The EMERGE project seeks to provide African policy makers, academics, investors, and citizens with the tools and knowledge required to increase the production of clean energy and the sustainable use of resources while bridging cultural and socioeconomic divides. In order to simulate scenarios that optimize the use of current resources while taking into account social, climatic, economic, and technical constraints, EMERGE will co-design and test a Toolbox by integrating and building upon existing tools, methodologies, and approaches. Additionally, a Knowledge Base with a collection of initiatives, materials, and knowledge-exchange activities will be created. The North Western Africa (Morocco), Niger river region (Mali/Nigeria), and Mozambique are three African ecosystems where EMERGE will develop knowledge communities through a participatory approach.

The ONEPlanET project aims to develop a common nexus modelling framework to simulate and evaluate pathways to define a more sustainable future in Africa through the deployment of renewable energy infrastructure. In this way, it will be possible to stimulate a green energy transition in the continent as well as a decarbonization of existing energy plants. The ONEPlanET model will be tailored to the needs of different stakeholders and end-users (public and private actors, policy and decision-makers, experts, and citizens) and will be totally open source to stimulate its future upgrades. The model will include information on Water, Energy, Food (WEF) and interlinkages with other sectors as Economy, Ecosystems, Society, Climate and Land for delivering a multi-sectoral assessment consistent with socio-economic and climate scenarios. The ONEPlanET modelling approach will integrate Earth Observation data (e.g., Copernicus, ESA or GEOSS), statistical data and information from basins to national and regional, via three representative case studies in the Songwe (Malawi/Tanzania), Inkomati-Usuthu (South Africa) and Niger (Nigeria) river basins, which show different types of basins and socio-ecological systems. ONEPlanET will help to better understand the interactions between Nexus sectors to deliver sound technical and policy recommendations towards the implementation of energy infrastructure to build a more climate neutral and resilient society.

In the scope of the ICT-58 call, AEDIB|NET has the objective to strengthen a common African European digital innovation ecosystem by supporting local digital innovation and start-up ecosystems in Africa and facilitating the collaboration between European and African DIHs. AEDIB|NET aims to build on the experience of European DIHs, and adapt the approach to the African context in order to facilitate synergies and collaboration potential. This includes developing and strengthening key infrastructure such as a Pan-African network of DIHs, as well as building strategic cooperation mechanisms and facilitating bridging activities on technical capacity building and technology transfer between African and European innovators and start-ups, SMEs, private sector actors, academia, local governments and investors. In addition, AEDIB|NET will foster the development of an enabling environment that is reinforced by conducive local policies. The African consortium partners are the cornerstones of the African digital innovation ecosystem and have the strength of bringing together relevant policymakers (i4policy, SAS), supporting innovators and start-ups in Innovation Hubs (AfriLabs, Digital Africa) and investors (ABAN, VC4A). Their expertise is core to successfully building networks on the continent and beyond. The European consortium partners contribute experience in fostering innovation, entrepreneurship and investment, as well as the establishment of and networking between DIHs (FundingBox, Steinbeis, EBN, EBAN, Civitta). Thereby, in the scope of AEDIB|NET, these partners ensure full access to the European innovation ecosystem, DIHs and experience of the efforts made by the EU in the past.

The AEIP builds a network of African and European stakeholders strengthening links between innovation ecosystems in an inclusive and collaborative manner, ensuring equal benefits. The AEIP will stimulate collaboration among stakeholders and institutions implementing other programmes, contributing to mutually beneficial partnerships. The focus will lie on launching new activities (linked to capacity-building, mobility opportunities, knowledge production and transfer, investment readiness and access to finance) based on an assessment of the needs of all target groups, including researchers, innovators, entrepreneurs, incubators/accelerators, civil society, women and youth. These will be activated through a combination of virtual outreach and in-person stakeholder meetings as a forum for discussion. Sustainability will be built into the AEIP from the start by making sure that new activities are linked up and designed in such a way that they can be carried forward by AEIP members after the end of the Action. We aim to grow the AEIP further into a network of networks acting as a hub for the implementation of the short-term actions of the AU-EU Innovation Agenda, reinforcing existing initiatives rather than duplicating them. The Action has been designed to maximise societal, economic, and scientific impact by centring the Platform at the core as a forum where stakeholders convene for focussed and structured innovation cooperation. With the networks leveraged by the consortium partners and multiplier effect, our outcomes and impacts will be scalable. The AEIP will support the Agenda’s objective to strengthen Research and Innovation cooperation between the African and European Union, maximising the impact of funding and reinforcing interconnected innovation ecosystems, thus contributing to sustainable and inclusive development, economic growth and job creation.

The LEAP-RE programme aligns with and responds to the AU-EU high-level policies and specific objectives of the CCSE Roadmap. It seeks to create a long-term partnership of African and European stakeholders in a quadruple helix approach: government (programme owners and funding agencies), research and academia, private sector, and civil society. Impact will be sought by creating a framework, methodology, and cooperation model. The aim is to reduce fragmentation by aligning existing bilateral and multilateral frameworks. LEAP-RE establishes and jointly implements research, innovation, and capacity-building activities that respond to the Multi-Annual Roadmaps (MARs) developed in PRE-LEAP-RE. The programme opted for a large-scale, inclusive consortium of 96 partners from 34 countries and 2 international organisations, to ensure a broad thematic, geographical and stakeholder coverage, and to demonstrate the feasibility of the collaboration and build trust in view of a long-term partnership addressing the post-2025 period. LEAP-RE draws on the experience and partnership developed in PRE-LEAP-RE, which conceptualised and developed a framework for long-term, bi-regional cooperation in research, innovation, and capacity building in renewable energies. This partnership is further strengthened by previous collaboration between partners in other projects supporting the EU-Africa HLPD on STI, such as LEAP-Agri, ERAfrica, LEAP4FNSSA, RINEA, and CAAST-Net Plus. Furthermore, the proposal includes a number of R&I partners, 8 individual projects (formalised as Work Packages), which were chosen among expressions of interest received in late 2019.