October (2009)

Contents

26 October 2009 - ICT and Development Workshop: Call for Participation

"ICT for development" has attracted wide attention for several years now. Often we hear about ICT in Africa, much more rarely about ICT from African voices. Why did our knowledge about the correlations between ICT and the economy and society fail to develop ICT to support development? Is the mainstream model of conceptualising and implementing ICT4D applicable and helpful in the African context? What are the alternatives to dominant approaches?

This workshop, to be held at Makerere University in Uganda on 22-23 March 2010, is intended to provide a forum for discussion of ICT research approaches and findings that emerged from and relevant to the African contexts. We are particularly interested in receiving written submissions from African researchers in ICT for development, and from African intellectuals outside the mainstream ICT-based approach to economic growth and social improvements.

We welcome explanatory papers, aiming at analysis and understanding of ICT in actual African contexts. More precisely, the workshop invites short papers in the following focal areas: discontinuities between the African context and dominant ICT paradigm; role of information, and ICT, within Africa and between Africa and the rest of the world; barriers against Africa's adoption, appropriation and autonomous use of ICT; cultural issues that may shape ICT adoption in unexpected ways; alternative strategies of ICT implementation and sustainability in Africa; uncertainty, unpredictability, risk and serendipity related to ICT initiatives; role of ICT in empowerment, illiteracy, poverty eradication, and human development in Africa.

The workshop is intended to be informal and inclusive in order to provide a "bigger picture" of ICT in Africa. We welcome participants from academic institutions engaged in similar research, governmental and non-governmental organisations, public and private sector representatives, entrepreneurs and grass-root movements, civil society and ICT practitioners.

The workshop is being organised by the International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP), Technical Commission 9 and the Faculty of Computing and IT, Makerere University.

Submissions
Submission of short papers, in the form of long abstracts, of up to 2000 words are invited. Short papers are to be sent as e-mail attachments to african-voices@googlegroups.com by 30 November 2009.

26 October 2009 - FP7 Workshop in South Africa

The World Association of Industrial and Technological Research Organisations (WAITRO) Africa Regional Focal Point (RFP), and the Science and Technology - Europe Africa Project (ST-EAP), hosted by the CSIR, cordially are hosting the CSIR European Union Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) Workshop at the CSIR Knowledge Commons, Pretoria, on 18-19 November 2009.

The success of previous workshops held in Kenya in March 2009, and Ghana in October 2009, led to the thinking of holding a similar, continent-focussed, FP7 workshop in collaboration with the Department of Science and Technology (DST). The workshop in Pretoria will touch on the challenges that hinder African countries from participating in FP Programmes, with the aim of encouraging African participation, creating awareness, and sharing learning and good practices.

The objectives of the workshop are to: Raise awareness among African researchers to participate in FP7, as well as looking into its challenges; provide a basis for networking between African researchers to promote cooperation and coordination between African countries to encourage participation in FP7; increase awareness of the role of the science and technology programmes.

Key invited speakers include: Dr Dieter Fuchs, President of WAITRO, Dr Rohani Hashim, Secretary General: WAITRO, Dr Eckart Bierdumpel of the Fraunhofer Institute, Dr Thomas Egwang, Executive Director: African Academy of Sciences, Mr Moses Mengu, the Danish Technology Institute, and Mr Laurie Barwell, Coordinator: Africa Centre for Climate and Earth System Science.

Session topics include: EU Africa Science and Technology Partnership; Tips and Guidelines to Prepare an EU FP Proposal; African FP7 Proposal Examples; Best Practices and Outcomes Networking and Discussions on Thematic Areas.

Links
Workshop website - click here

21 October 2009 - EU Researchers to Gain Access to South Africa's Research and Innovation Programmes*

As economies reel under the impact of the economic crisis, European researchers are seeking ways to access South Africa's (SA) research and innovation programmes, and to exploit their individual capacities collaboratively in an attempt to generate new knowledge related to fields of mutual interest. Ultimately, research fields of an international dimension will benefit through cooperation and will lead to research findings that contribute towards sustainable benefits for the public at large. These broad objectives will be pursued through a series of activities to be undertaken by the SAccess project.

The aims of SAccess are three-fold. In the first place it will examine South African research and innovation capacity in order to identify opportunities for research collaboration, and suggest the most suitable means of collaboration based on the availability and attractiveness of the programmes. In the second place, the project will address researchers on a pan-European level and ensure that they are aware both of the above research collaboration opportunities and the specific rules for participation to the programmes. Third, the project will play a key role in enhancing the research opportunities between Europe and South Africa by providing useful feedback to the South African-European Union Joint Science and Technology Committee (JSTCC), a well-established committee for the encouragement and facilitation of cooperation between the European Community and South Africa.

The official launch of the SAccess project took place in South Africa on 10 September 2009, in parallel with the South African-European Union Summit, and will run for the next 36 months. The project is a Coordination and Support Action funded under the International Cooperation priority (Access4EU) of the 7th Framework Programme. It is coordinated by HELP-FORWARD Network / FORTH, based in Greece. Partners include the Swedish Governmental Agency for Innovation Systems (VINNOVA), the Department of Science and Technology (DST) in South Africa, the Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD) in France, and the Agency for the Promotion of European Research (APRE) in Italy.

*Release by SAccess.

21 October 2009 - Strengthening Capacities in Nigerian Universities

The Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, South-Western Nigeria, will play host to the National Conference on Strengthening the Capacities of Nigerian Universities. The conference will take place from 29 November to 4 December, 2009.

The specific objectives of the Conference are to: Sensitise strategic stakeholders to the importance of S&T to sustainable socio-economic development of the country and particularly in the nation's desire to shift from(oil-based) resource-based economy to a knowledge based economy; discuss creative ways of developing human capital to drive technological innovation in Nigeria; stimulate discussions about the barriers, challenges, constraints towards the implementation of existing S&T policy; and, discuss the need for a national innovation policy and innovation plan

For further information contact Prof. Fnnmi Togonu-Bickersteth or Prof. Titi Kuku.

21 October 2009 - WAITRO Networking Event*

The World Association of Industrial and Technological Research Organisations Networking Session under the theme "Strengthening RTOs and SMEs for Sustainable Development" was held in Accra, Ghana on 7-8 October 2009.

Science and technology has undoubtedly been the force driving industrialisation around the world. In most development countries, Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs) contribute significantly to the GDP and ultimately promote national development. In most Sub-Saharan Africa (apart from South Africa), growth and development of technology-based industry is very slow due to ineffective collaboration between Research and Technological Organisations (RTOs) and industry, especially SMEs.

Through the NEPAD and AGOA initiatives, there is increased opportunity for Africa in international trade. However, due to force competition among global and regional economies and enterprises coupled with stringent national and regional export standards and regulations, Africa is not able to maximize the potential trade opportunities available to it. This is largely due to lack of technology that will make African products highly competitive to the international market. There is the need for transfer of knowledge from research findings and technologies developed by RTOs to SMEs in order to ensure their survival in the future.

This calls for effective dialogue and subsequent lasting collaboration between RTOs and industry, especially SMEs in order to ensure that research and development (R&D) activities of RTOs are targeted at meeting the needs of SMEs. The process of technology transfer and its implementation as well as intellectual property and benefits sharing need to be discussed among stakeholders.

The objective of the networking session was to provide a platform for sharing of knowledge and experience, case studies, outcome of research and development activities and ideas on innovation, RTO and SME collaboration success stories, technology transfer, intellectual property issues, commercialization of research and technology, and funding of scientific research.

The session was attend by senior government officials and policy-makers, chief executives and directors of R&D institutions, research institutions and academia, SMEs, standard and regulatory agencies (competent national authorites) and corporate senior management officials (policy-makers and planning managers).

Participants benefited from the session by assessing opportunities for cooperation and collaboration; gain and shared knowledge on innovation, intellectual property and technology development and transfer in other countries; improved their business through interaction networking with participants; and improve their competitiveness in the marketplace and ensure survival in the future by discovering advances in technology.

*This report by the World Association of Industrial and Technological Research Organisations.

For more information go to WAITRO.

21 October 2009 - Africa Agriculture Science Competition and Award

The 2010 Africa Agriculture Science Competition and Award is now open for applications. The purpose is to identify and give recognition to outstanding agricultural scientists and innovations led by African researchers, scientists and professionals who are effectively engaged in communicating the outputs (knowledge, technologies, approaches) of innovative agricultural research to farmers and agro-entrepreneurs, as well as advocating for policy change to optimise the benefits from scientific and technological developments. There are two categories of award: the young professionals in science award (24-40 years), and the women in science award. The deadline for applications is 6 January 2010.

Impressa Award
The inaugural (2009/2010) Impact Research and Science in Africa (IMPRESSA) Award recognises outstanding researchers and scientists who have made significant contribution in the field of agricultural research and science for development in Africa, including human and institutional development. This award is restricted to agricultural researchers and scientists from the 25 member universities of the Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture (RUFORUM). The deadline for nominations is 31 March 2010.

Links
Download the award guidelines - click here.

5 October 2009 - EU-ACP Development Cooperation Survey

The European Centre for Development Policy Management (ECDPM) is preparing its annual paper on the challenges for European Union-African Caribbean and Pacific (EU-ACP) development cooperation for 2010. The ECDPM are interested in soliciting views on next year's policy priorities for the target countries and regions, and particularly how the European Union can support these.

To access the ECDPM survey click here. The survey closes on 23 October 2009.