Recently in Nairobi, Kenya, the president of the ERC met with African and European representatives of the research and innovation sector with the aim of strengthening cooperation between the two continents within the Horizon 2020 program.
In particular, the event formed the basis for a new partnership in the areas of science and technology, priorities in line with the strategic vision of the African Academy of Scinces “transforming lives through science”.
The European Union has already invested a total of 123 million € in Africa and funded 310 projects. South Africa is the state that has most benefited from the Horizon funds, followed by Morocco and Kenya. The main themes of EU-Africa cooperation are the environment, food, ICT and health. Some successful projects include the creation of a resilience platform to help communities in crisis situations, research on rare diseases that affect children, the design of the world’s largest radio telescope and a survey on biodiversity in the Serengeti-Mara ecosystem.