2 (‘Sparking the Cooking Supply Chain’)
The ‘Sparking the Cooking Supply Chain’ (MECS-SC2) competition seeked to fund research projects that will deliver a minimum of 1,500 energy efficient electric cooking appliances into homes or businesses. Projects have completed phase one and are now progressing to phase two, the implementation of the supply chain that they developed in phase one.
Click on the below tab for further details about the successful applicants and their projects.
MECS – STARSS (Standalone or rooftop solar systems inclusion of eCooking)
MECS launched a Technology Accelerator Challenge Fund Competition focusing on standalone and rooftop solar systems. This challenge fund invited organisations to test innovative configurations of existing technology and business models to pilot and demonstrate stand alone or rooftop solar based systems that will be utilized for clean energy cooking.
Click on the below tab for further details about the successful applicants and their projects.
MECS-TRIID
The Modern Energy Cooking Services Technology Research for International Development call (MECS -TRIID) was the first in-house initiative to enable the Modern Energy Cooking Services programme (and thus Department for International Development (DFID)) to fully fund early-stage research projects in support of innovative ideas or concepts that facilitate a transition to modern energy cooking services in countries supported by DFID.
Global LEAP Awards
The Global LEAP awards are designed to identify and publicise the best-in-class energy-efficient appliances. It is an international competition to identify and promote the world’s best off-grid appliances, accelerating market development and innovation. Previous competitions have been held since 2013 and have included solar water pumps, solar refrigeration, and solar TVs
Energy For Access – Enabling Technologies Call
In much the same way that MECS was part of the first LEIA call, our collaboration with Efficiency for Access for R&D projects to develop enabling technologies or products for weak and off-grid areas enabled MECS to highlight cooking.