Highway Africa News Agency

The European Union has set aside a total sum of 9.1 billion Euros for funding of Information and Communication Technology (ICT)-based research on the continent through the EuroAfrica-ICT Strategic Partnership.

The partnership, which is part of the Seventh EU Framework Programme for Research and Development (FP7) is a project that would last till 2010 and is driven by activities of the European Commission, Directorate General of Information Society and Media and is aimed at exploring the potential for a deeper and broader Science and Technology (S&T) cooperation on ICT between EU and the sub-Saharan Africa region.

The research projects developed on the African continent would strengthen S & T cooperation between the EU and sub-Saharan Africa on ICT related work. Equally, Experts also say that this could efficiently contribute to the implementation of the new EU-African Union Joint Strategy.

"It is therefore not surprising that one of the expected deliverables of the Lisbon EU-AU summit is the approval of a specific partnership on Science, Information Society, and Space," part of the manifesto read.

Investigations revealed that the current FP7 work programme for the ICT theme, covering 2007-2008, paid a very limited attention to the continent when compared to other regions of the world.

There is indeed a true inconsistent gap between on one hand, the political vision and roadmap and the determination of European and African organisations to cooperate among them the ones endorsing the present EuroAfrica-ICT manifesto, and on the other hand, the opportunities offered by the FP7 ICT work programme.

According to the manifesto the strategic nature of the EUAfrica cooperation would be duly taken into account so that an increased participation of sub-Saharan African organisations in FP7 proposals could be fully understood during the evaluation process of the proposals.