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28 March 2009
ST-EAP Participants at the workshop, Nairobi, Kenya. |
The African Academy of Science (AAS) and Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR, South Africa) organised a successful workshop, which was held on 26-27 March 2009 in Nairobi Kenya.
The ST-EAP (Science & Technology Europe-Africa Project) is a Europe-African project, under Framework Programme Theme 6 (PF6), which was implemented in 2007. The project is managed and administered by two consortium partners i.e. AAS in Kenya and CSIR in South Africa.
The objectives of the workshop were:
- to raise awareness among African researchers to participate in the Framework Programme Theme 7 (FP7), as well as looking into the challenges thereof.
- to provide a basis for networking between African researchers in order to promote cooperation and coordination between African countries with regards to promote African participation in FP7; and
- to increase awareness of the role of the Science and Technology programme.
The workshop was held over two days with over 100 participants including academics, researchers and government officials. Participants were from 20 countries; excluding Kenya. Among these countries was Mali, Madagascar, Mauritius, Ghana, Nigeria, Morocco, Sudan, Malawi, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Uganda and South Africa.
In the opening remarks session, Mr Titus Katembu, an EU representative based in Nairobi read a speech from the European Commission. In the speech it was mentioned that "S&T cooperation with Africa is not driven by philanthropy, but by common interests and common benefits. The global S&T context is calling for a strengthened cooperation between Europe and Africa. Our S&T cooperation with Africa should follow 2 routes: 1. there is a need for building a basic S&T infrastructure, and 2. pro pursuing strategic research."
The speakers included researchers and scientists who have participated in the Framework Programme projects and had a clear understanding of how the PF works. The topics that were covered were: tips and guidelines to prepare an EU FP proposal; examples of African FP7 proposals; and the relationships between EU and Africa on S&T.
The last session of the programme, which the participants found to be extremely interesting and challenging was where the participants were allocated into groups, according to their thematic areas of interest. In these groups they had to discuss possible thematic topics for EU FP7 and to show how these topics could benefit to the community.
By the end of the workshop, almost 50 participants had already registered as ST-EAP community members and half of that have inquired about the FP7 current open calls.
ST-EAP will be measured or evaluated by the number of African researchers who participated in FP7, while the project was in action.
Enquiries: Ms Zethu Mkhondo
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