The AfriConEu project envisions to essentially strengthen and reinforce the digital innovation ecosystems in Africa by targeting existing Digital Innovation Hubs (DIHs) and supporting them through capacity building and networking activities. African DIHs are playing a central role in the development of digital entrepreneurship and by raising their capacities to tackle the challenges they face they will be more effective in driving digital innovation forward. To achieve its mission, the AfriConEu project will connect DIHs from Nigeria, Uganda and Tanzania with DIHs from Europe with the aim to (i) facilitate knowledge and experience sharing, (ii) drive the development of mutually beneficial partnerships and (iii) support the creation of collective projects for boosting digital economy, empowering youth and fostering innovation and growth. To realize its mission the project will develop, test and validate the “AfriConEu Networking Academy” an innovative mechanism for connecting and sharing best practices, experiences and resources between DIHs in Africa and between DIHs in Africa and EU, in a comprehensive, replicable and self-sustaining way. Through two flagships programmes, the AfriConEu Networking Academy will empower and enable African DIHs to best serve their local industry, boost their start-up ecosystem and empower the youth population with the necessary skills to thrive in a digitalized world.

The increased number of Clinical Trials taking place in Africa as well as the complexity of Clinical Trials designs require that the countries have the regulatory capacity to review, monitor and utilize data generated from the research. Research Ethics Committees/Institutional Review Boards, Institutional Animal Care and Use Committees and National Regulatory Agencies (NRAs) are required to be abreast with the evolving landscape thus require continuous capacity building as well as have platforms to share Clinical Trials information with both the public and private sector. The 11th Annual National Research Ethics Conference held in 2021 in Uganda highlighted challenges in the low and middle income countries for research ethics and open science specifically, the lack of infrastructure for open data sharing and fair data management. Specifically, i) lack of the national and regional guidelines and codes of conduct for scientific integrity ii) limited training and education in responsible conduct of research and pharmacovigilance. This proposal focuses on strengthening ethics and responsible conduct of Clinical Trials in East and Sub-Saharan Africa project through the establishment of a research ethics and integrity framework, open data access framework for Clinical Trials, E-learning platform for the Good Research Regulatory Research Practice Course and establishing Research Ethics Committees in National Regional Hospitals. The consortium will leverage on the legal establishment of the institutions, collaborative efforts with the partner institutions, East African Health Research Commission (EAHRC), African Vaccine Regulatory Forum (AVAREF). Having a robust regulatory system, encompassing research integrity and open science will ensure that Clinical Trials is conducted to the highest ethical standards and in compliance with existing polices and laws, hence protection of safety, rights and welfare of the individual participants, community, researcher and sponsors.

IST-Africa (2016 - 2018) has 4 complimentary objectives focused on strengthening ICT-related research and innovation cooperation between Europe and Africa: 1) Foster greater coordination of research and innovation activities; 2) Strengthen research and innovation linkages, increase awareness of research and innovation capacity and cooperation opportunities, and support mutually beneficial collaboration; 3) Monitor research and innovation activities in 17 IST-Africa Partner Countries to identify and provide input on common R&D priorities and future cooperation opportunities; and 4) Promote participation in ICT-39-2017 and other relevant Horizon 2020 calls, disseminate results from ICT-39-2015 and other relevant calls. IST-Africa (2016 - 2018) leverages results and achievements from previous phases of IST-Africa to realise its objectives. Coordination will be undertaken through national Horizon 2020 Train-the-Trainer Workshops and stakeholder meetings. Help Desk activities, international conferences and engagement with African and European stakeholders will assist in strengthening research and innovation linkages. Surveys will be undertaken across the 17 participating African Member States to monitor ICT-related research and innovation activities, map research and innovation capacity, priorities and bilateral cooperation initiatives to support future planning. Relevant calls will be promoted and results disseminated through national and international dissemination channels, physical meetings and conference presentations. All activities are well aligned with the work programme priorities through the organisation of research and innovation events and conferences with policy dimensions, monitoring of research and innovation activities, identification of common R&D priorities, strengthening linkages, raising awareness of collaboration opportunities, dissemination of results and building on the achievements of an ongoing Support Action for Africa.