IST-Africa Initiative

Founded by IIMC in 2002, Supported by the European Commission and African Union Commission, and co-funded under the EU Framework Programme through successive competitive tenders (2005 - 2018), IST-Africa facilitates and supports

• Strategic International Innovation, Research and Policy Cooperation within Africa and between Europe and Africa;
• Knowledge Sharing, Capacity Building and Skills Transfer between IST-Africa Partner Countries;
• Collaborative Open Innovation, Technology-enabled Entrepreneurship and Innovation Ecosystems;
• Information Society, ICT and Innovation aspects of the Africa – EU Strategic Partnership.

Informed through regular engagement with the European Commission (EC), African Union Commission (AUC), Regional Economic Communities (RECs) and national research and innovation communities – and policy priorities of IST-Africa Partner Countries, the focus and activities of IST-Africa continue to evolve, with each phase building on the body of knowledge co-created to date, and the active community of collaborators and researchers that IST-Africa has supported. This ensures that the capacity of IST-Africa Partners is being enhanced based on a Life-long Learning model, as part of active Skills and Knowledge Transfer between the partnership.

IST-Africa Activities have included:

• Annual IST-Africa Week Hosted by IST-Africa Partner Governments
• Analysis of African Adoption, Implementation, Policy and Research Priorities
• Analysis of African Innovation Spaces, Living Labs and Research Capacity of HEIs
• Horizon 2020 and Living Labs Training Workshops in IST-Africa Partner Countries to Support Research-Capacity Building and Accelerate Information Society Development and ICT Adoption across Africa
• Participation in Information Society, ICT and Innovation related International Cooperation (including Africa - EU Strategic Partnership, EU - AUC Living Labs Taskforce for Africa, CODIST - UNECA and WSIS)
• Horizon 2020 Help Desk supporting African - European Research Collaboration

IST-Africa was co-funded by the European Commission under successive competitive research calls under FP6, FP7 and Horizon 2020 from 2005 - 2018.

For further information, please visit the IST-Africa portal