African-European call for proposals "Climate Services for Risk Reduction in West Africa (CS4RRA)" – 2026

Funding agencies from Europe and Africa and JPI Climate are launching an international call for proposals to fund research projects and innovation, “Climate Services for Risk Reduction in West Africa”. The overall strategic aim of the CS4RRA initiative is to develop pathways to climate-resilience in Western Africa by contributing to long-term multinational cooperation.

West African countries face pressing climate-related challenges, including environmental degradation, rainfall variability, heatwaves, floods, and declining agricultural productivity. The accelerating impacts of climate change, along with socio-economic developments like population growth and urbanisation, exacerbates climate-related challenges. The initiative “Climate Services for Risk Reduction in West Africa” (CS4RRA) was launched in 2023 by European countries in collaboration with West African institutions, including ACMAD, AGRHYMET/CILSS, WASCAL, the African Centres of Excellence and the African funding councils. The aim of this initiative is to enhance climate resilience through Knowledge, Innovation, and Capacity Building (KIC), leveraging achievements from previous European Union (EU) and African Union (AU) programs (Horizon 2020, Joint Programme Initiative Climate/SINCERE, Copernicus CCS).

Topics

Each proposal must address one or more of the following topics:

1. Improving Early Warning Systems (following the WMO definition);
2. Improving operational assessment and prevention of Climate Security Risks;
3. Improving financing mechanism and institutional integration of climate services.

In addition, a proposal must:

• address all three pillars of CS4RRA: Knowledge, Innovation, and Capacity Development; 
• follow inter- and transdisciplinary approaches by encouraging co-designed activities between academic and non-academic partners such as policy-makers, society and economy; 
• meet specific needs related to climate change addressed by West African stakeholders; 
• link research and innovation (incl. social innovation) bridging scientific excellence and social impact.

Participating countries

Funding organisations from Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, France, Germany, Ghana, Italy, and Norway are participating in the call. 

Eligible for funding are organisations from funding organisations countries and organisations which are located in one of the following West African countries: Benin, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and Togo.

We invite you to consult the documents listed below and available on the website of the call to know the topics and modalities of the call.