SophiA system enables African people access to off-grid carbon-neutral electricity, heating and cooling of food and medicine as well as safe and clean drinking water, increasing quality of life in a sustainable way. Broad implementation of SophiA systems will bring vast environmental, economic, social and especially health benefits. It will be demonstrated at 4 rural health facilities, i.e. where aid is most needed, in 4 different climate regions, by providing sustainable solutions appropriate to the African context. The innovative, affordable and efficient SophiA renewable energy solutions will support Africa in achieving sustainable development growth and economic transformation. SophiA systems will be developed by a multi-national interdisciplinary team of 13 partners well balanced between academia and industry, and Africa and Europe. The African manufactured SophiA systems will for the first time provide an innovative solution based on low GWP natural refrigerants that covers cooling in 4 temperature ranges: air conditioning for surgery / intensive care unit, for medicine/food at +5 ?C, blood plasma (-30?C), sensitive medication (e. g. Covid-19 vaccine) at -70 ?C, in a cascade refrigeration system with highly efficient thermal energy storage. Based on the results from 4 field tests, a modular containerized version will remain operational as demonstrators for the purpose of showrooms after the project. A training guidebook will enable local companies to build SophiA on site, as to set up local value-chains in different African countries creating numerous jobs. Capacity building and appropriate financing solutions will be ensured by the involvement of private and public European and African organisations. The SME-partners from Europe will have the opportunity to generate growth by entering new market segments. Everflo as main partner driving SophiA commercialization ensures to transfer that enormous market of over 100 B ? (SOM) to economic value for EU and Africa.

The main objective of AfriAlliance is for African and European stakeholders to work together in the areas of water innovation, research, policy, and capacity development to prepare Africa for future Climate Change challenges. There are many but fragmented initiatives and networks in place, therefore we will not create new but will consolidate existing networks of scientists, decision makers, practitioners, citizens and other key stakeholders into an effective, problem-focused knowledge sharing mechanism via an overall coordination platform: the Africa-EU Innovation Alliance for Water and Climate. We will support them in identifying appropriate social innovation and technological solutions for key water and climate change challenges. We will take Africa-EU cooperation in this field to a practical level by sharing (non)technological innovation for local challenges, thus also identifying and boosting sustainable market and investment opportunities. Demand-driven, problem-focused Action Groups will share knowledge between the identified stakeholders and networks at all scales to effectively identify and address vulnerabilities. We will make extensive use of existing/emerging communication channels and events (EU/African platforms, conferences, social media) to streamline Climate Change issues into water-related networks to raise awareness about their impacts and propose adaptation measures. We will re-enforce and valorise Water and Climate Change research and (social) innovation (R&I) cooperation between Africa and Europe through a mix of forward-looking and bottom-up innovation and road mapping techniques. We will identify demands, opportunities, and constraints at different levels and develop strategic advice (short term demand-driven R&I outlook and long term R&I agenda) for improving Africa-EU collaboration. This will help policy makers to create a consistent approach to bilateral cooperation between Africa and the EU in the field of innovation for water and climate

Africa is still poor in energy supply even if impressively endowed by energy resources. Facing the global climate change, the continent will become increasingly energy demanding due to its growing population and economy, both claiming access to reliable, clean and affordable energy services. Therefore, Africa cannot lose momentum to exploit the potential of renewable energies (RE) to unleash local development. One effective way to support this transformation is by empowering local research and innovation through co-development relaying on international cooperation. This approach is the pillar of this CSA, which will create the conditions to transform research into effective innovation, tailored to the diverse needs, capacities and aspirations of African societies. By adopting a Theory of Change’ framework, the CSA is specifically focused on three actions: • Elaborating a review of past and current Africa-Europe collaborative initiatives in the field of RE to enable effective synergies with on-going activities, and identify research and capacity needs while avoiding duplication of efforts. • Designing technological and social innovation research pathways in compliance with the Knowledge Triangle, catalysing thus education, research and innovation. While maintaining the core focus on Technology, the pathways will be comprehensive of essential elements for long term sustainability such as business models, capacity building, financial schemes and regulatory frameworks. The Research Agenda will be thus complemented by a Human and Institutional Capacity Building Agenda and by proper organisational and funding principles for an efficient governance of the forthcoming Joint Programme.

The major objective of the AFREQEN project is to increase the adaptability of higher and professional education system in Algeria, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Morocco, Senegal and Tunisia in the field of renewable energies and environment. The mean is to develop professional aspects in education, and to implement a quality process of continuous improvement within the institutions of training and applied research. AFREQEN will thus contribute to sustainable development and to growing up of renewable energies in North and West Africa. AFREQEN aims to establish:- Bases for the acquisition of skills in quality management and in metrological control, by designing, testing and diffusing initial (I) and professional (P) training modules, including e-learning ones, with up-to-date knowledge in renewable energies : biomass, solar, wind ... The module construction will address the requirements issued from a study of the needs of the social, economic, agronomic and industrial sectors in the African transaharian region.- Capacities in the academic institutions for the implementation of the quality approach : for students at engineers, Master and Doctorate levels; for adults at manager (awareness) and professional (training sessions) levels; for research and technology transfer among researchers, teachers and other ‘staff from the academic area', with specific credits.- The networking of higher education institutions and research institutes in the partnering countries with the EU member states, using a previous sustainable and evolutive cloud platform of expertise and experience sharing, enlarged to new environmental technologies and to new African countries.The consortium brings together major actors in the partnering countries and relevant international institutions related to development.