Collaboration node Africa – Implementation study

Purpose and goal

This project builds on a previously conducted feasibility study with the goal of establishing a Swedish research hub on the African continent aimed at serving as a node for collaboration in research, research-related innovation, and higher education between Swedish and African universities. The project intends to concretize the design and work plan for the collaboration node, and to initiate two of the activities that the preliminary study recommends as critical in the start-up phase of the collaboration node: situation monitoring and analysis, and strategic networking.

Expected effects and result

The expected effects are i) a concrete work plan for the establishment of the collaboration node, ready for financing and implementation ii) initiated collaboration work with an established core of a strategic network in Africa that the collaboration node can benefit from during the upcoming establishment. The work plan will be created in cooperation with a reference group of strategic stakeholders in Sweden and Africa. Such Swedish-African co-creation of operations and organizational setup is expected to create an effective organization that has credibility on both sides.

Planned approach and implementation

The project aims to: - start with visits to several sub-Saharan African countries identified in the preliminary study to test the proposed ideas and evaluate local conditions - establish a reference group - organize several workshops, both for the reference group´s work, and for promotion and knowledge creation - explore how the collaboration node´s activities can be supported by and integrated with EU initiatives - draft a detailed proposal for the node´s establishment and future.