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Building STI Capacity in African Middle-Income Countries

Building STI Capacity in African Middle-Income Countries. Lessons from RISE and other initiatives. Building STI Capacity in African Middle-Income Countries. Problems and challenges STI capacity-building needs of African Middle-Income Countries (MICs)

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Building STI Capacity in African Middle-Income Countries

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  1. Building STI Capacity in African Middle-Income Countries Lessons from RISE and other initiatives Mohamed H.A. Hassan, AAS President, TWAS Executive Director, SIG Board Member

  2. Building STI Capacity in African Middle-Income Countries • Problems and challenges • STI capacity-building needs of African Middle-Income Countries (MICs) • African Regional Initiative in Science and Education (RISE) • Other initiatives • Conclusions Mohamed H.A. Hassan, AAS President, TWAS Executive Director, SIG Board Member

  3. Problems and challengesProduction of frontier knowledge African contributions to world output of scientific publications Average 2005-2006 Source: TWAS, January 2007 Mohamed H.A. Hassan, AAS President, TWAS Executive Director, SIG Board Member

  4. Production of frontier knowledge South-South Disparities Top 12 of the South: World publication shares Average 2005-2006 Source: TWAS, January 2007 Mohamed H.A. Hassan, AAS President, TWAS Executive Director, SIG Board Member

  5. Production of frontier knowledge Disparities within Africa African countries contributing ≥ 0.02% of world share of ISI-listed S&E papers Average 2005-2006 Source: TWAS, January 2007 MICs Mohamed H.A. Hassan, AAS President, TWAS Executive Director, SIG Board Member

  6. Technological innovation potential Mohamed H.A. Hassan, AAS President, TWAS Executive Director, SIG Board Member

  7. Capacity Building Needs • Need to reform and strengthen research universities in African MICs • Only 3 African universities (all in South Africa) are listed among top 500 universities in the world • Each country must have at least one world-class university • to set national standards for quality education and research • to attract and train talent • to reduce brain drain Mohamed H.A. Hassan, AAS President, TWAS Executive Director, SIG Board Member

  8. Capacity Building Needs • Need to build research capacity and centres of excellence within universities • to train and retain new generation of professors and problem-solving research scientists • to link universities to production sectors Mohamed H.A. Hassan, AAS President, TWAS Executive Director, SIG Board Member

  9. Capacity Building Needs • Need to establish and support national science foundations • to provide merit-based competitive grants to best STI problem-solving projects • Example:NRF of South Africa Mohamed H.A. Hassan, AAS President, TWAS Executive Director, SIG Board Member

  10. Capacity Building Needs • Need to establish (within or adjacent to research universities) “Technology Innovation Centres” • to develop innovative, efficient, simple and affordable technologies for basic human needs • Safe drinking water, renewable energies Mohamed H.A. Hassan, AAS President, TWAS Executive Director, SIG Board Member

  11. Capacity Building Needs • Need to establish and strengthen merit-based organizations (e.g. science academies) • to provide independent, evidence-based and authoritative advice on policy matters and on critical science-based development issues Mohamed H.A. Hassan, AAS President, TWAS Executive Director, SIG Board Member

  12. RISE • Joint venture between Science Initiative Group (SIG) and Carnegie Corporation • Aim: Training a new generation of PhD-level scientists and engineers in Africa through university-based research and training networks in selected areas Mohamed H.A. Hassan, AAS President, TWAS Executive Director, SIG Board Member

  13. RISE • Three competitively selected reresearch and training networks, each comprising universities in at least three different African countries Mohamed H.A. Hassan, AAS President, TWAS Executive Director, SIG Board Member

  14. RISE • Priority areas: • Material science • Chemistry • ICTs, instrumentation and software engineering • Renewable energies • Water resources Mohamed H.A. Hassan, AAS President, TWAS Executive Director, SIG Board Member

  15. RISE • Each network will receive US$800,000 over 2 1/2 years; follow-up funding likely • Selection procedure of three networks will be completed in July 2008 Mohamed H.A. Hassan, AAS President, TWAS Executive Director, SIG Board Member

  16. Other initiatives • Supporting ‘networks of excellence’ in thematic areas critical to sustainable well-being in Africa • NEPAD Biosciences Network (funded by Canada) • NEPAD Water Network (funded by France) Mohamed H.A. Hassan, AAS President, TWAS Executive Director, SIG Board Member

  17. Other initiatives • Providing postgraduate fellowships to students in African MICs to study in other countries • in Africa (AAU, AU) • in Brazil, China, India and Mexico (TWAS) • in Northern countries (sandwich-type courses) Mohamed H.A. Hassan, AAS President, TWAS Executive Director, SIG Board Member

  18. Other initiatives • Providing competitive and merit-based grants to young scientists and research groups • Applied sciences (IFS) • Basic sciences (TWAS) • Both supported by Sida/SAREC, Sweden Mohamed H.A. Hassan, AAS President, TWAS Executive Director, SIG Board Member

  19. Other initiatives • Supporting visits of internationally renowned scientists to institutions in African MICs • UNESCO-ICSU-TWAS-UNU joint programme • Global Science Corps programme initiated by SIG Mohamed H.A. Hassan, AAS President, TWAS Executive Director, SIG Board Member

  20. Countries withmerit-based science academies Mohamed H.A. Hassan, AAS President, TWAS Executive Director, SIG Board Member

  21. African merit-based science academies Mohamed H.A. Hassan, AAS President, TWAS Executive Director, SIG Board Member

  22. NASAC’s statements • Joint statement by academies of G8 countries and NASAC toG8 summit in Scotlandin June 2005 • NASAC statement to AU summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in January 2007 • NASAC statement to G8 summit in Germanyin June 2007 • Forthcoming: NASAC statement to G8 summit in Japan in June 2008 Mohamed H.A. Hassan, AAS President, TWAS Executive Director, SIG Board Member

  23. NASAC’s presence at G8 Summits Mohamed H.A. Hassan, AAS President, TWAS Executive Director, SIG Board Member

  24. Conclusions • RISE is a promising model for building STI capacity within universities in Africa • RISE should be expanded to support more networks in African MICs Mohamed H.A. Hassan, AAS President, TWAS Executive Director, SIG Board Member

  25. Conclusions • More coordination between various STI strategies and programmes supporting capacity-building in African MICs is needed • to reduce duplications • to enhance collaboration and synergies Mohamed H.A. Hassan, AAS President, TWAS Executive Director, SIG Board Member

  26. Conclusions • Multilateral development banks (MDBs) should support and encourage African MICs • to invest in implementation of STI-capacity-building plans responding to the needs outlined before Mohamed H.A. Hassan, AAS President, TWAS Executive Director, SIG Board Member

  27. Thank you Mohamed H.A. Hassan, AAS President, TWAS Executive Director, SIG Board Member

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