Supported by the European Commission (EC) and African Union Commission (AUC), IST-Africa 2026 (May) is the twenty first in an annual series of Ministerial Level Technology Research Conferences.
Due to unforeseen circumstances, IST-Africa 2026 will take place as a virtual event during May.
IST-Africa Week 2026 will provide a world-class international forum to showcase existing technology-enabled Research, Innovation and ICT4D activities and capacity in Africa, Europe and other parts of the world. The Conference Programme combines strategic keynote presentations, a High-Level Roundtable, technical and policy papers, case studies and workshops. It also provides an opportunity to identify potential partners for future research cooperation under Horizon Europe.
The goals of the IST-Africa Conference Series are to
- Support Development of the Information Society and Knowledge Economy in Africa
- Promote International Research Innovation, and Policy Cooperation and Coordination
- Showcase African Research and Innovation Capacity
- Stimulate exploitation of research results by the public and private sectors
The IST-Africa 2026 Final Programme incorporates 23 thematically focused sessions featuring over 100 presenters from the public, private, education, research and societal organisations from 20 countries. Click here to view presentations within sessions.
Please note that session times are based on UTC+1. Please adjust accordingly to your time zone.
Click here to download the Final Programme brochure which includes sessions times in UTC+1, UTC+2 (Central Europe, South Africa), UTC+3 (East Africa).
Thematic areas include:
- Monday 25 May - eHealth, ICT-enabled Entrepreneurship, Technology-enhanced Learning
- Tuesday 26 May - Technology-enhanced Learning
- Wednesday 27 May - CyberSecurity, eGovernment
- Thursday 28 May - Content Technologies, Next Generation Computing
- Friday 29 May - eAgriculture and Environmental Sustainability
Horizon Europe is the EU's key funding programme for Research and Innovation with a budget of €95.5 billion from 2021 - 2027. This includes EUR 5.4 billion from the Next Generation EU instrument, particularly to support the green and digital recovery from the COVID crisis.
The Horizon Europe budget is divided amongst a number of Pillars and associated components to create a programme supporting all areas of research and innovation. The Three key Pillars are Excellent Science; Global Challenges and Industrial Competitiveness; and Innovative Europe. The final component of Horizon Europe is focused on Strengthening the European Research Area.