Call for Proposals Launch

AEF launched its first call for proposals on December 3^rd, 2025, with an online event hosted in partnership with the Rockefeller Foundation and the African Climate Foundation – two institutions that have been instrumental in the establishment of AEF.

Stéphanie Bouckaert, Head of Demand Sectors Unit and Daniel Wetzel, Head of the Tracking Sustainable Transitions Unit at the International Energy Agency (IEA) kicked off the event by walking participants through the World Energy Outlook 2025, focusing on African energy challenges and solutions. The session was particularly valuable to institutions who are submitting concept notes because it provided analytically rigorous scenarios and global and regional trends that they will be expected to contextualise in their submissions.

The IEA presentation was followed by a panel discussion with the team that conceptualized and has incubated AEF. The panel was moderated by Cassady Walters, Vice President, Power, at the Rockefeller Foundation, and comprised: Saliem Fakir, Executive Director at the African Climate Foundation (ACF); Rose Mutiso, Science Advisor at the Energy for Growth (E4G) Hub; and Meron Tesfamichael, Operations Director at AISESA. The panel highlighted the timeliness of the initiative, emphasizing the urgency of building local energy modelling and research capacity. Walters said that the Rockefeller Foundation has made investments in the energy sector, but they’d found that too many countries were forced to rely on externally designed models and solutions, and that this intervention was meant to address that gap. Mutiso described how the idea for AEF began COP21 in Glasgow, where the E4G team realised that “analysis scenario planning and modelling are a hidden engine that shape policymaking,” but that African decisionmakers did not always have access to local expertise to support them. Mutiso’s team gathered feedback and insights from over 100 experts and convened a co-design workshop which culminated in the establishment of AEF. Tesfamichael highlighted the challenges that African policymakers face and the importance of grounding any evidence base in the local context, to improve the likelihood of implementation success. Fakir added that many African countries are working to increase investment for economic development, and that long-term energy planning is crucial for facilitating economic growth and diversification.

Stephen Nicholls, Director at AEF, closed out the meeting by presenting AEF’s mission and vision for energy modelling and planning. He also outlined the grant eligibility criteria and the expectations and assessment criteria for the concept notes, which are due in January 2026.

The launch of the call for proposals marks a significant milestone for AEF, which is now on track to issue its first grant in 2026.

The recording of the launch can be viewed on AEF’s Youtube channel.