Back EUTOPIA joins a Call for Action for a new framework for cooperation between Africa and Europe

EUTOPIA joins a Call for Action for a new framework for cooperation between Africa and Europe

The statement claims that the ambition to accelerate Africa’s transition to an innovation-led, research-based, and knowledge-based economy requires “a novel approach to science cooperation between Africa and Europe"

02.06.2023

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EUTOPIA has an important commitment with global cooperation. Therefore, Tiziana Lippiello, President of EUTOPIA and Rector of University Ca’Foscari Venezia, has signed a joint Call for Action from universities and research organisations from all parts of Africa and Europe to urge the African Union and the European Union to set a comprehensive, long-term vision for the Global Gateway’s AU-EU Innovation Agenda, and to lead an integrated Africa-EU Science, Technology, and Innovation Programme during the following years.

The statement claims that the ambition to accelerate Africa’s transition to an innovation-led, research-based, and knowledge-based economy requires “a novel approach to science cooperation between Africa and Europe, grounded on sustainability, excellence, capacity-building, and scalability”.

Since the Research Ministers of the two Unions will meet on 13th June 2023 to adopt the final version of the AU-EU Innovation Agenda, the call argues that there is a “need for an innovative funding instrument to strengthen long-term research cooperation between Africa and Europe.”

President Lippiello said that “EUTOPIA wholeheartedly endorses the call” since a “novel approach to science cooperation between Africa and Europe is for our ten universities an absolute necessity to address the African brain drain and wellbeing”.

The call is supported by organisations representing around 2,000 universities across Africa, Europe and beyond as well as research organisations. The statement has three main demands: Building on the success of the African Research Initiative for Scientific Excellence (ARISE) to support excellent African researchers, Establishing AU-EU Centres of Excellence to champion new types of institutional partnerships with a transformative potential, and Developing research and innovation infrastructures to boost the impact and the sustainability of cooperation.

You can read the full statement here.
 

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