The 2026 application window for the Z Zurich Foundation Scholarship closed on 4 May 2026. If you’re reading this after that date, you’ve missed this cycle, but not your shot at the programme. This post walks through everything you need who qualifies, what the scholarship pays for, how the selection actually works, and what to do right now so you’re ready the moment the 2027 round opens.
The scholarship supports individuals working in education, employment, and entrepreneurship to help young people move from learning to earning. It covers major costs, including travel, accommodation, and full participation at the summit.
The scholarship sends 25 young African leaders to the One Young World Summit in Cape Town, fully funded, alongside a year of leadership support most applicants never hear about until it’s too late to prepare for it.
Z Zurich Foundation Scholarship Summary
| Scholarship Name ⇒ | Z Zurich Foundation |
| Host Country ⇒ | South Africa |
| Study Level ⇒ | Training |
| Benefits ⇒ | Fully Funded — Summit access, flights, hotel, meals, ground transport, plus a year-long fellowship option |
| Funded by ⇒ | Z Zurich Foundation, in partnership with One Young World |
| Eligible Countries ⇒ | All African countries |
| Application Deadline ⇒ | 2026 cycle closed 4 May 2026. 2027 cycle expected to open around March 2027, based on this year’s pattern |
What the Z Zurich Foundation Scholarship Actually Is
The Z Zurich Foundation is the philanthropic arm of the Zurich Insurance Group, and it funds work across four areas: climate adaptation, mental well-being, crisis response, and social equity. This scholarship sits inside the social equity pillar.
Rather than handing out grants directly, the Foundation partners with One Young World, the organisation behind the annual Summit that brings together young leaders from over 190 countries to put emerging African changemakers in the room with global policymakers, business leaders, and each other. Twenty-five scholars are selected each year, specifically people already running early-stage initiatives that help young people move from education into paid work or self-employment.
The scholarship exists to plug those leaders into money, mentorship, and a peer network that most grassroots founders in Africa can’t otherwise access.
The foundation is especially interested in solutions that strengthen critical transition points from learning to earning for youth in vulnerable circumstances in one or more of the following areas:
- Youth Employability: Initiatives that improve young people’s transitions into decent work by aligning education and vocational training with local labor-market demand, ensuring that skills translate into viable income pathways. This includes addressing barriers to education completion and transition.
- Youth Entrepreneurship: Initiatives that enable young people to create sustainable livelihoods through entrepreneurship by strengthening financial literacy, improving access to finance, providing business development support, and/or creating pathways to revenue generation.
- Digital Inclusion and Future of Work: Initiatives that bridge the digital divide by expanding access to technology, building digital and future-ready skills, and connecting young people to emerging forms of work, ensuring they can fully participate in Africa’s evolving digital and economic landscape.
- Cross-Cutting Priorities: Across all focus areas, we are particularly interested in initiatives that:
- Improve pathways to decent, safe, and productive work in vulnerable employment contexts.
- Promote the economic inclusion of displaced, refugee, and marginalized youth.
- Support youth mental well-being by building emotional resilience, expanding access to psychosocial support, and creating supportive environments for learning and work.
- Strengthen climate‑resilient and green livelihoods, particularly in rural and agricultural contexts.
Who Should Be Applying
This isn’t a general scholarship for students. It’s built for people already leading something. The Foundation is specifically looking for initiatives working on:
- Youth Employability — connecting education or vocational training directly to what employers are hiring for, so training actually converts into income
- Youth Entrepreneurship — helping young people build sustainable businesses through financial literacy, access to capital, or business development support
- Digital Inclusion and Future of Work — closing the tech-access gap and preparing young people for digital and emerging forms of work
Within those three areas, the Foundation gives extra weight to initiatives working with displaced or refugee youth, projects supporting youth mental health alongside economic inclusion, and green or climate-resilient livelihoods in rural and agricultural communities. If your initiative touches one of these, say so explicitly in your application; reviewers are screening for this.
Eligibility Requirements
You must meet every one of the following to qualify:
- Be aged 18 to 35 by the date of the Summit in November
- Be a national and resident of an African country
- Lead an initiative with demonstrated impact in education, employability, or entrepreneurship
- Be running an early-stage initiative that has not yet received major corporate or institutional funding
- Lead a formally registered not-for-profit organisation with a bank account held in the organisation’s name, not your personal account
- Hold a primary leadership role in the initiative, not a supporting one
- Commit to the full Pre-Summit and Post-Summit programme, not just the Summit itself
That last point trips people up. The Foundation treats the pre- and post-Summit engagement as part of the scholarship, not an optional add-on, and applicants who signal they only want the Cape Town trip tend to score lower in review.
What the Scholarship Package Includes
“Fully funded” gets used loosely across scholarship listings, so here’s exactly what it covers:
- Full participation in the One Young World Summit, including all sessions and networking events
- Hotel accommodation in Cape Town for the duration of the Summit
- Return international airfare to and from South Africa
- Breakfast, lunch, and dinner throughout the Summit period
- Ground transportation between official Summit venues
- A virtual Pre-Summit Engagement and Preparation Program running through September and October, built around leadership development and readiness for the Summit
- An in-person Pre-Summit Connection Day in Cape Town, held the day before the Summit opens, where scholars meet each other and Foundation staff before the main event begins
- A Post-Summit Debrief Session held online in late November
- Eligibility to apply for a one-year Post-Summit Fellowship under the Foundation’s Global Changemakers Program, a smaller, competitive cohort that gets ongoing capacity-building support after the Summit ends
That last benefit is worth pausing on. Most Summit scholarships end when the event does. This one has a built-in path to another year of support, but you have to apply for it separately once you’re already a scholar; it isn’t automatic.
How Selection Works
Z Zurich Foundation and One Young World review applications against the strength of your initiative, evidence of impact, and how clearly your leadership role comes through in the application. There’s no examination or interview stage publicly documented for this programme, which means the entire decision rests on how well you write the application form, specifically the sections describing your initiative and its results. Vague descriptions of “helping youth” without numbers behind them are the most common reason strong initiatives get passed over. If your organisation tracks any outcome data, such as people trained, jobs placed, revenue generated, that data belongs in your application, not just in your annual report.
Documents to Have Ready
Start gathering these well before the portal reopens:
- Proof of identity: passport or national ID
- Evidence of your leadership role in the initiative
- Registration documents for your organisation
- Details of your initiative’s activities and impact
- Any available impact data or third-party evidence of results
Organisation registration documents are the one item that consistently causes delays, particularly for founders operating informally or mid-registration. If your organisation isn’t yet formally registered with its own bank account, that’s the priority to resolve before the next cycle opens. It’s a hard eligibility requirement, not a preference.
How to Prepare for the 2027 Cycle
Applications for the 2026 cycle opened 16 March and closed 4 May — a window of roughly seven weeks. If the Foundation follows the same pattern, expect the 2027 application portal to open around March 2027. In the months before that:
- Confirm your organisation’s registration and bank account are fully in place
- Document your initiative’s impact with numbers, not just descriptions
- Draft your application narrative early rather than writing it during the application window
- Watch the official One Young World scholarship page and the Z Zurich Foundation’s channels for the exact opening date
- Subscribe to ScholarWaka’s scholarship alerts, so you’re notified the moment the 2027 application goes live
Frequently Asked Questions
Is the Z Zurich Foundation Scholarship still open for 2026?
No. The 2026 application window closed on 4 May 2026. Applications for the 2027 cycle are expected to open around March 2027, based on this year’s timeline.
Can Nigerian applicants apply for this scholarship?
Yes. The scholarship is open to nationals and residents of any African country, including Nigeria, provided the applicant leads a qualifying registered not-for-profit initiative.
Does the scholarship cover a university degree?
No. This is not a degree scholarship. It funds participation in the One Young World Summit plus a structured leadership programme, not academic study.
What happens if I don’t have a registered organisation yet?
You won’t qualify. A formally registered not-for-profit entity with its own bank account is a fixed eligibility requirement, so this is worth resolving before the next application window opens rather than during it.
Can I reapply if I wasn’t selected in a previous cycle?
The Foundation doesn’t publish a restriction against reapplying. Strengthening your impact evidence and leadership documentation before the next cycle improves your chances regardless of prior outcomes.
Disclaimer: All scholarship details, deadlines, award values, and eligibility criteria in this post were verified from official sources as of July 2026. Information is subject to change without notice. Always confirm the latest details directly on the official Z Zurich Foundation Scholarship website before submitting your application. ScholarWaka is not affiliated with Z Zurich Foundation or One Young World.
Official Application Portal
Join ScholarWaka Community
Get the latest scholarship updates and study abroad opportunities before anyone else.
