The Africa Charter: Advancing transformative research collaborations between Africa and the rest of the world
06 November 2024
6-7 November 2024, Brussels
We are delighted to invite you to register for a 2 part, interactive workshop in Brussels on Wednesday 6 and Thursday 7 November 2024, convened jointly by the University of Bristol and the Coimbra Group Global Partnerships Working Group, with the support of the University of Bergen, to present and discuss the Africa Charter for Transformative Research Collaborations.
The Africa Charter, co-created by Africa’s major higher education constituencies, is an Africa-centred framework for advancing a transformative mode of research collaborations that will serve to uphold the continent’s place in- and foster a more equitable- global system of scientific knowledge production. It was co-facilitated by the University of Bristol’s Perivoli Africa Research Centre. The Coimbra Group was amongst the first signatories, which now number more than 100 Institutions.
The 1st part of the workshop on Wednesday 6 November from 10:00-19:30 at the Fondation Universitaire (Rue d’Egmont 11, 1000 Brussels) will combine plenary sessions with small group discussions on the relevance and translation into practice of the Africa Charter’s 10 principles in the evolution of Africa-Europe research collaborations. It will conclude with a networking reception.
The 2nd part on Thursday 7 November from 09:00-14:00 at Norway House (Rue Archimède 17, 1000 Brussels) will explore the implications of the Charter’s 6 aspirations on change in higher education policy and regulatory architectures, for the further shaping of Africa-Europe R&I policy and funding, including within the AU-EU Innovation Agenda as well as in the EU framework programmes for R&I. It will conclude with a networking lunch.
The event will be relevant to university Rectors and Vice-Rectors, academics, and staff, policymakers and funders, and the wider R&I community from both continents. The draft programme is available here and registration is open here. We hope that you will be able to join us!
About the Africa Charter
Launched in July 2023 in Windhoek, Namibia, the Africa Charter was co-created by Africa’s major higher education and science constituencies, and co-facilitated by the University of Bristol’s Perivoli Africa Research Centre (PARC), the University of South Africa and the University of Cape Town.
The Charter’s 10 principles seek to advance a transformative mode of Africa-global North research collaborations — one that redresses the multiple layers of power imbalances in the production of scientific knowledge — as an entry and leverage point for more just global scientific effort in which African scholars, institutions and knowledges take their rightful place.
The Charter’s 6 aspirations call for structural change — in policy and regulatory frames, and guidelines of Higher Education Institutions, funders, publishers, research assessment and science governance bodies — to ensure that such a transformative collaboration mode is established as a benchmark and, progressively, as standard practice within the scientific community and beyond.