The “e-Infrastructures for Africa: Gateways to the Future” Conference is jointly organised by the eI4Africa and iMENTORS EU/FP7 projects (both projects addressing Africa-EU cooperation in the field of e-Infrastructures). The event will be held under the aegis of the European Commission (DG CONNECT) and the African Union Commission.

CONFERENCE OBJECTIVES

The conference will aim at discussing major developments and perspectives in the field of Africa-EU e-Infrastructure cooperation and at presenting the two projects’ main outcomes:

• The first ever Africa Grid Science Gateway
• Several African e-Infrastructure flagship demonstrators, including the Pharmacology Science Gateway, the TRODAN Data Repository, the Weather Research and Forecasting Model, the Community Health Portal, and the Technology Transfer Alliance Science Gateway
• The results of the two surveys launched to examine the state-of-the-art of e-Infrastructure applications in Africa, as well as to assess their economic societal and environmental impacts
• The main outcomes of the four thematic workshops held in Africa over 2013-2014
• The launched program to deploy Certification Authorities across Africa
• The launch of the most comprehensive crowdsourcing data map providing insights into international cooperation and ICT investments in Africa for scientists, universities, research and education networks, and international donors
• The development of a decision-support system based on multiple stakeholders’ evaluations and impact assessments for on-going international aid projects and e-infrastructures
• A set of contextual factors which enable the assessment of ICT4D proposals ahead of their implementation by estimating their potential impact
• The role of open aid data in enhancing the coherence of international aid
• African progress towards establishing national and regional Research and Educational Networks (RENs)