Policy background

The EU puts forward the importance of research, innovation, engineering and information technologies for development. The European S&T actions for development focus uppermost on Africa, as it is the continent where the scientific and digital divide is the widest. The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) identify the essential role of science and technology for socio-economic transformation. However, investments in African scientific capacities have not been prioritized and the continent is losing some of its best scientific and technical expertise to other regions.

The Joint Africa-EU Strategy, adopted in Lisbon in December 2007, lays down a long-term vision for a strategic partnership between Africa and the EU. It marks a qualitative leap in relations between the two continents, as it provides an overarching long-term framework for Africa-EU relations. Its first action plan specifies concrete proposals structured along eight Africa-EU strategic partnerships, and aims at streamlining existing instruments to finance those partnerships.

Collaboration is also on-going through the European Framework Programme, where specific international cooperation actions focus on research issues relevant to developing countries. Moreover, a number of specific actions contributing to the agenda of the EU development policy have been developed through support to the coordination of research policies of EU Member States. As part of the current framework, the EU has recently allocated €15 million to African countries to set up joint funds to finance scientific research. This was announced by the Egyptian program manager of R&D and innovation during a meeting of experts in Cairo on the 15th of March, 2010, to prepare for the Conference of African Ministers of S&T.

S&T in FP7

Under the Cooperation Programme of the FP7, projects involving 368 participants from 37 African countries have already been main-listed. The main European contribution is in accessing African knowledge networks and strengthening its S&T capabilities through cooperation. The themes offering greatest immediate opportunities for developing S&T cooperation are health, agriculture and food, environment and natural resources, climate change, information and communication technologies. In addition, almost €9 million are allocated to activities with Africa in the Capacities Programme so far. Notable examples of such projects are the networks “CAASTNET” and “MIRA” which disseminate information about opportunities offered through the FP and support S&T policy dialogue with Sub-Saharan Africa and Mediterranean countries respectively.

The European Commission (EC) is notably supporting Agricultural Research for Development (ARD) as part of its EU development and research policies. The FP7 – Food Agriculture and Biotechnologies and the Food Security Thematic Programme (FSTP) are the two main instruments contributing to the support of ARD at the global, continental and sub-regional level. The Commission has notably facilitated a consultation between European and African ARD experts. Its objective was to establish priority areas of cooperation to increase the impact of agricultural research on rural productivity, poverty reduction, food security and sustainable management of natural resources. More specifically, it identified targeted research topics and activities, in order to prioritise the areas to be funded by FP7 and the FSTP.

Science, ICT and Space

The MDGs identify information and communication technologies as key enablers for poverty reduction and growth, and to develop an inclusive information society in Africa. It is on these principles, and in the context of World Summit on Information Society, that the African Regional Action Plan for Knowledge Economy was developed. The Africa-EU Partnership on Science, Information Society and Space ("The 8th Partnership"), seeks to bridge the digital and scientific gap within African countries and between Africa and other regions, as well as foster cooperation on space applications and technology to support Africa's sustainable development objectives.

Under the 8th Partnership the EC and the African Union Commission (AUC) have identified a broad range of S&T capacity building projects and initiatives. They are intended to help reinforce the African Science and Technology basis and its research systems both in terms of production and use of knowledge and in terms of institutional S&T policy capability. Two lighthouse projects selected in the Science and Technology chapter are:

• African Research Grants: promote sustainable science and technology research for Africa’s technical, economic and social development, by focusing on competitive grants to African researchers
• ‘Water and food security’ and ‘Better access to health in Africa’ initiatives: strengthen the capacity in science and technology to cope with food security problems while promoting sustainable management of land and water resources