COST APPLICATION ABSTRACT

Toward a new ‘excellence’ in Africa-Europe scientific cooperation:  
embedding a transformative mode of research collaborations 

Africa and Europe envision a new era of scientific cooperation particularly in the three focal fields of public health, green transition and innovation and technology. Two major barriers to realizing the potential of such renewed cooperation are: One, the multiple layers of power imbalances in research collaborations, which persist as colonial legacies and underpin the peripheral positioning of African scholars, HEI and countries in global scientific knowledge production. Two, the marginalization of actors from South-East European countries in such collaborations, which delimits the experience and expertise that Europe is able to bring to joint knowledge production with Africa.  

The proposed Action seeks to address both barriers with emphasis on the three focal fields. To do so, the Action will work to a) embed --through policy and practice change-- a transformative mode of Africa-Europe scientific cooperation, which redresses the multilayered power imbalances, aligned with the principles of the Africa Charter for Transformative Collaborations; and b) marshal the insights and engagement of South-East European scholars and HEI, drawing on their own experience of knowledge ‘inferiorization’ within Europe, to extend conceptual and theoretical insights into the nature and operation of the multilayered power imbalances.  

To achieve its goals, the Action will bring together a critical mass and networked community of researchers, research managers, HEI leaders from across Europe and Africa working jointly, through scientific exchanges, workshops, symposia, conferences and training courses, and in engagement and dialogue with key HE policy, civil society and private sector stakeholders.