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Africa Call Infoday (FP7-AFRICA-2010)

Africa Call Infoday (FP7-AFRICA-2010) organized by DG RTD- 18 September 2009 in CCAB, Brussels.

Africa Call Infoday (FP7-AFRICA-2010) organized by DG RTD- 18 September 2009 in CCAB, Brussels.

Over 600 participants were registered for the FP7-AFRICA-2010 (A targeted research effort to meet the challenges for Water, Food Security and Better Health for Africa) Infoday. Of these, about 100 participants came from African countries. Despite the large numbers attending this event there were good opportunities for networking and exchange of information. The opening address by Mr Janez Potocnik, the European Commissioner for Science and Research followed by that of Mrs Vera Brenda Ngosi, Director of the African Union Commision, described the background to the Africa Call and underlined the intent of this new partnership with Africa. These speakers emphasized that the identified topics of this Call were selected by the African partners because they represent major challenges requiring holistic approaches in areas of immediate and urgent research needs and where answers could have rapid benefit for poor people. The subsequent speakers from the Commision emphasized that they would welcome projects submissions coordinated by African partners. Moreover, the new funding scheme allows African partners to request an up-front ?lump sum? payment of project finances, a scheme that should simplify the application form and decrease the administrative burden on each partner. Further details were given about each topic in short talks and these were finally followed by the flash (3 slide) presentations by some of the delegates. In all about 90 presentations were given by delegates interested in the topic of Water and Food Security and 54 were given by delegates interested in the topic of Better Health for Africa. Christine Foyer and Anne-Marie Mayer each presented a presentation, looking for potential partners in project proposals that have to be submitted by 5-00pm Brussels local time on January 14th, 2010. I consider that this opportunity has made Africa College more visible at the European level and I anticipate that new contacts made during the meeting will be strengthened through E-mail contacts in the coming weeks.

Christine H. Foyer