Supporting Research and Innovation Activities in Developing Countries

1. Supporting Research and Innovation Activities in Developing Countries Paul Cunningham IIMC, Ireland / IST-Africa Coordinator paul@iimg.com

2. International Information Management Corporation Technology, Strategic Consulting and Research Organisation‏ • Technology Services • Multilingual Portals • Conference Technology Solutions • Strategic Consulting • Collaborative Open Innovation and Living Labs • ICT4D • ICT Entrepreneurship • ICT for Education, Healthcare, Public Service Delivery • Impact Assessment, Monitoring & Evaluation • Research • Policy Development • Analytical and Strategic Reports • Coordinator and Partner in European Funded Research (FP4 – Horizon 2020) • Conference Communities • eChallenges (Supported by EC, Technical Co-Sponsored by IEEE) • IST-Africa (Supported by AUC and EC, Technical Co-Sponsored by IEEE) • Conference Management Solutions

3. IST-Africa Initiative • Supported by European Commission and African Union Commission (AUC) Founded in 2002 and Co-funded under European Framework Programme since 2005 IST-Africa Facilitates Strategic Engagement with Africa in the areas of Information Society, ICT and Innovation Adoption, Policy and Research Strategic Partnership between IIMC (Ireland) & 18 Ministries and National Councils responsible for Innovation, Science and Technology adoption, implementation, policy and research • IST-Africa facilitates and supports International Innovation, Policy, Research Cooperation Knowledge Sharing and Skills Transfer Collaborative Innovation, ICT Entrepreneurship and Adoption of Living Labs Methodologies Information Society, ICT and Innovation aspects of the Africa - EU Strategic Partnership Awareness of African Research & Innovation Capacity, cross-border cooperation & participation in H2020 Establishment of National Contact Points (NCP)

4. IST-Africa Consortium IST-Africa Partners • IIMC International Information Management Corporation Limited (“IIMC”, Ireland) • Ministerio da Ciencia e Tecnologia (“MINCT”, Angola) • Ministry of Transport and Communications (“MTC”, Botswana) • Ministere de l’Enseignement Superieur et de la Recherche Scientifique (“MESRS”, Burundi) • Agence Nationale des Technologies de l’Information et de la Communication (“ANTIC”, Cameroon) • Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (“MCIT”, Egypt) • Ministry of Communication and Information Technology (“MCIT”, Ethiopia) • Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (“MOEST”, Kenya) • Ministry of Communications, Science and Technology (“MCST-L”, Lesotho) • National Commission for Science and Technology (“NCST”, Malawi) • National Computer Board (“NCB”, Mauritius) • Instituto Nacional de Tecnologias de Informacao e Comunicacao (“INTIC”, Mozambique) • National Commission on Research, Science and Technology (“NCRST”, Namibia) • Ministère de l'Enseignement Supérieur et de la Recherche (“MESR”, Senegal) • Department of Science and Technology (“DST”, South Africa) • Ministry of Information Communication Technology (“MICT-S”, Swaziland) • Tanzania Commission for Science and Technology (“COSTECH”, Tanzania) • Ministere de l'Enseignement Superieur, de la Recherche Scientifique et ICT, ("MHESRICT", Tunisia) • Uganda National Council for Science and Technology (“UNCST”, Uganda)

5. Mapping of Societal Challenges under Horizon 2020 in IST-Africa Partner countries

6. Impact of IST-Africa • Helped African institutions to secure c. €60 million in research grants in last five years • Provided evidence to secure c.€25 million for African-focused research cooperation under LEIT Work Programme of Horizon 2020 (ICT39 2015, ICT39 2016 – 2017) • Increased participation in FP7 projects across IST-Africa Partner Countries • Increased awareness of imperative to resource applied ICT Research and Innovation aligned with national priorities to strengthen socio-economic impact • Project and Organisational Repositories to help identifying collaboration partners • Increased research publications from IST-Africa partner countries strengthen credibility of international research capacity - IST-Africa Conference Proceedings and IEEE Xplore • Knowledge sharing between key Innovation Stakeholders across Africa and Europe • Actively supported policy dialogues between European Commission, African Union Commission and other key national, regional and international stakeholders • Raised awareness of benefits of Collaborative Open Innovation & Living Labs methodologies • Published comprehensive reference reports – ICT Initiatives and Research Capacity, Guide to Bilateral and Multilateral ICT and Innovation Activities http://www.ist-africa.org/home/default.asp?page=reports

7. Cross-Border Research & Innovation Activities in Developing Countries

8. Africa4All Parliamentary Initiative • Engaged National Parliaments in five IST-Africa Partner Countries • Kenya, Lesotho, Namibia, Tanzania and Uganda • Sensitized Parliamentary leadership to benefits associated with ICT adoption • Explored opportunities to leverage ICT to support committee work • X-Chamber – Secure remote workplace for MPs • Move away from paper based workflow to electronic engagement • Increase institutional memory • Parliament of Namibia provided laptops and training to support committee work • Identified opportunities for active engagement with civil society and citizens around legislative issues under development • Encouraging the use of online forums to increase engagement and transparency • Explored opportunities for cross-border parliamentary engagement on common issues of concern to support regional coordination Supported under ACP@ICT Call, co-funded by DG DevCo (2009 – 2011)

9. mHealth4Afrika Research and evaluate the potential impact of co-designing an open source, multilingual, multi-modal mHealth platform to support quality community-based maternal and newborn healthcare delivery in African Member States IIMC (Ireland, Coordinator), University of Gondor (Ethiopia), Strathmore University (Kenya), Chancellor College (Malawi), University of Oslo (Norway), Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (South Africa), University of Ulster (UK) Research expertise includes human-computer interaction (HCI), cross-platform mobile technologies, sensors for healthcare, health informatics, end-user driven needs assessment and evaluation, maternal and newborn health expertise Cross border collaboration will assist in increasing the research capacity within each participating country through knowledge exchange and skills transfer Undertaking research and innovation activities across different regions of Africa provides a unique opportunity to collect a critical mass of comparative data related to end-user requirements and pilot evaluation, to assist in analysing similarities and differences in participating countries This will inform the co-design of a common platform suitable for wider adoption across Africa, with limited additional configuration and adaptation required by new participating countries. Funded under Horizon 2020 (ICT39 – 2015), Nov 2015 - 2018

10. Opportunities to Share Good Practices and Research, Innovation & ICT4D Activities in Developing Countries

11. European Year of Development Theme: Culture, Ethics and Knowledge Society Official Opening Address – President of Ireland, Michael D Higgins 3 Plenary Panels – Technology & Development, Professional and Research Ethics in Science &Technology, Future Internet & Smart Cities Preliminary Programme – 15 parallel sessions, presenters from 5 continents Call for Practitioner and Oral presentations (ICT for Agriculture, Education, Healthcare, Public Service Delivery) Good Practices, Success Stories, Lessons Learnt, Case Studies IEEE ISTAS 2015 (11 – 12 November) www.ISTAS2015.org

12. IST-Africa 2016 (11 – 13 May, South Africa) Call for Papers www.IST-Africa.org • Technical, Visionary, Business and Government Case Studies • Full Papers, Practitioner Presentations and Oral Presentations • All papers and presentations selected through double blind peer review process • Accepted papers published in Conference Proceedings and IEEE Xplore Thematic Priorities Include • Content Technologies (Language, Learning, Digital Preservation) • eGovernment – Services to Citizens & Business • eHealth, mHealth & Health Information Systems • eInfrastructures, NRENs and IPv6 • Future Internet and Smart Cities • ICT for Agriculture and Environmental Sustainability • ICT Skills, Technology-enhanced Learning, ICT for eInclusion and eAccessibiity • Next Generation Computing (Big Data, Cloud Computing, Data Localisation, IoT) • Technology and Development, ICT4D (including Humanitarian Technologies) Submission Deadline – 07 December 2015