Frontier Technology Livestreaming call for applications opened!

Olivia Elson
Frontier Tech Hub
Published in
2 min readMar 31, 2020

We are in a time of significant global challenge. Never has there been a more relevant moment to see how technology may help to solve development challenges at pace and at scale.

The Frontier Technologies Hub is delighted to announce the launch of the 2020 Livestreaming call for DFID staff to put forward new frontier technology pilot ideas.

‘This is a fantastic opportunity for staff across DFID to explore how cutting-edge technologies can be applied to development programmes in varied and innovative ways. It also showcases the great work done across divisions in Policy, Research and Humanitarian, encouraging us to think about the increasingly important role of technology in development.’

Richard Clarke, DFID Director General for Policy, Research and Humanitarian

The Frontier Tech Hub supports DFID staff to apply cutting-edge technologies to the biggest challenges in development. Since its inception, the Livestreaming programme has supported 29 pilots in 15 countries doing everything from applying blockchain to the humanitarian supply chain, to using machine learning for classifying road conditions in Tanzania, to seeding an electric motor taxi industry in Rwanda.

Mbuzehose test driving an electric motorbike, Rwanda (Pilot — Low cost, low pollution motorised transport) and Department of Roads staff conduct a field survey, Tanzania (Pilot — Machine learning for classifying road conditions)

The Frontier Tech Hub will provide selected DFID Pioneers with a range of support that includes up to £100,000 of funding, matchmaking with specialist technology innovators and entrepreneurs, tools to work in new, agile ways and more.

Our new cohort of Frontier Technology Pilots will be announced by the Summer. This year there is also a fast-track review process for applications which are relevant to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Read more about the pilots and what we’re learning about frontier tech on our Livestreaming page.

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Olivia Elson
Frontier Tech Hub

Part of the R4D Innovation team, working with DFID’s Frontier Tech Hub and the International Development Innovation Alliance amongst other projects.