Success Stories and New Funding Opportunities ERAfrica, LEAP AGRI and the Belmont Forum National Research Foundation Pretoria, Innovation Hub 31 October 2016
is a growing initiative of funding institutions fostering collaborative research and innovation with African and European researchers and innovators 2
THE PAST 1 Coordination and Support Activity (CSA) funded under the European Union Framework Programme 7 (FP7 2007-2013) ERA = European Research Area ERAfrica ERAfrica was a ERA-Net for Africa Period December 2010 November 2014 Volume Proposals ~ 11 Mill. total fund (incl. 2 Mill. contribution of the EC) 106 proposals for research projects Projects 17 projects have been funded with the 1 st joint call in 2013 3 Funding areas Renewable Energies Interfacing Challenges New Ideas Partners Coordinators 19 (8 African & 11 European) IRD (France) & DST (South Africa) 3
THE PAST 2 ERAfrica ( ERA-Net for Africa) was a pilot programme to develop and implement a joint funding programme for research and innovation partnerships with national funding parties from Africa and Europe, for inspiring member states of Africa and Europe to contribute as partners to the implementation of the Joint Africa-EU Strategy (JAES) for the consolidation of the collaboration of Africa and the EU in Research, Development and Innovation (RD&I) For developing African RD&I capacities and potential for increased international research collaboration The strong joint funding commitment by both African and European funders and the shared partnership s principles of co-ownership of and co-responsibility for the collaboration, set ERAfrica apart from other initiatives. 4
TODAY ERAfrica is now an initiative of new and former funding institutions who are willing to continue building on the success and using the brand ERAfrica. Developments In early 2015 funding institutions met and discussed future activities for ERAfrica Consensus was reached to: continue and grow the cooperation into a second phase and launch a 2 nd call on Resilience currently under discussion and make use of other opportunities that might be of benefit to the partners LEAP-AGRI ERA-Net Cofund in Horizon 2020 This led to the success of A Long term EU-Africa research and innovation Partnership on food and nutrition security and sustainable AGRIculture 5
LEAP-AGRI ERA-Net Cofund in Horizon 2020 A Long term EU-Africa research and innovation Partnership on food and nutrition security and sustainable AGRIculture
LEAP-AGRI Partners 22 combination of former and new ERAfrica partners Belgium The Netherlands Norway Finland Germany France Austria Portugal Turkey Egypt Algeria Chad Senegal Kenya Cote d'ivoire DLR-Earth Observation Center (EOC) Uganda Nigeria Cameroon AUC / AOSTI Namibia South Africa Mozambique 7
LEAP-AGRI Objectives are to support the EU-Africa High Level Policy Dialogue (HLPD) on science, technology and innovation; the implementation of jointly funded EU-Africa research and innovation partnership focusing on food and nutrition security and sustainable agriculture (endorsed by EU-Africa Summit 2014). Current activities Call documents are currently being finalised (31 Oct - 1 Nov 2016) in Nairobi Grant Agreement & Consortium Agreement to be signed on 5-7 Dec 2016 in Pretoria Call announcement to be done immediately after the signing (Dec 2016 - Mar 2017) Expected impact Effective trans-national, European-African research and innovation networking and better coordination and synergy between national, international and EU research programmes relevant to food and nutrition security and sustainable agriculture. Support for the development of a long-term EU-Africa research and innovation partnership on food and nutrition security and sustainable agriculture, connecting research and innovation networks to local multi stakeholder research and innovation processes.
The Belmont Forum World Funding Network on Global Environment and Sustainability Issues CSIRO (Australia) BMWFW (Austria) FAPESP (Brazil) ->co-chair NSFC (China) CNR (Italy) MEXT/JST (Japan) NWO (Netherlands) RCN (Norway) QNRF (Qatar) NRF (South Africa) SSEESS (Sweden) NERC (United Kingdom) European Commission (EU) ->co-chair NSF (United States) MOST (Chinese Taipei) AllEnvi (France) ANR (France) BMBF (Germany) DFG (Germany) MoES (India)
The Belmont Forum Collaborative Research Actions (CRAs) Yearly international opportunity fund for 2-3 themes (20+M ) Main goals: Address the Belmont Challenge priorities - Deliver knowledge needed for action Support by promoting innovative types of research Lever Belmont Forum member s existing investments through international added value Promote inter- and trans- disciplinary, co-design and co-production A flexible tool A la carte for a given CRA Suitable for various instruments: networking, clustering, foresight, capacity building Open to any funder (BF or not) that sign the CRA MoU Everything is common (co-scoping, call, selection, follow-up) but the money Possibility of joint activities with other international initiatives
The Belmont Forum Current Activities Learn from the 4 funded networks (2014 2016) i.e. TSUNAGARI, ScenNet, IHDBS, SEAVIEW Learn from activity on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services Going Forward Work towards a large 2017 Joint Call for research projects, jointly with BiodivERsa European Network and European Commission Supporting research contribution to IPBES (as Climate scenario for IPCC)
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