Welcome to Cape Town for a bold leap into the future for Africa-EU research and innovation partnerships.
It is great pleasure and indeed honour for me to write this contribution for the ERAfrica newsletter, to be published on the occasion of the signing of the Implementation Agreement for the launch of the long-awaited call for proposals, in Cape Town on 6 November 2012. South Africa was one of the first African countries to join the ERAfrica alliance of European and African partners working together to prepare a new funding instrument for research and innovation partnerships. We did so informed by our conviction that investment in science and technology is essential not only to eradicate poverty and advance sustainable development on our own continent but also to address the many shared societal challenges Africa and Europe face.
Our two continents enjoy a long-standing relationship and as we endeavour to meet the challenges of the twenty-first century, striving to improve the quality of living of our citizens, we remain convinced that cooperation between Africa and Europe has a special role to play, and should be carefully nurtured, also in the interests of global solidarity and stability.
Over the past two years, following the project’s inaugural meeting in Pretoria in November 2011 and throughout an intensive period of activities, including a critical workshop in Stellenbosch in March 2012, in our role as African Regional Coordinator, the South African Department of Science and Technology has worked concertedly, in collaboration with other partners, for ERAfrica to reach this very significant milestone. There were doubts but the signing of the Implementation Agreement will be achieved on schedule. It is an impressive achievement. In January 2013, the ERAfrica call for proposals will be launched, to support new research and innovation partnerships between Africa and Europe, to be funded through significant investments by both African and European programme owners.
ERAfrica has been true to its calling to not merely replicate traditional development cooperation programmes, but to design and implement funding instruments for new knowledge partnerships, of mutual benefit to Africa and Europe, with concrete co-ownership and co-leadership by both continents. This has been achieved. Our warmest congratulations and thanks to all involved – especially to ERAfrica coordinator Dr Yves Savidan of France for steering a steady ship, and the colleagues from PT-DLR in Germany, without whose sweat in the engine room of the enterprise, progress would not have been achieved so rapidly.
It would be amiss to also not salute the support and indeed the foresight of the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Research and Innovation for its early investment through the Seventh Framework Programme to enable the ERAfrica preparatory activities. The wise counsel and guidance from committed officials as Dr Gerasimos Apostolatos was perhaps even more precious than this investment. This was a most valuable resource to the ERAfrica consortium. Is therefore only fitting that the signing of the Implementation Agreement will take place within the presence of the European Commissioner for Research and Innovation, Ms Maire Geoghegan-Quinn, and her Director-General, Mr Robert-Jan Smits, who will be visiting South Africa for a programme of events to celebrate the 15th anniversary of the entry into force of the South Africa-European Union Science and Technology Cooperation Agreement. Commissioner Geoghegan-Quinn and Director-General Smits have over the years been immense champions for science and technology cooperation between Africa and Europe.
For the ERAfrica consortium, and especially the African partners, the signing of the Implementation Agreement in their presence, is a small tribute to their outstanding support and indeed friendship. We also hope that this concrete example of programme owners working together will in a small manner bolster their efforts for the development of the European Research Area and its international dimension.
The signing of the Implementation Agreement will take place as part of the proceedings of the Joint Africa-EU Strategy’s Science, Information Society and Space Expert Group’s meetings in Cape Town, including the Extended Bureau meeting of the Africa-EU Science, Technology and Innovation Policy Dialogue’s Senior Officials Meeting. For long the major contributors to advancing Africa-EU research partnerships were the African Union Commission and the European Commission – the latter notably through the European Commission’s dedicated “Africa Call” under the Seventh Framework Programme. ERAfrica represents a significant change in this dynamic. National funders of research and innovation, from both Africa and Europe are assuming their responsibility to collectively invest in joint new programmes to achieve the objectives of the Joint Africa-EU Strategy, our Heads of State and Government had agreed to at the last Africa-EU Summit.
Words have been translated action – the challenge ahead, as we progress with the implementation of the ERAfrica call is to ensure that the results of the projects to be funded will see a similarly efficient translation, resulting in new products and services, enhancing competitiveness and accelerating development. An ambitious objective, but one ERAfrica will pursue with the confidence instilled by the progress achieved.
