Introducing our latest cohort of Frontier Technologies Pioneers

The seventh call of Frontier Technology Livestreaming has come to a close and the latest cohort of ideas and FCDO Pioneers has been chosen.

We received a massive 82 applications spanning 35 different countries across all six major continents. Thank you to all the staff across FCDO who chose to take part in the process. You can read more about those ideas in our next post: Could white paint be considered ‘frontier tech’?

After much deliberation, the panel selected 13 innovative proposals to take forward 🚀

Pilot teams will receive an initial £75,000 and discovery fund teams up to £30,000 in funding, access to matchmaking opportunities with specialised technologists, be supported to work in lean and agile ways and livestream what they learn along the way.

You can see the map of new pilot ideas below:

Introducing the Discovery Fund 🧭

This year, in addition to a new cohort of pilots we’ve selected an additional 8 ideas for support under our Discovery Fund. This fund is designed to support early stage ideas to enable Pioneers to test their seedling of an idea, before it potentially becomes a pilot. Discovery Fund pilots will receive similar support and smaller grants to test their concepts.
You can see the map of Discovery Fund pilot ideas below:

Read on for the the full list of pilots

Livestreaming Pilots 🚀

  • Beyond relief - Using digital remittances technology for informal enterprises

  • Democratising Deep-Sea Discovery for Developing Nations (D4N)

  • Digital mapping to protect Freedom of Religion or Belief

  • EmpatIA: AI to enhance healthcare in Peruvian remote areas

  • eTriage for Social Inclusion: Navigating Out of Vulnerability Situations (eTSI NOVuS)

  • Harnessing sensor technologies to improve beekeeping productivity in South Africa

  • Integrating satellite and ground bigdata to improve cocoa production.

  • Localised distributed production techniques in the Pacific

  • Pnyx – The digital public assembly, Redefining Representation.

  • Project SAPLING: Drone-based remote sensing for reforestation investment

  • Using Artificial Intelligence to Scale Access to Forest Carbon Markets

  • Using climate change scenarios to inform community based adaptation

  • VR/AR in prevention and response to CRSV

Discovery Fund Pilots 🧭

  • Integrating AI in asset management of the rural water supply schemes

  • Digital mapping to protect Freedom of Religion or Belief

  • DNA forensics to tackle illegal wildlife trade with MinION technology

  • Quantifying GHG offset potential of green roofs in Southern Africa towards developing investible project models

  • Responsible tech and policy approaches to the Metaverse for education

  • Solar Home Electrolyser (SHE) Proof of Concept and Piloting 

  • Protecting land rights and forests in Ghana with blockchain

  • Harnessing Geo-Data Technologies to Support Peace Positive Investment


We congratulate the newest cohort of Frontier Tech Pioneers on their outstanding ideas and wish them success with their pilots. Please join us in giving a very warm welcome to the programme to these new teams! 🥳

Frontier Tech Hub

The Frontier Tech Hub works with UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) staff and global partners to understand the potential for innovative tech in the development context, and then test and scale their ideas.

https://www.frontiertechhub.org/
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