iMENTORS has opened its data to all unregistered usersin its last six months of operation. It is important that donors provide information about the aid they give. More important though is for the information to be publicly available in a way that people can easily understand. iMENTORS (www.imentors.eu) is the most comprehensive data map on ICT investments in Africa and contains data across a multitude of entities, classified as organisations, research infrastructures, fibre networks and projects.
News & Events
Our blog is where you'll find all our project updates, highlights and achievements, as well as other news and events related to iMENTORS
CONNECT is the magazine from the GÉANT community. The aim is to provide a regular update on the project and its vital work in supporting European research, as well as giving an insight into the users who depend on the network, and the community that makes GÉANT what it is.
The May issue of CONNECT, the magazine dedicated to research and education networking is out now!
You can view it view booklet style or you can download the PDF here. Printed copies are also available from
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According to an article published on VENTURES AFRICA, Bloomberg Philanthropies, the charity organisation of billionaire businessman Michael Bloomberg, has announced a $5 million investment in Little Sun, an artsy-looking solar-powered lamp designed to provide clean and affordable energy to off-grid populations in Africa who depend mainly on kerosene lamps.
Image courtesy of Pixomar / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
The investment which will be provided through a low-interest loan from the foundation marks its first support to a social business. It will help Little Sun expand its production and distribution networks in targeted markets.
According to an article published on Ventures Africa , as a new generation of wealthy businesspeople make different choices, turning their backs on the one-off donations of the past, so the face of African philanthropy is shifting.
Rising from the depths of the global financial crisis, Africa’s richest are faring well. Among them is a breed of “billionaire philanthropist” – men and women who want to give back to their communities like never before. Philanthropy is alive and well on the continent, with those who made fortunes through their own business pursuits donating millions of dollars to disaster relief, education and young entrepreneurs. Africa’s new super-rich are going beyond just shelling out money for causes: their philanthropic pursuits are aiming to change the way Africans live.
Image courtesy of Salvatore Vuono / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
A paper presenting iMENTORS tool for analysis of contextual factors will be presented at the World Conference on Information Systems and Technologies (WorldCIST) under the "Intelligent and Decision Support Systems" section, on the 15th April 2014 at Madeira Island, Portugal and will be published by Springer in a book of Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing series.
The paper is titled "Quantitative scenario-based assessment of contextual factors for ICT4D projects: Design And Implementation in a web based tool", written by iMENTORS team members: Anton Talantsev, Aron Larsson, Florence Nameere Kivunike, David Sundgren.
Image courtesy of sheelamohan / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
The dawn of the final launch of a new and comprehensive database on einfrastructures across Africa is steadily approaching. After a successful initial round of data extraction and recording, the iMENTORS team has now embarked on the validation of the information, in addition to further data collection regarding any infrastructures that are not yet recorded in the system.
Image courtesy of Victor Habbick / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Louis Papaemmanuel, Director of the iMENTORS project was invited to speak at the Headquarters of the African Union in Addis Ababa, in the framework of the AUC Internet/ICT Week held on Dec. 2-6 2013. The week is part of a series of events organised to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the formation of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) / African Union (AU).
Image courtesy of Kookkai_nak at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
iMENTORS version three went live today and is one step closer to mapping the majority of e-infrastructure (resources, tools and data supporting community research and development) of the past five years in Sub-Saharan Africa in order to lay a foundation for better services, encourage research and connect cross-continental progress. The aim of iMENTORS is to help scientists, universities, research and education networks as well as policy-makers and international funders to gain valuable insights on the gaps and progress made in the region and to identify synergies when planning future ICT initiatives within the African continent.
Access and make creative use of the huge amount of data available!
iMENTORS version three went live today and is one step closer to mapping the majority of e-infrastructure (resources, tools and data supporting community research and development) of the past five years in Sub-Saharan Africa in order to lay a foundation for better services, encourage research and connect cross-continental progress. The aim of iMENTORS is to help scientists, universities, research and education networks as well as policy-makers and international funders to gain valuable insights on the gaps and progress made in the region and to identify synergies when planning future ICT initiatives within the African continent.
iMENTORS is hosting a workshop with the e-infrastructure stakeholders in Africa, to collect input and encourage the crowdsourcing efforts and participation on the platform.
Image courtesy of Ambro at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
This edition of the 'Africa-EU Cooperation Forum on ICT' (Dec. 2-3, 2013) is held in the framework of the AUC Internet/ICT Week and is taking place this week in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
We are working on streamlining the user interaction process of the "what-if" analysis functionality, which allows investigating effects of contextual factors on ICT4D projects. We aim to make the developed simulation tool easy to comprehend and to use.
Image courtesy of Stuart Miles at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
iMENTORS’ Research Infrastructures (RIs) database is the first centralised portal of all high level research facilities and information sources in Africa or hosted elsewhere but focusing on Africa.
Image courtesy of stockimages at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Research infrastructures refers to any facilities, resources or related services that are used or could be used by the scientific community to conduct top level research in their various disciplines. We are currently gathering all accessible information regarding RIs in Africa and would like your support. If you have any relevant information, please contact iMentors to help create an exhaustive database. Better still, you can update the database yourself at www.imentors.eu
An article about iMENTORS was published yesterday on Techy Africa, a very popular technology blog in Ghana.
Techy Africa is a community that seeks to promote Startup Culture and Entrepreneurship in Software in Africa.
iMENTORS has identified and recorded 58 submarine cables into and out of the African continent. This amounts to over 450,000 km of cable, and over 150 different organizations involved in the funding and operation of the cables.
The challenge now for Africa is to develop local fiber optic networks to connect these from high-capacity international submarine cables all the way to the home.
Image courtesy of jscreationzs at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
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The collection of data for the iMENTORS database is currently focused on donor databases and international submarine cable networks.
Nearly 2000 organizations involved in ICT projects are already mapped and recorded in the iMENTORS database which launched the beta version in July. Users can easily sign in using their LinkedIn credentials, put their projects on the map and increase their project’s visibility. The aim is for the platform to contain 80 percent of e-infrastructure projects/investment frameworks by the end of the project using an advanced geographic information and visualization system.
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.
Image courtesy of jscreationzs at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
iMENTORS has been busy recording and mapping information on all participating entities and the connections between them. ERAfrica is a new entry!
ERAfrica is an EU-funded project with the ambition of creating a "European Research Area Network" for the African continent.
Athina Vrakatseli, project Dissemination and Sustainability leader, demonstrated how the iMENTORS platform optimizes donors' ICT4D interventions in Africa during the training and final meeting that EuroRIs-Net+ organised on 16-17 September, in Athens. Click here to see the presentation
iMENTORS demonstration:
Stakeholders were impressed by the project. The demonstration was followed by a discussion on the timeline of the project and data collection.