The Alliance for African Partnership (AAP), a consortium of ten leading African universities and Michigan State University, is inviting proposals for its Partnerships for Innovative Research in Africa (PIRA) grants. As a consortium-wide initiative, the PIRA grants are a tiered funding opportunity designed to cultivate and support multidirectional and transregional research partnerships at any stage of their development, whether it be initiatives to explore and create new relationships or scale existing ones. One of the unique aspects to these grants is the expectation that organizations will establish and develop fair and equitable partnerships from the conception to the closeout of the project with relevant local stakeholders, involving them as appropriate throughout the project, respecting their knowledge and expertise, and taking an adaptive approach that is responsive to the local context. Proposals should outline processes to establish such partnerships. Fair and equitable partnerships must also be established among members of the consortium if multiple organizations are working on the implementation of the project. Proposed partnership activities may entail cooperative research, capacity building initiatives, outreach and/or other activities that align with AAP’s strategic objectives (described below in SELECTION CRITERIA), and address at least one of AAP’s priority areas, which are: agri-food systems; water, energy and the environment; culture; youth empowerment; education; and, health and nutrition.