Third ERAfrica Briefing Session for Programme Owners about the ERA.Net ERAfrica

4 -5 May 2012. South African Representation. Brussels. This Briefing Session informed about the progress in the elaboration of the Joint Call and casted a look on the next steps towards the funding of collaborative European-African projects.

ERAfrica facilitates networking of African and European funders of research and innovation working together to jointly finance research and innovation partnerships between the two continents.

The network presently consists of ministries and public funding institutions from countries such as Austria, Belgium, Egypt, Finland, France, Germany, Kenya, Portugal, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland and Turkey. A wave of new partners, from for example Uganda, Côte d’Ivoire, Norway and Burkina Faso, are currently considering to commit funding for the ERAfrica activities.

With regard to the thematic focus, the funders have agreed to target their funding at three priority areas:

1. Renewable energy: research and innovation for renewable electricity generation, fuel production, heating and cooling. These activities will address Africa and Europe’s shared societal, industrial and environmental interests to develop sustainable economies. 
2. ”Interfacing Challenges”: research to better understand and address the interfaces between different societal challenges such as assuring food security, fighting pandemic disease, managing climate change, promoting inclusive information societies, etc. Activities will be aligned with the global “Rio+20” sustainable development agenda. 
3. “Idea driven”: curiosity driven, cutting-edge collaborative research and innovation, irrespective of the theme chosen. Novelty and impact matters.