Funding Innovation
Empowering African students through strategic grants and innovative educational programs
Plant Biology Research Award • 2025
Experiment Foundation Microgrant
Empowering African Students through Open-Access Plant Synthetic Biology Education
In early 2025, SynBio4ALL Africa proudly received a Plant Biology Exploratory Research Microgrant from the Experiment Foundation. This microgrant supported a groundbreaking initiative to equip African students with hands-on experience in plant synthetic biology, focusing on the genome sequencing of a native African plant.
The grant made it possible to design and launch:
“Exploring African Biodiversity with an Open-Source Educational Program in Plant Synthetic Biology.”
Course information is hosted on the
SynBio4ALL Plant Course Page
Project Overview
The Challenge
Africa is home to rich plant biodiversity, yet many native species remain genetically understudied, leaving significant gaps in conservation, agriculture, and biotechnology. Simultaneously, African students often lack access to cutting-edge synthetic biology training due to resource and infrastructure constraints.
Our Solution
This grant-funded project aims to close both gaps through a 6–10 week online course that introduces participants to:
The core project involves students identifying candidate native African plants of nutritional, ecological, or medicinal value. With support from volunteers, plant samples would be collected, DNA extracted and sequenced, and students performed real-time data analysis using open-source tools.
Impact
1. Equitable Scientific Training
The course is provided completely free to students across the continent, many of whom participated using only smartphones or basic laptops.
2. Skills for the Future
Participants gain real-world experience in genomics and bioinformatics, skills critical for future careers in biotechnology and conservation.
3. Localised Research
The project generates publicly accessible whole genome sequences of native African plants, contributing novel data to the global scientific community.
4. Reusable Educational Assets
All course materials are made available as open educational resources (OER), ensuring sustainability and reusability long after the grant period.
5. Institutional Capacity-Building
The program serves as a blueprint for future plant synbio education in Africa, enabling universities and hubs to replicate the course.
Industry Recognition & Endorsements
Our initiative has been recognized and supported by leading voices in the global synthetic biology space.
Vinoo Selvarajah
VP of Technology, iGEM Foundation
“Commended the project for empowering underserved communities with access to meaningful research experiences.”
Dr. Emily R. Aurand
Senior Director, EBRC
“Endorsed SynBio4ALL's efforts in strengthening educational pipelines in regions where plant synthetic biology resources are scarce.”
Looking Ahead
This grant project has not only proven the feasibility of remote-first, open-access synthetic biology education in Africa, but has also laid the groundwork for future programs under SynBio4ALL's education and biodiversity tracks.
More Plant Species
Introduce more plant species for sequencing and analysis
Regular Cohorts
Host annual or biannual training cohorts
Research Ecosystem
Build a student-led research ecosystem for synthetic biology in Africa
This microgrant was a seed that continues to grow—into empowered students, richer datasets, and a more inclusive future for synthetic biology.
