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Establishing an Africa-Europe Research Partnerships

  • The Africa-Europe Foundation

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The Africa-Europe Foundation (AEF) launched a Call for Proposals aimed at establishing joint Africa-Europe research initiatives. The Call is underpinned by the “State of Africa-Europe Report 2024”, a first of its kind report published by the AEF in February 2024, providing assessment of the implementation of political and financial commitments made at the last EU and AU Heads of State and Government summit in Brussels in February 2022.

The purpose of the Call for Proposals “Establishing an Africa-Europe Research Partnerships” is to implement the AEF research programme through a collaborative process (likely of 4 to 8 research organisations from Africa and Europe), which will produce the evidence needed to identify obstacles and opportunities that can strengthen Africa-Europe Partnership, focusing on “Sustainable Finance “Climate and Development”; and “Science, Education, and Culture”, strategic areas.

Specific objectives of the Call for Proposals:

  • Fostering strategic vision and foresight: identifying and examining current trends and projecting future scenarios
  • Enhancing cross-continental insights: providing ‘hard facts’ in crucial areas relevant to the Africa-Europe Partnership that leads to tangible policy recommendations.
  • Supporting the monitoring of Africa-Europe Partnership and its policy/financial commitments.

The Call adopted innovative approach/modalities, including a ‘1+1 formula’ requiring applications based on partnerships consisting of at least one organisation form Africa and one from Europe.

Overview of Applications

AEF received in total 96 applications. Following the administrative and eligibility checks, 56 applications were pre-selected for further evaluation.
Overview of the 56 eligible applications received:

  • Geographical balance: 29 applications had Africa-based research organizations as the lead applicant, while 27 applications came from Europe.
  • Thematic balance: The pre-selected research proposals cover a diversity of issues.
    o 40 applications in Climate and Development
    o 9 applications in Education, Science, and Culture 3
    o 7 applications in Sustainable Finance

During the evaluation process, the committee shortlisted 22 applications. Among these, the committee identified four as the 'best overall' and recommended them for funding.

Commissioned research projects

Project Title 1: Creative Futures: Leveraging Cultural Cooperation for Youth Development in Africa and Europe

  • Lead Applicant - South African Cultural Observatory, Nelson Mandela University (South Africa)
  • Co-applicant- Culture Solutions (France)
  • Theme- Science, Education and Culture

Project Title 2: Greening export finance and investment treaties in Africa

  • Lead applicant - Perspectives Climate Research (PCR) (Germany)
  • Co-applicant - Justiça Ambiental (JA) (Mozambique)
  • Theme- Sustainable Finance

Project Title 3: Grand bargain for Africa-Europe Green Industrialisation

  • Lead applicant - Climate Action Platform for Africa (CAP-A) (Kenya)
  • Co-applicant - European Centre for Development Policy Management (ECDPM) (Netherlands)
  • Theme- Climate and Development

Project Title 4 : Balancing aspirations and pragmatism: adapting Europe's energy and climate policies for EU-Africa
partnerships

  • Lead applicant - European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) (Germany)
  • Co-applicant - The Institute of Economic and Social Research (INESOR) (Zambia)
  • Theme- Climate and Development