News & Events

Presentations of the e-Infrastructures for Africa: Gateways to the Future conference (October 29, 2014 – Brussels, Belgium) are now available via this link!

Videos of each session, including the referent panel discussions, are also available as a complement to the presentations. Please access the Video gallery of the conference.

The full programme of the day is available here.

The eI4Africa and iMENTORS partnerships are very pleased to welcome a new associated organisation to the eI4Africa/iMentors joint conference on the theme “e-Infrastructures for Africa: Gateways to the Future” that will take place on October 29, 2014, in Brussels, Belgium, at Hotel Bloom. Click here to register!

Established in 2010, the FTTH Council Africa is an independent, not for profit organisation and active member of the Fibre Council Global Alliance (FCGA) alongside the FTTH Council Europe, Asia Pacific, North America, Middle East and North Africa. 
The work of the individual FTTH Council’s is funded through member contributions, and the FCGA has more than 550 individual member companies, all equally passionate about FTTH.

The most important results that iMENTORS has achieved include:

·      A set of (collected and imported into the platform) data about more than 2.500 organizations, 250 projects, 150 networking infrastructures and 350 research infrastructures active in the e-infrastructure domain in the Sub- Saharan;

·      A useful, yet simple and applicable project evaluation and sustainability frameworks  closely interlinked with the decision support system;

·      A GIS-based powerful platform which helps to visualize different perspectives of the project findings; 

·      A community of interested participants built through a variety of dissemination activities in different countries and through collaboration with other projects.

Take a look at the map!

This is the new iMENTORS banner on the ASREN homepage:

Have you used the iMENTORS opendata service and would like to share the news on your homepage?

Contact us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

 Arab States Research and Education Network (ASREN) is the association of the Arab region National Research and Education Networks (NRENs), as well as their strategic partners, that aims to implement, manage and extend sustainable Pan-Arab e-Infrastructures dedicated for the Research and Education communities and to boost scientific research and cooperation in member countries through the provision of world-class e-infrastructures and e-services.

iMENTORS (www.imentors.eu) is an interactive resource, the first of its kind, to contain  information about all known e-infrastructures in Africa in the past five years. Launched for public use and input in July 2013 iMENTORS provides you with the necessary tool to visualise e-infrastructures and all related projects in Africa.

Take a look at the map!

In the area of e-Infrastructure R&D, the importance of international cooperation cannot be underestimated. This includes both Africa/EU collaboration projects – which are key in maximizing the exploitation potential of EU and African developments – and African cross-continental collaboration – as a way of sharing tailored, locally adapted solutions with high socio-economic impact. It is imperative, therefore, that European and African CoPs collaborate, similar to the twinning between established and emerging NRENs organised by TERENA.

• Promotion of international collaboration opportunities must be continued and strengthened. It was noted that in many cases, African communities were not aware of the funding programmes (e.g. H2020) and collaboration opportunities that exist. The EGI Applications Database lists about 50 VOs, which members of the CoPs identified within eI4Africa could potentially engage with and work collaboratively and/or share resources within common disciplines. Additionally, the eI4Africa Project Wall provides a number of current or proposed projects and can help to notify the international community of proposers of the available collaboration opportunities, as well as facilitate knowledge exchange, VRC development, and capacity building;
• Collaboration starts with human networking. Building international (including EU-Africa) cooperation networks is an important step towards collaboration, as was demonstrated by the eI4Africa events, which have provided ideal forums for meeting peers and potential partners. Networking opportunities are the first step for further collaboration, including joint academic papers or joint proposals for funding;
• Efforts should be made to raise awareness of current efforts and initiatives, which constitutes a major gap in the uptake of e-Infrastructures in the continent. The need to promote e-Infrastructures development in Africa is especially important towards user communities, scientific communities, and e-Infrastructure developers;
• Africa/EU e-Infrastructure Coordination and Support Action (CSA) projects should continue to be funded, since they provide for essential networking and information exchange opportunities between African and European researchers and policy makers;

Why should African countries invest in developing e-Infrastructures in Africa? The EC’s 2007 Green Paper “The European Research Area: New Perspectives” points out that investing in e-Infrastructures can have significant benefits to a country, as it can enable the long-term sustainability of e-Infrastructures, as well as facilitate both industry involvement and the added-value to society that comes with the technology mix, the diversity of users and the local economic and social conditions. Accordingly, the eI4Africa project brings forward a set of recommendations and guidelines to developers and/or policy makers in Africa addressing the following four topics:

• Emphasise the need for African scientists and researchers to join forces with their counterparts in other parts of the world;
• Continue raising awareness and supporting dissemination activities in order to both communicate and promote the potential of e-Infrastructures in Africa;
• Provide and engage in continuous and consistent programmes on skills and capacity building, and;
• Improve collaboration opportunities and sustain Euro-Africa cooperation.

The above findings are presented in more detail in D3.2 ‘Recommendations for African e-Infrastructure development’ and can be discussed by emailing the project partnership at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

West-African and French Research and Education Networks, WACREN and RENATER, have announced that they have agreed to strengthen their cooperation by making RENATER an “international member” of WACREN. This strong support of WACREN is supplemented by financial support from French organisations CIRAD and IRD to accelerate the participation of WACREN in the “AfricaConnect” project funded by the European Commission.

RENATER has been partnering with WACREN since 2011, when the first cooperation agreement between WACREN and RENATER / CIRAD / IRD was signed, with the aim to provide technical, scientific and organizational expertise for the establishment of research and education networks in this region.

By signing this new agreement for financial partnership, RENATER confirms its willingness to work with the WACREN network for its interconnection in one hand, with the Eastern and Southern African networks of the UbuntuNet Alliance especially in the framework of the “AfricaConnect”, and secondly, beyond the African continent, for joining the other components of the “Global Research Village” such as GEANT in Europe.

Patrick Donath, director of RENATER, explains that “RENATER’s mission is also to help  West and Central Africa to bridge the digital divide by bringing its network expertise to promote the development of science, education and North / South cooperation within the African continent”.

Dr Boubakar Barry, CEO of WACREN, said that “this gesture of RENATER, CIRAD and IRD is much appreciated by the WACREN community. It once again demonstrates the sincerity of the cooperation with WACREN since 2011 and which has already been expressed through several joint activities. We believe that the best is yet to come, in the best interests and in the service of our communities”.

Original source: WACREN

‘Science 2.0’ describes the on-going evolution in the modus operandi of doing research and organising science. These changes in the dynamics of science and research are enabled by digital technologies and driven by the globalisation of the scientific community, as well as the need to address the Grand Challenges of our times. They have an impact on the entire research cycle, from the inception of research to its publication, as well as on the way in which this cycle is organised.
The goal of the consultation is to better understand the full societal potential of 'Science 2.0' as well as the desirability of any possible policy action.

UbuntuNet Alliance, the research and education network for Eastern and Southern Africa; and DANTE, the operator of GÉANT, the pan-European research and education network, today announce the commissioning of the UbuntuNet network, the regional high-speed Internet network connecting researchers, educators and students in Eastern and Southern Africa to their peers in the region and to Europe.

The African research and education community has for far too long carried the burden of slow Internet connectivity which has consequently widened the gap between the continent’s researchers and their peers globally. The establishment of national research and education networks (NRENs), the regional UbuntuNet Alliance, and the kick off of the AfricaConnect are milestones transforming the research and education landscape on the continent.

The next e-IRG open workshop will take place in Rome, Italy, under under the auspices of the Italian Presidency of the European Union. The event is planned from Monday 10 November 2014 at 11:00 to Tuesday 11 November 2014 at 13:00.

The opening session will include keynotes by the EC and ESFRI. The three plenary tracks are:

1. e-Infrastructure needs of the FET Flagship Initiatives in particular the Human Brain Project and the Graphene Flagship.
2. e-Infrastructure needs of ESFRI projects with examples from projects in ESFRI’s prioritisation list.
3. e-Methods addressing topics on methods and software in data management and exascale computing.

Each track will include a panel discussion providing ample opportunity for interaction with the audience. The event is open to all e-Infrastructure users, providers and policy makers. The preliminary programme of the workshop, registration and practical information can be found here.

November 24–25, 2014 Kampala, Uganda

Deploying efficient and effective infrastructures and solutions when limited resources are available is a challenging task and a key-enabler for the diffusion of ICT in developing countries. The aim of this conference is bringing together international researchers, students, public officers, policy makers and practitioners in ICT to discuss issues and trends, recent research, innovation advances and on-the-field experiences related to e-Governance, e-Infrastructure, and e-Business with a focus on developing countries.

UbuntuNet-Connect is the Annual Conference of UbuntuNet Alliance that focuses on research and education networking activities in Africa. It is organized by UbuntuNet Alliance and hosted by member NRENs. The Conference brings together practitioners in the research and education networking community, researchers, policy makers, academicians, connectivity providers, and a pool of expertise from across Africa and beyond. In previous years, the conference has attracted sponsorship from leading commercial companies and service providers.

Muscat, Oman, December 10^th – 11^th, 2014

Under the Patronage of His Highness Sayyid Taimur Bin As’ad Al Said,the Arab States Research and Education Network – ASREN, is happy to announce its fourth annual event “4^th International Platform on Integrating Arab e-Infrastructure in a Global Environment - e-AGE 2014” which will take place in 10-11 December 2014 in Muscat Oman. The platform will be hosted by The Research Council (TRC)of Oman.

Co-located with the Research Data Alliance 4th Plenary Meeting, the 3rd EUDAT Conference addresses topical themes in the area of data infrastructures, including how to:

• put research communities in the driving seat of data-infrastructure development: reflections on governance models, working practices, roles and responsibilities.
• bridge national and European solutions in the area of data infrastructure and data management.

iMENTORS has opened its data to all unregistered usersin its last six months of operation. It is important that donors provide information about the aid they give. More important though is for the information to be publicly available in a way that people can easily understand. iMENTORS (www.imentors.eu) is the most comprehensive data map on ICT investments in Africa and contains data across a multitude of entities, classified as organisations, research infrastructures, fibre networks and projects.

 

Africa as a region and as individual countries, is slowly making a steady progress towards establishing national and Regional Research and Educational Networks (RRENs). Although still in its infancy compared to other world regions such as Europe where each country has an active National Research and Educational Networks (NRENs) with established regional networks such as TERENA, iMENTORS database provides evidence for tremendous progress over the past few years.

Image courtesy of Stuart Miles / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

The aim of iMENTORS is to help scientists, universities, research and education networks as well as policy-makers and international funders to gain valuable insights on the gaps and progress made in the region and to identify synergies when planning future ICT initiatives within the African continent.

iMENTORS (also funded under FP7) has been busy recording the IST-Africa project and related FP7 projects. iMENTORS enables organizations to connect with each other, share resources and link their ICT4D project proposal to the past or on-going projects.

We are very excited to announce that the beta version of the iMENTORS platform has just gone live and is taking one step closer to becoming the most comprehensive crowdsourcing map on ICT infrastructures in Sub-Saharan Africa! Users can now register and create individual profiles on the platform and begin exploring our database and visualize it using our map tool. We will continue to enrich our database with new layers of data and visualisations as we progress towards our objectives.

iMENTORS goes live and is one step closer to becoming the most comprehensive crowdsourcing map on ICT infrastructures in Sub-Saharan Africa! Users are now able to register and create their profile on the platform and start sharing their knowledge and data directly on the map.

A high-level expert group on e-infrastructures was created by the iMENTORS EU co-funded project as part of complementary quality assurance to give support in enhancing the coherence and effectiveness of international actors involved in e-infrastructures development projects and initiatives in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Amemorandum of understanding (MoU), a document describing a bilateral agreement, was signed betweene I4Africa and iMENTORS on 4 April indicating an intended common line of action. The two projects have a common interest in a close cooperation in order to achieve their respective objectives and promote the adoption of consolidated standards in the e-Infrastructure with the ultimate aim of boosting RTDI (Research, Technology Development and Innovation) in Africa.

iMENTORS_Press_Release-MoU.docx

A press release about the project was sent on 18 September to almost 1000 contacts in Europe and Africa.
iMENTORS, launched in April 2012 by Stockholm University and Gov2u is the only e-infrastructure mapping project to date. It will cover all e-infrastructures in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) of the past five years. E-infrastructures are networked tools, data and resources that support a community of researchers, broadly including all those who participate in and benefit from research.
Read the press release

Check out the to see the new iMENTORS’ Factsheet explaining the project rationale, objectives and the coordination and support activities: imentors_factsheet_April13.pdf

Do you like it? send us your comments and suggestions: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Click here to see the iMENTORS’ Factsheet explaining the project rationale, objectives and the coordination and support activities.

You can find the poster here

iMENTORS has a new leaflet explaining its aims and objectives and inviting people to get involved. See the online version.

Emerging demand for European clouds for e-Science

The European policy strategy for the implementation of the ERA and the pursuit of excellence in science by Horizon 2020 reflect the increasing relevance of scientific and research activities for growth and innovation.

Issue 12 is now available! You can view it booklet style or download the PDF. Printed copies are also available from This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

A 2012 e-IRG Roadmap outlined a vision for the future of e-Infrastructures in Europe. Now, the e-IRG has published its 2013 White Paper, which takes the discussion one step further and proposes specific next steps.

She Figures 2012 is the fourth publication of a key set of indicators that are essential to understand the situation of women in science and research. The She Figures data collection is undertaken every three years since 2003 by the Directorate-General for Research and Innovation of the European Commission, in cooperation with the Helsinki Group and its sub-group of Statistical Correspondents.
Read more

‘A Study on the Prospects of the Internet for Research and Education 2014-2020‘, the final report of the ASPIRE study, is now available in pdf and printed paper format.
 
This report is the formal deliverable of ASPIRE (A Study on the Prospect of the Internet Research and Education), a foresight study to provide strategic recommendation to policy and decision makers. It marks the end of an 18-month study carried out by TERENA and funded by the European Commission as part of the GN3 (GÉANT) project. The final report is based on the four ASPIRE Topic Reports published in September 2012.

Jean-Luc Dorel, Project Officer, Unit C1, DG CONNECT said: "The results of the ASPIRE study funded by the GN3 project couldn't come at a better time – they are relevant for the discussions on GN3plus;, on Horizon 2020 and on CEF (Connecting Europe Facility). I expect that the overall conclusions and recommendations of this report will inspire some new actions for the future.”