Africa-Europe Science and Innovation Summit

This presentation will provide an overview of the “Africa Initiative”, integral part of the first Work Programme for 2021-2022 of the recently adopted “Horizon Europe”. With a budget of approximately 100 billion €, Horizon Europe is the world’s largest programme on research and innovation (R&I), and will be open to researchers and innovators from around the globe who are encouraged to liaise with European partners in preparing proposals.

Within this programme, the Africa Initiative represents the immediate outcome of the first ever European Union (EU) - African Union (AU) R&I Ministerial of July 2020, and falls within a comprehensive strategy that recognises R&I as instrumental to the development of resilient, knowledge-based societies and economies, as highlighted by the brand new Global Approach to R&I communication (adopted by the European Commission in May 2021). Accordingly, the Africa Initiative aims to strengthen the long-term cooperation between the two continents to enhance global public health, socio-economic development and recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.

The initiative will therefore focus on four thematic areas, responding to four joint EU-AU policy priorities, namely:
(i) Public Health;
(ii) Green Transition;
(iii) Innovation & Technology;
(iv) Capacities for Science.

For each of these themes, several calls for proposals are expected to be published in the near future, as soon as the Work Programme for Horizon Europe is adopted. Some examples of potential R&I areas to be covered by the calls will be illustrated during the talk.