EuroAfrica-ICT

The EuroAfriCa-ICT project aims at promoting and supporting the development of strategic cooperation on ICT research between Europe and sub-Saharan Africa, and with the Caribbean as well.

The project is supported by the European Commission’s [http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/information_society/text_en.htm DG Information Society and Media] through its Seventh Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development (FP7) and builds upon the achievements reached by the START project (IST-6-45377-SSA). The project began on January 1, 2008, and is scheduled to last for 24 months.

Project activities

Project activities include the organisation of two cooperation summits: one in Europe (Lyon, France, November 2008) and one in Africa (2009); the organisation of awareness workshops in Africa and in the Caribbean (more precisely in Benin, Jamaica, Rwanda, South Africa and Uganda) supported by a wide promotion of opportunities offered by FP7 (ICT theme). Euro-Africa also plans to organise periodical concertation meetings in Europe (4 over the project lifetime) supported by the implementation of links with national, European and international programmes and initiatives, including European Technology Platforms and Joint Technology Initiatives, and to give support to the development of strategic partnerships and flagship cooperation projects based in particular on the implementation and development of a EuroAfriCa-ICT database. They also plan to develop a web-based communication platform devoted to EU-sub-Saharan Africa S&T cooperation on ICT, part of an extensive set of promotion and dissemination activities.

Partnership

Coordinated by [http://www.orionis.com Orionis] (France), a European organisation who had already coordinated the START project, the EuroAfriCa-ICT partnership includes :
* Agence universitaire de la francophonie (AUF), Belgium
* [http://www.acu.ac.uk Association of Commonwealth Universities (ACU)] , United Kingdom
* [http://www.caswi.org Caribbean Academy of Sciences (CAS)] , Jamaica
* Kigali Institute of Science and Technology (KIST), Rwanda
* Makerere University, Uganda
* [http://www.meraka.org.za Meraka Institute of CSIR] , South Africa
* [http://www.panos-ao.org Panos Institute West Africa (PIWA)] , Senegal
* [http://www.twas.org TWAS, academy of sciences for the developing world] , Italy

External links

* [http://www.euroafrica-ict.org EuroAfrica-ICT web site]