European Union and African Union research and innovation ministers meet for the first time
On the 16th of July, SE Mariya Gabriel, European Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth, and SE Sarah Agbor, the African Union (AU) Commissioner for Human Resources, Science and Technology, hosted the first ever EU-AU research and innovation ministers' meeting.
Discussions covered four areas of Cooperation, Public health, Green transition, Innovation and technology, Capacity for Science.
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| SE Mariya Gabriel, European Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth, and SE Sarah Agbor, the African Union (AU) Commissioner for Human Resources, Science and Technology |
Discussions covered four areas of Cooperation, Public health, Green transition, Innovation and technology, Capacity for Science.
Innovation and technology is a more recent domain of cooperation between Africa and Europe. The meeting featured successful initiatives such as the pilot Africa-Europe Innovation Partnership, the EU-Africa Digital innovation hubs (showcasing digital solutions with links to the Digital Education action plan), and support to the African Research and Education networks infrastructure through programmes such as AfricaConnect.
In 2018-19, as it was suggested by the Delegation of European Union to the African Union, and was also discussed in Technical Meetings, the GMES and Africa Support Programme started liaising with the AfricaConnect Project to see how to collaborate on the access to network infrastructure and Training activities.
AfricaConnect hence dedicated a specific activity to support GMES and Africa and AfriGEO in its new phase 3 started early this year and in which ASREN will be leading on behalf and of the other African RENs (WACREN and UbuntuNet Alliance).
More information https://gmes4africa.blogspot.com/2020/01/africa-europe-alliance-eu-boosts-pan-african-internet-connectivity-eu30-million.html
Since then, several online meeting happened to refine the terms of such collaboration.
In March 2020, the European Commission published the Communication ‘Towards a comprehensive Strategy with Africa’ including a focus on stepped up cooperation in R&I with Africa. The global EU response to COVID-19 published in April also has a strong focus on R&I and Africa. Both are in line with the Green Deal priority of the Commission, which includes developing a green growth model, improving the business environment and investing in climate research and innovation.
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