IST-Africa, a project coordinated by the International Management Commission (IIMC) of Ireland, brings together the national ministries or government agencies in 18 African countries responsible for information and communications technology (ICT) or science, technology and innovation (STI) research and policy.
This past week, iMENTORS (also funded under FP7) has been busy recording the IST-Africa project and related FP7 projects.

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The goal is to provide the information necessary for researchers and policy makers to identify potential partners and opportunities for international collaboration.

The main goals of IST-Africa are to support "international research Cooperation, innovation and entrepreneurship," and encourage "knowledge sharing and skills transfer between IST-Africa Partners."

In 2010, the European Commission implemented a Coordinated Call for Africa (FP7-AFRICA-2010) in order to address science and technology objectives of the Africa-EU Strategic Partnership.  IST-Africa has worked hard to raise awareness of open calls for proposals, organizing training workshops and providing HelpDesk assistance.  The hard work has paid off as IST-Africa partner members have shown increased participation in projects funded by the Seventh Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development (FP7), the EU's main research funding instrument.

With iMENTORS different groups of stakeholders can easily find other ICT4D projects complementing to theirs and opportunities to plan new e-infrastructure development projects. iMENTORS enables organizations to connect with each other, share resources and link their ICT4D project proposal to the past or on-going projects. Take a look at the map!
Is your organization connected? Register now!