The kick-off meeting of the newly launched EuroAfrica-P8 Framework Programme 7 project”strengthening Africa-EU Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) collaborative research links with the aim of reinforcing the strategic partnership 8" took place on January 25-26, 2012 in Nice, France.

Part of the International Relations Unit’s portfolio of DG INFSO, European Commission (Call FP7-ICT-2011-7), the EuroAfrica-P8 Project is defined in full continuity with and builds upon the substantial results obtained and the significant momentum created by three previous projects: START (2006-2007), Euro Africa-ICT (2008-2009) and EuroAfrica-ICT.org (2010-2011).

Organised by Sigma Orionis, the Project Coordinator, this very first official meeting gathered together the whole consortium members, i.e.11 partners in total:

• Sigma Orionis (SIGMA) – France (Coordinator)
• Centre d’Etudes et de Recherches de Telecommunications (CERT) – Tunisia 
• Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) – South Africa 
• Ecole Superieure Multinationale des Telecommunications (ESMT) – Senegal 
• Stichting International Institute for Communication and Development (IICD) – The Netherlands 
• Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft (Fraunhofer) – Germany 
• The Kenya Information and Communication Technology Board (KICTB) – Kenya 
• Kungliga Tekniska Hoegskolan (KTH) – Sweden 
• Ministry of Communications & Information Technology (MCIT) – Egypt 
• UMIC Knowledge Society Agency (UMIC) – Portugal 
• Teknologian Tutkimuskeskus VTT (VTT) – Finland

Running for 24 months (2012-2013), the project objectives are twofold:

• Enhance EU-African collaborative research on ICT;
• Support the ‘Africa-EU Strategic Partnership on Science, Information Society and Space’ (the so called ‘Partnership 8′ – P8);

This will be achieved by:

• Enhancing the participation of African organisations in FP7-Horizon2010/ICT collaborative projects;
• Supporting the activities of the P8 implementation group and the P8 joint expert group (JEG8);
• Promoting a more coordinated approach of the European and African MS towards P8;
• Carrying on an update of the identification/analysis of joint ICT research priorities;
• Providing evidence-based recommendations to the EC/AUC for future cooperation initiatives; and
• Organising cooperation/information/thematic events in both regions synchronised when possible with policy dialogue meetings.

During the meeting, each Work Package and Task leader presented the activities to be carried on, addressing in particular the more sensitive and urgent issues, so that the consortium could agree on a common and strategic workplan for the coming months.

For more information:
EuroAfrica-ICT.org project website