News & Events

Presentations of the e-Infrastructures for Africa: Gateways to the Future conference (October 29, 2014 – Brussels, Belgium) are now available via this link!

Videos of each session, including the referent panel discussions, are also available as a complement to the presentations. Please access the Video gallery of the conference.

The full programme of the day is available here.

In the area of e-Infrastructure R&D, the importance of international cooperation cannot be underestimated. This includes both Africa/EU collaboration projects – which are key in maximizing the exploitation potential of EU and African developments – and African cross-continental collaboration – as a way of sharing tailored, locally adapted solutions with high socio-economic impact. It is imperative, therefore, that European and African CoPs collaborate, similar to the twinning between established and emerging NRENs organised by TERENA.

• Promotion of international collaboration opportunities must be continued and strengthened. It was noted that in many cases, African communities were not aware of the funding programmes (e.g. H2020) and collaboration opportunities that exist. The EGI Applications Database lists about 50 VOs, which members of the CoPs identified within eI4Africa could potentially engage with and work collaboratively and/or share resources within common disciplines. Additionally, the eI4Africa Project Wall provides a number of current or proposed projects and can help to notify the international community of proposers of the available collaboration opportunities, as well as facilitate knowledge exchange, VRC development, and capacity building;
• Collaboration starts with human networking. Building international (including EU-Africa) cooperation networks is an important step towards collaboration, as was demonstrated by the eI4Africa events, which have provided ideal forums for meeting peers and potential partners. Networking opportunities are the first step for further collaboration, including joint academic papers or joint proposals for funding;
• Efforts should be made to raise awareness of current efforts and initiatives, which constitutes a major gap in the uptake of e-Infrastructures in the continent. The need to promote e-Infrastructures development in Africa is especially important towards user communities, scientific communities, and e-Infrastructure developers;
• Africa/EU e-Infrastructure Coordination and Support Action (CSA) projects should continue to be funded, since they provide for essential networking and information exchange opportunities between African and European researchers and policy makers;

Why should African countries invest in developing e-Infrastructures in Africa? The EC’s 2007 Green Paper “The European Research Area: New Perspectives” points out that investing in e-Infrastructures can have significant benefits to a country, as it can enable the long-term sustainability of e-Infrastructures, as well as facilitate both industry involvement and the added-value to society that comes with the technology mix, the diversity of users and the local economic and social conditions. Accordingly, the eI4Africa project brings forward a set of recommendations and guidelines to developers and/or policy makers in Africa addressing the following four topics:

• Emphasise the need for African scientists and researchers to join forces with their counterparts in other parts of the world;
• Continue raising awareness and supporting dissemination activities in order to both communicate and promote the potential of e-Infrastructures in Africa;
• Provide and engage in continuous and consistent programmes on skills and capacity building, and;
• Improve collaboration opportunities and sustain Euro-Africa cooperation.

The above findings are presented in more detail in D3.2 ‘Recommendations for African e-Infrastructure development’ and can be discussed by emailing the project partnership at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

The eI4Africa and iMENTORS partnerships are very pleased to welcome a new associated organisation to the eI4Africa/iMentors joint conference on the theme “e-Infrastructures for Africa: Gateways to the Future” that will take place on October 29, 2014, in Brussels, Belgium, at Hotel Bloom. Click here to register!

Established in 2010, the FTTH Council Africa is an independent, not for profit organisation and active member of the Fibre Council Global Alliance (FCGA) alongside the FTTH Council Europe, Asia Pacific, North America, Middle East and North Africa. 
The work of the individual FTTH Council’s is funded through member contributions, and the FCGA has more than 550 individual member companies, all equally passionate about FTTH.

The eI4Africa and iMENTORS partnerships are very pleased to welcome a new associated organisation to the eI4Africa/iMentors joint conference on the theme “e-Infrastructures for Africa: Gateways to the Future” that will take place on October 29, 2014, in Brussels, Belgium, at Hotel Bloom.

AfricaConnect project aims to establish a high-capacity Internet network for research and education in Southern and Eastern Africa to provide the region with a gateway to global research collaboration. AfricaConnect builds on the roadmap prepared by the FEAST study. The project, which lasts four years, began in May 2011, and consists of two phases, the first of which is for the planning and procurement of the network, and the second is its operation.

In particular, AfricaConnect aims to:

The eI4Africa and iMENTORS partnerships are very pleased to welcome a new associated organisation to the eI4Africa/iMentors joint conference on the theme “e-Infrastructures for Africa: Gateways to the Future” that will take place on October 29, 2014, in Brussels, Belgium.

The New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD), an African Union strategic framework for pan-African socio-economic development, is both a vision and a policy framework for Africa in the twenty-first century. NEPAD is a radically new intervention, spearheaded by African leaders, to address critical challenges facing the continent: poverty, development and Africa’s marginalisation internationally.

The eI4Africa and iMENTORS partnerships are very pleased to welcome a new associated organisation to the eI4Africa/iMentors joint conference on the theme “e-Infrastructures for Africa: Gateways to the Future” that will take place on October 29, 2014, in Brussels, Belgium.

OpenAIRE is the Open Access Infrastructure for Research in Europe which supports open access to the research output of European funded projects. The substantial technical infrastructure operates on two levels:

The eI4Africa and iMENTORS partnerships are very pleased to welcome a new associated organisation to the eI4Africa/iMENTORS joint conference on the theme “e-Infrastructures for Africa: Gateways to the Future” that will take place on October 29, 2014, in Brussels, Belgium.

Registrations (free of charge) are now open!

Agenda at a glance | Information package | Event page

Arab States Research and Education Network (ASREN) is the association of the Arab region National Research and Education Networks (NRENs), as well as their strategic partners, that aims to implement, manage and extend sustainable Pan-Arab e-Infrastructures dedicated for the Research and Education communities and to boost scientific research and cooperation in member countries through the provision of world-class e-infrastructures and e-services.

The “e-Infrastructures for Africa: Gateways to the Future” Conference is taking place on October 29, 2014 at Hotel Bloom, in Brussels, Belgium. The event is jointly organised by the eI4Africa and iMENTORS EU/FP7 funded projects and it will be held under the aegis of the European Commission (DG CONNECT) and the African Union Commission.

The conference aims at bringing together policy and research stakeholders from both Europe and Africa to discuss major developments and perspectives in the field of Africa-EU e-Infrastructures cooperation. The main outcomes of the eI4Africa and iMENTORS projects will be presented on this occasion.

Over 100 European and African key stakeholders in the field (from Institutions, National and International Companies, SMEs, Academia, Research institutes, etc.) coming from all over Europe and Africa will attend the event. Registrations (free of charge) are now open!

Agenda at a glance | Information package | Event page

The eI4Africa and iMENTORS partnerships are very pleased to welcome a new associated organisation to the eI4Africa/iMentors joint conference on the theme “e-Infrastructures for Africa: Gateways to the Future” that will take place on October 29, 2014, in Brussels, Belgium.

EUDAT is a project funded by the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development and it started in October 2011 with a duration of 36 months.

The eI4Africa and iMENTORS partnerships are very pleased to welcome a new associated organisation to the eI4Africa/iMentors joint conference on the theme “e-Infrastructures for Africa: Gateways to the Future” that will take place on October 29, 2014, in Brussels, Belgium.

CAAST-Net Plus is a network of 25 partner organisations from all over Europe and sub-Saharan Africa, working together to support bi-regional cooperation in research and innovation. Building on the activities and outputs of the CAAST-Net project (2008-2012), CAAST-Net Plus aims to:

• Encourage more and better bi-regional STI cooperation for enhanced outcomes around topics of mutual interest, and particularly in relation to the global societal challenges of climate change, food security and health.
• Foster discussion among stakeholders for gathering informed opinion and experience about the bi-regional cooperation process, formulating and disseminating it in such a way as to be admissible to the formal bi-regional STI policy dialogue process and to programme owners.

The eI4Africa and iMENTORS partnerships are very pleased to welcome a new associated organisation to the eI4Africa/iMENTORS joint conference on the theme “e-Infrastructures for Africa: Gateways to the Future” that will take place on October 29, 2014, in Brussels, Belgium.

The AFRICA BUILD (http://africabuild.eu) is a Coordination Action aiming to support and develop advanced Centres of Excellence in health care, education and research in the African countries, through Information Technologies. This project is supported by the EU's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7-ICT). AFRICA BUILD started 1st August 2011 and will run for a period of 36 months.

The eI4Africa and iMENTORS partnerships are very pleased to welcome a new associated organisation to the eI4Africa/iMentors joint conference on the theme “e-Infrastructures for Africa: Gateways to the Future” that will take place on October 29, 2014, in Brussels, Belgium.

agINFRA is an Integrated Infrastructure Initiative (I3) project that is pioneering the connection of Agricultural Data through an Open and Participatory Data Infrastructure. In particular, the project aims to design and develop a scientific data infrastructure for agricultural sciences that will facilitate the development of policies and the deployment of services that will promote sharing of data among agricultural scientists and develop trust within and among their communities. The agINFRA Vision White Paper summarises the project’s vision as follows: “To develop a shared infrastructure and computationally empowered services for agricultural research data that allow for producing and transferring scientific and technological results into effective agricultural practice. A key element is achieving a higher level of interoperability between agricultural and other data resources”.

“e-Infrastructures for Africa: Gateways to the Future”

Oct. 29, 2014 – Hotel Bloom, Brussels

A Conference jointly organised by the eI4Africa and iMENTORS EU/FP7 projects under the aegis of the European Commission (EC, DG CONNECT) and the African Union Commission (AUC).

The 4^th eI4Africa Thematic Workshop ”High Performance Computing for Public Good” was successfully held in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania on June 3^rd, 2014. The workshop was organised under the aegis of the European Commission (EC, DG CONNECT) and in co-location with the Technology Transfer Alliance (TTA) Conference 2014.

October 29, 2014

The eI4Africa and iMENTORS EU-funded projects are very pleased to invite you to their joint conference on “e-Infrastructures for Africa: Gateways to the Future”. Organised under the aegis of the European Commission (DG CONNECT) the conference will be held on October 29, 2014 in Brussels at the Hotel Bloom.

This major conference in the field will bring together policy and research stakeholders from both Europe and Africa, to discuss the status and perspectives of e-Infrastructures in Africa and to present the eI4Africa and iMENTORS main project outputs.

According to an article published on ei4africa.eu, e-Infrastructures enable the integration of software, data, high performance computing and other resources that researchers might need into a single convenient Science Gateway (for example the African Science Gateway). Other resources include remote sensors that can gather real-time data in a variety of settings.  It is entirely possible that a remote sensor could be mounted on a robot which could be remotely controlled to investigate and explore its environment.

The eI4Africa third workshop “Leveraging Science Gateways & Virtual Research Communities in African e-Science” is taking place on March 19, 2014 in Lagos, Nigeria. Organised by the West and Central African Research and Education Network (WACREN) and the UbuntuNet Alliance in collaboration with Sigma Orionis and all the eI4Africa consortium members, the workshop is co-hosted by the Center for Atmospheric Research (CAR), an activity centre of the Nigerian National Space Research and Development Agency (NASRDA), and the Eko-Konnect Research and Education Initiative.

The eI4Africa Consortium Members successfully conducted the Project Mid-Term Review Meeting today at the European Commission premises in Brussels, Belgium. The meeting was chaired by Leonardo Flores Anover (Project Officer, e-Infrastructure Unit, DG CONNECT, European Commission) with the support of a review panel team composed of Isayvani Naicker (Director, E4 Solutions) and Dany Vandromme (President, Panache-Conseil).

Rwanda, the land of a thousand hills, has placed great emphasis on the catalytic role of ICT in education and development. It was therefore a great opportunity for the participants to the Joint eI4Africa / CHAIN-REDS workshop to gather in Kigali, share their experiences and learn from each other and the local hosts.

The eI4Africa and CHAIN-REDS EU/FP7 projects have a common interest in promoting the adoption of consolidated standards, both in the e-Infrastructure and certification authorities and Federated Identity services domains, with the ultimate aim of widening the number of potential users of e-Infrastructures in Africa.