AERAP Africa-Europe Science and Innovation Forum 2023

INFORMATION SHARING SEMINAR: 
“Opportunities for research collaboration and skills development between South Africa and Europe in regards to Green Hydrogen”
 
The South African Embassy in Brussels is pleased to invite you to a seminar and information sharing session titled: “Opportunities for research collaboration and skills development between South Africa and Europe in regards to Green Hydrogen”. Join us for a hybrid event on Tuesday, 7th March, at 11:00 to 13:00 Brussels time.

Globally, the demand for green hydrogen (H2) and green hydrogen-based Power-to-X products such as ammonia and synthetic jet fuels (PtX) is rising. To fulfil decarbonisation targets, many off-takers (e.g., EU and Japan) are willing to pay a premium price and to sign long-term supply agreements to stimulate H2/PtX market development. Due to the outstanding potential of renewable energies (RE) and existing H2 production facilities, South Africa is regarded as one of the main future suppliers of green H2 products.

Building a H2 economy could open-up promising new export markets for South African companies, as well as domestic use opportunities. This could also lead to significant economic development and job creation while playing a role in supporting a just energy transition in the South African energy sector. Despite the promising conditions available for the development of a H2 economy in the country, certain challenges still exist. The development of a green H2/PtX market requires a massive expansion of low-cost RE capacities.

Against this backdrop, establishing a new sector will require skills and capacities. Therefore, there is a need to identifying the skills that will be required to service the hydrogen sector and work towards ensuring the availability of these skills and capacities.

Under the Horizon Europe programme, the Clean Hydrogen Partnership Call for Proposals was published on 31 January 2023 with a total of €195m available for projects. The aim of the call is to provide support in the creation of “cutting-edge hydrogen technologies”.

11h00              Moderator, Welcome and Opening Remarks
 Mr Declan Kirrane, Founder and Managing Director of ISC Intelligence in Science, the chairman and managing director of the science Summit at the United Nations General assembly

11h05              Overview of EU and SA Hydrogen Economy Activities
Ms Cecile Leemans, Team Leader for Global South, International Relations Unit, DG ENERGY, European Commission
 
Ms Eudy Mabuza, Senior Science and Innovation Representative to Brussels, South African Department of Science and Innovation

11h35           South Africa’s Master Skills Plan and the Hydrogen Economy 
Sasol & NRF Call: Research to Enable SA’s Energy Transition & Green Economy
 
Ms Nolwazi Gasa, Deputy Director General: Planning, South African Department of Higher Education and Training
Ms Mamphoku Khuluvhe, Director: System Monitoring and Labour Market Intelligence, South African Department of Higher Education and Training
Dr Eugene Lottering, Deputy Chief Executive Officer, South African National Research Foundation

11h55              South African Research Activities from Entities (10 minutes presentation each)
Prof Dmitri Bessarabov, Director: HySA Infrastructure (Hydrogen Production, Storage and Delivery) Centre of Competence, co-hosted by the North-West University and the Council for Scientific and Industrial and Research 
Dr Alex Vogel, Expert Future Technology Research and Technology Energy Operations and Technology, Sasol South Africa (Ltd)
Ms Zanele Mavuso-Mbatha, Chief Executive Officer, Bambili Energy
Mr Niels Luchters, Co-founder, Director and Chief Executive Officer: HYENA, Hydrogen Energy Applications (Pty) Ltd

12h35 Closing remarks 
Mr Declan Kirrane, Founder and Managing Director of ISC Intelligence in Science, the chairman and managing director of the science Summit at the United Nations General assembly

BACKGROUND
The Clean Hydrogen Partnership Call for Proposals was published on 31 January 2023 is hydrogen research call for proposals with a total of €195m available for projects. The purpose of the call is to support and fast-track the creation of cutting-edge hydrogen technologies.

The Clean Hydrogen Partnership is a public private partnership that supports research and innovation activities in hydrogen technologies across Europe, and is due to receive a total of €1bn from the European Union for the 2021-2027 period with potential for a further €1bn from private investment.

The funding available will be split into:

• €49m for renewable hydrogen production 
• €36m for hydrogen storage and distribution 
• €25.5m for transport 
• €19m for heat and power 
• €7.5m for cross-cutting
• €38m for hydrogen valleys 
• Aa further €20m for the strategic research challenge.

The topics in the call will be split into 11 Innovation Actions, 13 Research & Innovation Actions, and 2 Coordinated & Support Actions, with 5 of the Innovation Actions considered of strategic importance and are selected as flagship projects.

The European Union has set a target of 10 million tonnes of renewable hydrogen production by 2030 as well as importing the same amount, marking a 20 million tonnes/year market by the end of the decade, according to the REPowerEU directive. The research call is currently open since 31 January and is due to close on 18 April 2023.

Maximizing the benefits from research data and research infrastructures involves several key steps:

1. Ensure data quality and accessibility: The first step in maximizing the benefits from research data is to ensure that the data is of high quality, and that it is easily accessible to researchers. This can involve establishing data management and sharing policies that promote transparency, reproducibility, and the ethical use of data.
2. Promote data sharing and collaboration: Encouraging data sharing and collaboration among researchers is crucial for maximizing the benefits of research data. This can involve establishing data repositories, data sharing platforms, and other tools that enable researchers to share their data and collaborate with others.
3. Facilitate interdisciplinary research: Many research questions require an interdisciplinary approach, and research infrastructures can play a key role in facilitating interdisciplinary collaborations. By bringing together researchers from different disciplines and providing access to shared resources, research infrastructures can help to catalyze new discoveries and insights.
4. Invest in training and education: To maximize the benefits from research data and infrastructures, it is important to invest in training and education for researchers, students, and other stakeholders. This can involve providing workshops, training programs, and other resources that help to develop the skills and knowledge needed to work with research data and infrastructures.
5. Engage with stakeholders: Engaging with a broad range of stakeholders, including policymakers, industry partners, and members of the public, can help to ensure that the benefits of research data and infrastructures are realized. This can involve communicating research findings and insights in clear, accessible language, and involving stakeholders in the research process to ensure that their perspectives and concerns are addressed. If

Microbial science is important for a number of reasons:

1. Understanding the role of microbes in the environment: Microbes play a vital role in the earth's ecosystem, breaking down organic matter and returning vital nutrients to the soil. By studying microbes, we can better understand their role in the ecosystem and how they impact the environment.
2. Developing new medicines: Microbes are the source of many of our most important antibiotics and other medicines, and ongoing research in microbial science is crucial for developing new treatments for diseases.
3. Improving food production and safety: Microbes play a role in the production of fermented foods like yoghurt, cheese, and bread. Understanding the microbial processes involved in food production can help improve the quality, taste, and safety of these products.
4. Bioremediation: Certain microbes can be used to clean up toxic waste, such as oil spills and groundwater contaminated with heavy metals. Microbial bioremediation offers a cost-effective and environmentally friendly solution for addressing environmental pollution.
5. Advancing industrial processes: Microbes are used in a number of industrial processes, including the production of biofuels, chemicals, and bioplastics. Studying microbes can lead to the development of new, more efficient industrial processes.

Overall, microbial science is a vital field that has important applications in many areas of science, medicine, agriculture, and industry, and continues to have a significant impact on our daily lives.

Africa’s history shaped the continent in its actual 54 countries recognized by United Nations, from which 5: Angola, Mozambique, Cape Verde, São Tomé and Principe and Guiné-Bissau share the same official language, being usually designated as Portuguese Speaking Countries in Africa.

Apart from the common language, these countries are different in area, population, economic growth, and natural resources. Angola and Mozambique, the largest in area and population are also the ones with rich mineral reserves, such as oil, gas and precious minerals. Cape Verde, São Tomé and Principe e Guiné-Bissau are smaller in size, population and with limited natural resources.

However, all these countries share Africa’s population trend of having more than 60% of its population under 25 years that induces the investment that should be made in this potential human asset.

Facing limited financial resources, local governments main concerns are focused in primary and secondary education, relegating higher education and scientific research to second place. This framework leads to countries with a significant shortage of skilled workforce, resulting in weak institutions and delayed development.

The investment in capacity building through higher education and scientific research must be regarded as a priority in what concerns international cooperation. Several European countries at a bilateral level, framed or not by EC mechanisms, are actively supporting academic and scientific development in many African countries, yet some face language barriers that keep them away from international funding mechanisms, with heavy requirements and complicated procedures in a foreign language.

Portugal, having the same official language and a Member State of European Union, throughout specific cooperation instruments, should assume an important role fostering capacity building in these 5 countries and bridging appropriated collaboration with other European Countries willing to actively participate in this mission.

The efforts to strengthen capacity building must be approached in several dimensions, being thus indispensable to work with people, local institutions, and local governments, towards knowledge acquisition, institutional management and enabling policies.

The UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, through the Division of Sustainable Development regularly issues guidelines on International Cooperation for Capacity-Building in Developing Countries, however we usually face international mechanisms and instruments aiming to enhance capacity building in African countries that deliver poor results and lack in local impact. These actions must and could be improved.

It is therefore fundamental that the organizations and entities focused on fostering capacity building in Africa are committed to engage in regular debates and experience’s sharing, to increase the efficiency and rise the impact of the initiatives.

the need for the establishment of an african based high-end diagnostic test manufacturing facility convened by antrum biotech 

This Statistical Report presents data tables from the 2020/21 South African National Survey of Research and Experimental Development (R&D Survey).

The report provides key findings of the survey with commentary, standard summary tables of the overall findings from 2020/21 and time series from previous instances of the survey. The R&D Survey covers a 12-month period corresponding with the sectoral financial year.

For the business, government, science councils and NPO sectors, this is from 1 April to 31 March, or the nearest complete financial year. In the higher education sector, the calendar year is surveyed, ending 31 December. The Statistical Report is published annually and provides a summary analysis of the survey data

Science for Climate Resilient food systems in Africa

The state of Africa’s agriculture and its vulnerability to climate risk is an ongoing matter of importance, not only for the continent but the global world. Climate change-related hazards such as drought, shifting patterns of pests and disease incidence, and the reduction of areas suitable for agricultural production threaten agricultural and food systems and affect the food security status of millions of people on the African continent. These challenges impact peace and stability on the continent and the attainment of Sustainable Development Goals.

Agricultural Research and Innovation play a pivotal role in developing climate-resilient food systems and enabling Africa to reduce the agricultural productivity gap and deliver on the SDGs.

The session will showcase some of the key scientific innovations emerging from Agricultural Research organizations in Africa and also in collaboration with global North partners. In addition, the session will identify the key priorities to accelerate the science-led climate-resilient food systems in Africa.
Speakers are expected to be very deliberate in highlighting the key achievements as well as amplifying high-impact needs for accelerating agricultural science on the continent. The enabling policy and regulatory environment will also be addressed.

Neville Reeve is advisor and coordinator for EU missions in DG Research and Innovation at the European Commission. From 2018 he led the team which Previously, he led the strategic planning and setting of priorities for the Horizon 2020 programme, including coordination of the work programme. Trained originally as an engineer he has a PhD on the economics of mobile communications. Before joining the Commission, he has worked in the UK, New Zealand and Germany, in the public and private sectors, on research and innovation policy and notably priority setting, evaluation and the measurement of impacts.

Agenda:

09h30                 Welcome and Opening Remarks
Ms Tokozile Xasa, Ambassador of the Republic of South Africa to the Kingdom of Belgium, the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg and the Mission to the European Union

09h35                 Overview of EU-SA Science Technology and Innovation Cooperation
Mr Daan du Toit, Deputy Director General International Cooperation and Resources, South African Department of Science and Innovation
Ms Maria Cristina Russo, Director Global Approach and International Cooperation in R&I, Directorate-General for Research and Innovation (DG R&I), European Commission

0945                   Horizon Framework Programme, AU/EU Innovation Agenda and Africa Initiative Call
Dr Vincenzo Lorusso, Policy Officer, Science, Technology and Innovation Cooperation with Africa and bilateral cooperation with ASEAN countries, Directorate-General for Research and Innovation (DG R&I), European Commission

10h10                 Support mechanisms to enable participation of SA researchers in Horizon Europe
Ms Tugela Matubatuba, Director: Strategic Partnerships, South African Department of Science and Innovation

10h20                 Spanish Presidency priorities in the area of science and technology
Paco Colomer, former director at Jive, now the coordinator for the Spanish Council Presidency in the Ministry for science and innovation in Madrid

10h40                 Closing remarks
Ms Eudy Mabuza, Senior Science and Innovation Representative to Brussels, South African Department of Science and Innovation
Mr Declan Kirrane, Co-Director, AERAP Africa-Europe Science Collaboration Platform

Science for Food Systems Transformation in a Conflict Area
 
The current upsurge in violence and conflict in the Sahel is the manifestation of a broader and deeper ecological, economic and political crisis within as well as outside the sub Region with an impact on the Sahel. The EU refers to a situation of multiple crises and to its regional, cross-border nature, which makes it more challenging. The new EU strategy for the Sahel emphasises the need for a more comprehensive and contextual approach to addressing regional instability. It underscores the EU’s commitment to addressing the root causes of conflict and instability through an integrated approach. It also cautions for approaches that are sometimes based on inconclusive data, or formulated without available data, and that can result in inappropriate responses.
 
To address the numerous and interconnected challenges, a comprehensive multi-disciplinary analysis and synthesis at multiple scales is required as a basis for effective interventions. However, at this moment national and regional research capacity, funding and infrastructure are very scattered and fragile. Research (and thus knowledge) is fragmented into small, short-term projects that prevent national research institutions from building new long-term multi-disciplinary research capacity, programmes and infrastructure and updating existing capacity. Policymakers and development agencies lack access to quality research findings for different target groups or lack possibilities to create such that provide evidence for their intervention portfolio. Therefore, substantial investment in context context-relevantg and research is required to connect the dots between high-level research and applied contextualised research in order to generate localized evidence. This knowledge should feed a true trans-Sahelian and transdisciplinary reflection making it possible to seek avenues for a more positive trajectory for the region. Dedicated actions are also needed to ensure that such evidence will become the basis for future policies and development programmes.
 
The session will discuss how we can jointly develop a Centre of multi-disciplinary training and research in Food Systems Transformation in a Fragile Zone. This Centre would be a regional hub for data, science, innovation and lifelong learning dedicated to Sahelian challenges and opportunities. A virtual focal point where researchers, policymakers, private sector, CSOs and development practitioners can easily obtain and co-create relevant information on transformation pathways.
Speakers will be from the Sahel research community, Sahel Coalition, Club du Sahel, EC, Wageningen University & Research and other.

Opportunities for African Researchers in Horizon Europe
Presenter: Dr. Seán McCarthy www.hyperion.ie

Duration: 45 minutes

Date: Thursday 9th March 2023 (time to suit programme)

Horizon Europe is the European Union’s Research and Innovation Programme (2021 to 2027). African research organisations can participate in Horizon Europe.

This workshop will provide an overview of the structure and terminology of Horizon Europe. It will identify the key sources of information on programmes, calls for proposals and funded projects. The workshop will provide guidelines on how African researchers can identify potential partners in European research organisations.

Agenda:

1. Sources of Information on Horizon Europe
2. Horizon Europe Funding Landscape
3. How African Researchers can participate in Horizon Europe
4. How to Promote African scientific expertise to European partners

Description of the AERAP Science Session
“Plant Molecular Pharming in Africa”

Mr Declan Kirrane ISC Intelligence, Moderator
Dr George Owusu Essegbey Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, Ghana, Co-Moderator
Speakers 
Prof Kurt Zatloukal Medicines4Future (M4F) and Medical University of Graz, Austria
Ms Belinda Shaw Cape Bio Pharms, Cape Town, South Africa
Prof Josef Glössl M4F and University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna (BOKU), Austria


As a result of widespread economic inequities, millions of people in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC) lack appropriate access to medicines because the domestic biopharmaceutical production capacity is limited. High global demand of biopharmaceuticals (vaccines or medicines) leads to a supply shortage, with detrimental consequences for the health of LMIC populations. A route forward to improve accessibility and affordability to medicines in LIMC and the resilience against future global pandemics is to build local medical infrastructure, including manufacturing infrastructure to produce biopharmaceuticals locally and to educate skilled people capable of managing emergency situations in public health.
The COVID-19 pandemic clearly showed that globally centralized approaches to vaccine development, manufacture and distribution were inefficient and unequal. Therefore, new approaches to global collaboration and capacity building are urgently needed. Low- and middle-income countries currently depend on biopharmaceutical suppliers located in a few developed countries. Diversifying biopharmaceutical production into technologies that are less dependent expert staff and specialized infrastructure can reduce production costs and improve the regional independence of these countries from global supply chains.
Plant Molecular Pharming (PMF), a technology platform for the production of biopharmaceuticals in plants, will be highlighted in the session as one such diversifying option. PMF is an innovative and versatile technology platform to achieve a simple, scalable and low-cost yet versatile and reliable production of biopharmaceuticals. For example, therapeutic proteins for the treatment of infectious and non-communicable diseases as well as diagnostic agents can be produced within a few weeks. The potential and challenges of PMF will be reviewed, emphasizing future opportunities to utilize PMF as an innovative technology platform with low entry barriers for dethe -centralized production of biopharmaceuticals in countries where better accessibility to medicines and vaccines at affordable prices is urgently needed. As tangible examples, the South-African based company Cape Bio Pharms, pioneers in plant-based production of recombinant proteins, as well as the concept of the Austrian initiative Medicines for Future (M4F) for developing a modular, scalable container-based manufacturing facility for the production of biopharmaceuticals using PMF will be presented.
Importantly, international equal partnerships between countries for jointly developing manufacturing infrastructure will require accompanying collaborations aiming at the education and training of skilled people for qualifying them as workforce for plant-based pharmaceutical production facilities in low- and middle-income countries. This concerted approach will ultimately lead to the creation of new qualified jobs in these countries. It will also reduce the risk of disrupted supply chains, as experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Taken together, the collaboration model to be discussed in the session “Plant Molecular Pharming in Africa” will contribute to enabling low- and middle-income countries to develop their own sustainable and scalable manufacturing capacity for biopharmaceuticals based on innovating drug discovery, leading to lower dependency from global supply chains.

Contacts: 
Prof. Josef Glössl, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna (BOKU), Austria
Email: josef.gloessl@boku.ac.at;  Mobile: +43 664 544 5282; www.boku.ac.at
Ms Belinda Shaw, CEO and Founder of Cape Bio Pharms, Email: belinda@capebiopharms.com;
Mobile +27 83 456 2760; www.capebiopharms.com
Prof. Kurt Zatloukal, Medical University of Graz, Austria
Email: kurt.zatloukal@medunigraz.at; Mobile +43 664 153 3264; www.medunigraz.at

 
'One Health' is an integrated, unifying approach to balance and optimize the health of people, animals and the environment. It is particularly important to prevent, predict, detect, and respond to global health threats such as the COVID-19 pandemic.

The approach mobilizes multiple sectors, disciplines and communities at varying levels of society to work together. This way, new and better ideas are developed that address root causes and create long-term, sustainable solutions.
One Health involves the public health, veterinary, public health and environmental sectors. The One Health approach is particularly relevant for food and water safety, nutrition, the control of zoonoses (diseases that can spread between animals and humans, such as flu, rabies and Rift Valley fever), pollution management, and combatting antimicrobial resistance (the emergence of microbes that are resistant to antibiotic therapy).

ENoLL @ AERAP23 
Africa Europe Science and Innovation Forum
Brussels, 9th of March 2023 at 5 PM CET and online

Living labs: an emerging area of collaboration between Africa and the EU

Africa is building its own way to a digital society. A new generation of entrepreneurs, policy officers, and social innovators are working on setting up new African digital innovation ecosystems.
The EU can collaborate with this effort, sharing experiences peer-to-peer and learning with African colleagues. One of the areas identified by African Countries for creating more sustainable and collaborative digital societies in innovation ecosystems is to envisage open living labs as a strategy.

An open debate on how to foster future collaborations and support the creation of open innovation ecosystems in Africa while sharing the experiences of existing running projects will be organized on the 9th of March at 5 PM CET.
Participants:

-Martina Desole, ENoLL director - moderator
-Mamadou Ndir, Alboury Ndao, Ndeye Astou Sene, FDSUT Senegal
-Artur Serra, i2cat Foundation, Barcelona
-Samia Chelbi, DigiArtLiving Lab, Tunisia
-Karim Sy, Jokkolabs network

(10078) HOW GENOMICS WILL CONTRIBUTE TO HEALTHCARE DELIVERY IN AFRICA

The proposed session will focus primarily on genomics within a developing world context and with reference to the SDGs, providing early stage guidance to regulators and policymakers globally to create the enabling environment for genomics healthcare.

In Africa, genomics research has the potential to improve healthcare delivery in several ways.
Speaker 1 will give an overview of results from the EU-Africa PerMed Project unpacking the inherent gaps, needs and areas of interest to develop the personalized medicine in Africa. Giving a view of the African PM ecosystem.

The session will move onto explore how medical genomics uses genomic data to better understand the genetic and molecular basis of health, disease and drug responses. The major applications are to improve the diagnosis, prevention and treatment of disease, and to accelerate the development of new and better diagnostics, drugs and biologicals such as antibodies and vaccines. Speaker 2 will convey current context of the level of genomics testing services offered within African Healthcare systems.

Furthermore, genomics research can also improve our understanding of the genetic diversity in Africa and how it relates to disease susceptibility and drug response. This can inform the development of more effective and culturally appropriate treatments for African populations. Speaker 3 will outline the development of the Tunisian Genome program and the vision toward Personalised Medicine.

Overall, genomics has the potential to significantly improve healthcare delivery in Africa in the coming decades, but careful planning and ethical considerations are needed to ensure that the benefits are realized and the challenges are addressed.

Summary of speaker topics:
Speaker 1: Rizwana Mia- SAMRC & EU-Africa PerMed "The gaps, needs and Areas of interest for development of Personalized Medicine in Africa"

Speaker 2: TBA speaker from Small/Medium Biotech industry- topic "Enabling and delivery of Genomics testing for Healthcare delivery in Africa"

Speaker 3: Yosr Hamdi- Institute Pasteur -Tunis & H3Africa -Topic "Development of the Tunisia genome project toward Personalised Medicine in Tunisia"