Building upon previous Africa related events and a continuous engagement in fostering stronger Europe-Africa cooperation, this conference sought to explore and promote the benefits of applied sciences as drivers for regional innovation in Africa. Against the background of the Sustainable Development Goals, the Africa-EU Joint Vision for 2030, the Global Gateway Strategy, the EU-AU Innovation Agenda and the African Union’s Agenda 2063, the need for a stronger focus on applied sciences is paramount.

Aims of the conference:

• Discuss the contribution of the applied sciences in fostering innovation and job generation in Africa.
• Examine the complex interactions of regional innovation ecosystems.
• Contribute to the further development of the EU-Africa Partnership in the field of higher education and research.
• Discuss the importance of the Global Gateway as a framework for further cooperation.
• Present different successful cooperation projects between academia and industry on both continents.
• Engage in a dialogue with industry and other related education sectors (TVET) on training human resources and the mutual learning between stakeholders.

Conference structure

The conference was structured in two parts:

• Day 1: The public conference targeting practitioners and policy experts that set the scene and examined the various dimensions of the topic.
• Day 2: (Higher) education cooperation projects discussed and shared practices in policy workshops clustered around four thematic tracks: (Renewable) Energy and Green Transition; Agriculture and Food Security; (Public) Health; IT/Technology and Innovation.

Partner’s websites

• EDUFI
• EURASHE
• Nuffic
• OBREAL Global
• University of applied science Bonn-Rhein-Sieg
• University of applied science Flensburg
• University of applied science Neu-Ulm
• University of applied science Weihenstephan-Triesdorf