For South Africa, the quest for energy, climate and economic development grows more urgent by the year. For provinces, this path of progress is perilous in various ways as mines endure job losses, green energy projects wrestle with grid constraints, farms lay at the mercy of extreme weather, and cities are stifled by waste and emissions.
In the search for sustainable, locally led solutions, applications are now open for the National Cleantech Innovation Challenge (NCIC) 2026. Opened on 5 February, this nationwide programme elevates practical, locally grounded solutions to tangible provincial challenges.
NCIC 2026 breaks from the traditional single, centralised competition model. This move has been led by the Technology Innovation Agency in partnership with NGIN, various regional innovation hubs and entrepreneurial support organisation Start-Up Culture.
This year, the competition consists of nine provincial challenges, each focused on a predefined market or technology gap that hinders individual provincial development.
“This is all built around actionable delivery,” says Vusi Skosana, Executive for Innovation and Enabling Support at the Technology Innovation Agency. “All our provinces are beset by different transition realities. We wanted to create a framework where national coordination can support solutions ready to be tested and taken to market by local innovators.”
Skosana says this year’s competitions comes provinces are pressured to translate policy into action. Mpumalanga is navigating the move away from coal and the need to create alternative sources of employment. The Northern and Western Cape are expanding renewable energy generation, but the grid remains volatile. Farming provinces like the Free State are under immense strain from declining soil quality, climate events and the legacy of mining. This is all while urban centres like Gauteng face mounting waste volumes and transport bottlenecks.
“With NCIC 2026, we place small and medium enterprises at the centre of these responses,” Skosana remarks. “Applications are open to all South Africa-based innovators, entrepreneurs, SMMEs and research teams with scalable cleantech solutions aligned to provincial priorities.”
According to the challenge rules, each province has been allocated a defined challenge to solve. These include:
- Eastern Cape – Waste-to-value in urban and rural areas
- Free State – Regenerative agriculture in large-scale commercial farming
- Gauteng – Smart mobility cleantech challenge
- KwaZulu-Natal – Clean port logistics
- Limpopo- Regenerative Agriculture in Small Scale Farming
- Mpumalanga- Clean energy
- North West – Rehabilitation of mining lands for agricultural use
- Western Cape – Hybrid optimization of wind, solar, and biomass technologies
- Northern Cape – Renewable energy generation and transmission
Skosana says NCIC 2026 is a solid representation of South Africa’s participation in the Global Cleantech Innovation Programme, a United Nations Industrial Development Organization initiative supported by the Global Environment Facility.
“Since 2014, more than 800 South African ventures have entered this pipeline, with hundreds progressing into structured acceleration and post-acceleration support,” says Skosana.
He says the focus of NCIC 2026 is on taking viable ideas out of the pilot phase and into everyday use. Participants gain access to technical and commercial expertise, acceleration pathways and networks of partners and investors interested in technologies that can be deployed at scale.
“As the pace of our transition needs accelerate, we have no choice but to embolden our people. And we do this through national coordination, provincial priorities and enterprise-level innovation. Do it right, and we make developmental progress a motivator for provincial and national success,” Skosana concludes.
Applications remain open to all South Africa-based innovators, entrepreneurs, SMMEs and research teams. Applications close on the 21st of April. For full eligibility criteria and application details, visit www.ncic-sa.org.