IST-Africa - Horizon 2020 Training Workshop, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, 14 November 2016
17 November 2016
The Tanzania Commission for Science and Technology (COSTECH), as the IST-Africa Initiative partner in Tanzania, organised the IST-Africa Horizon 2020 Workshop in Dar es Salaam on 14 November 2016 in cooperation with IIMC (IST-Africa coordinator). This workshop was specifically focused on ICT-39 International partnership building in low and middle-income countries Call with a deadline of 25 April 2017.
The workshop was well attended with participants from Agriculture Research Institute; Ardhi University (Departments of GeoInformatics, Geospatial Sciences, Environment Sciences, School of Geospatial Sciences & Tech-Gi&Gim); Mikocheni Agriculture Research Institute; Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences (MUHAS); Nelson Mandela African University (NMIST) Arusha (Departments of Research and Innovation, Sustainable Energy); SARI (Department of Natural Resource Management); Sokoine University of Agriculture (Departments of Policy Planning and Management, Animal, Aquaculture and Range Sciences, GeoInformatics, Veterinary Medicine, Pest Management, Crop Science & Agriculture); Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries, Sugarcane Institute; Tanzania Commission for Science and Technology (COSTECH); Tanzania Livestock Research Institute (TALIRI); Tropical Pesticides Research Institute; University of Dar es Salaam (Departments of Electronics Engineering, Chemical & Mining); and University of Dodoma (College of Business Studies and Law, College of Informatics and Virtual Education, Virtual Education Delivery, Computer Engineering and Application, Computer Science).
The workshop was opened by Dr Hassan Mshinda, Director General of COSTECH. Dr Mshinda highlighted the importance and relevance of the ICT-39-2017 Call in the context of the Tanzania National 5 year Development Plan.
Each organisation presented their current research capacity and areas of most interest for International Cooperation. This knowledge exchange at national level was very interesting for the participants as they were able to identify potential synergies in relation to future research. Areas of thematic interest included: e(m)Agriculture, Food and Nutrition Security and Climate Change (including Disease control, pest management, Livestock, environment, weather forecasting, geo hazards, earth observation); e(m)Health (including health informatics, Malaria, HIV); Cyber Security; Renewal Energy / Energy Efficiency / Green ICT & Smart Grids; Technology-enhanced Learning and Water and Sanitation (including Waste Water Treatment, Reliable water supplies with increasing drought conditions).
Tanzania was represented in 41 FP7 projects bringing in research funding of over 12 million euro and to date has been involved in 5 Horizon 2020 projects. Workshop participants were encouraged to leverage this successful track record to date and take advantage of opportunities for Innovation Actions under the ICT-39-2017 Call.
Following a presentation on the focus of the ICT-39-2017 Call, the participants broke into smaller groups to identify end-user needs, key stakeholders to be consulted, key stakeholders that would be directly involved in the Innovation activities and other relevant African countries for the following themes: Agriculture, Education, Health and Energy.
Click here to download the full workshop report.
Focus of ICT-39-2017 Call
The Horizon 2020 ICT-39-2017 Call for Proposals (deadline 25 April 2017) provides a unique opportunity for African institutions undertaking Research and Innovation to co-design an Innovation Action based on addressing end-user requirements in sub-Saharan African countries in cooperation with European partners.
Innovation Actions are focused on technological improvements/adaptations as well as innovative service creation based on existing technologies. Activities should be led by a clearly defined user need/market opportunity for the technology being adapted based on requirements of sub-Saharan African countries identified through co-design . It is therefore necessary to identify a project focus that is relevant in a number of countries from the same region with a sustainability plan for wider roll out following successful validation and project funding.
Proposals should feature an explicit element exploring technology adoption, through understanding and evaluating behavioural responses to the introduction of new technologies in different regional settings. Societal and gender issues will be taken into account.
Based on the focus of this call it will be necessary to ensure that there are multidisciplinary teams - thematic experts in the target domain as well as ICT experts. Based on a number of African countries being involved, it is also necessary to co-design a proposal that addresses a common challenge at national level, that can be validated in a number of scenarios in the different countries.
Innovation Actions have limited research and development related to adaptation of existing technology . It is expected that any research related to the challenge to be addressed and understanding of the state of the art in the thematic area is already undertaken and demonstrated in the proposal submitted. Since demonstration and market validation is the primary focus of an Innovation Action, the consortium must demonstrate relevant links with end-user communities who will be involved in the validation process and this needs to be clearly demonstrated in the proposal submitted.
Horizon 2020 proposals are submitted by a consortia, which brings together necessary complementary expertise to address the project focus from Africa and Europe. It is a requirement of the funding instrument that there are a minimum of 3 European partners from 3 different Member States in addition to the relevant African partners. Horizon 2020 projects are based on a grant to the legal entity who is the partner providing reimbursement of actual costs (personnel rates from payroll, necessary equipment and travel).
Expected Impacts :
- Development of relevant technology responding to specific needs and conditions of the target country;
- Sustainable uptake of results within the targeted countries, beyond the project completion date;
- Reinforced international dimension of the ICT and Innovation aspects of Horizon 2020 and a higher level of international cooperation with low and middle income countries in ICT R&D and Innovation, focusing on areas that are beneficial to the target countries/region;
Type of Action: Innovation Action (18 months - 2 years in duration)
Funding per proposal: 1 - 2 million euro
Deadline: 25 April 2017
