Call for funding proposals: economics of climate change adaptation in Africa (grants of USD 80,000–120,000 per project)

Ednah Carrick February 22, 2026

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Closing Date: 5 March 2026

Call for funding proposals: economics of climate change adaptation in Africa (grants of USD 80,000–120,000 per project)

Raising Adaptation Impact and Ambition (RAIA) is inviting call for funding proposals to support research on the economics of climate change adaptation in Africa.

About the RAIA project

RAIA is a UK Aid-funded climate adaptation project under the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO)’s Climate Adaptation and Resilience (CLARE) Research Programme. The project is led by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) in partnership with SEI Africa.

The project addresses persistent gaps in economic evidence, research capacity and policy tools needed to support effective climate adaptation in lower-income countries. It bridges the science–policy divide to ensure that research informs practical decision-making. RAIA aims to strengthen the capacity of economic researchers to produce policy-relevant analysis co-created with stakeholders. This evidence is intended to support government plans, policies and strategies that enable equitable and inclusive climate-resilient development.

RAIA will fund country-specific research that helps governments make informed financial decisions and integrate climate adaptation into national planning and budgeting. Selected experts will work closely with ministries of finance and key stakeholders to ensure that findings are relevant and usable in policy.

Grant details

Funding amount: USD 80,000–120,000 per project
Project duration: approximately 11 months
Number of grants available: 10–12

Call for funding proposals: Scope of Work

The initiative will be centered on a call for proposals aimed at climate, economic, and policy researchers, designed to support addressing a range of questions around the economics of climate change adaptation. It will engage researchers and experts across African countries and aims to fund climate economics policy-research projects.

How Ministries of Finance can assess and manage physical climate risks and adaptation: Available
analytical tools and emerging good practice. A report of the Coalition of Finance Ministers for Climate Action

Key research thematic areas can include:

Developing financial quantification of the costs of climate impacts in the economy, and of
potential adaptation responses.
Identifying and assessing financial, economic, regulatory, and market-based instruments
required to finance and deliver ambitious climate actionswith attention.
Supporting the tracking, value capture and allocation of adaptation finance, for example
through analysing how itis allocated across sectors and population groups throughtracking
within budgets such as public expenditure reviews, asset -level analysis, and debt
sustainability analysis, such as climate budget tagging and tracking (CBT) and disaster
budget tagging and tracking (DBT)
All the research must embed and aim to overcome issues around distributional impacts, gender
equality and social inclusio

Eligibility criteria

Applicants must meet the following requirements:

The lead applicant organization must be a university, an academic institution, a policy or economic research institution, a parastatal body, a think tank, or an independent entity. Government ministries are not eligible to apply.
The lead applicant organization must be legally registered and based in an African country and must demonstrate relevant prior experience in similar research projects, such as climate risk analysis, economic impact assessments, climate finance, or related climate adaptation and economic policy research.
The research project clearly demonstrates that it addresses a specific and well-defined barrier or gap in economic research related to inclusive adaptation, that has a clearly identified pathway for implementation. These may include filling a specific policy gap, a demand from a Ministry of Finance, among others.
The applicant organization must demonstrate an existing partnership, collaboration, or prior working relationship with the Ministry of Finance or similar national finance authority.
The proposed research activities, methodology, and outputs must align with RAIA project timelines.

Thematic areas

Proposed research may fall under one or more of the following thematic areas:

Quantifying the economic costs of climate impacts and adaptation responses
Identifying financial, economic, regulatory or market-based instruments to support climate action
Supporting the tracking, allocation and value capture of adaptation finance

All research must consider distributional impacts, gender equality and social inclusion.