This project aims at providing a broad perspective of the state of Science Technology and Innovation (STI) in Africa with a focus on global funding flows, in order to inform research funders in the continent, in particular those participating in the Science Granting Councils Initiative (SGCI). The project will deliver a ‘master class’ on funding flows in Africa in a meeting with Science Granting Councils in November 2023 and a report in November 2024.
The main objectives are to shed light on the state of STI in Africa, going beyond traditional indicators and seeking to understand what lies behind existing indicators through case studies and the collection of new data, with a particular focus on the dynamics of STI investments and funding flows. Specific guiding questions include:
- What are the main trends regarding institutions, human capital, infrastructure and financial investments for STI in Africa?
- What is the role of national agencies, and SGCs in particular, in the African STI landscape?
- What are the initiatives and programmes that dominate the landscape of STI in Africa? How are these changing over time?
- What new types of data can shed light on the state of STI in Africa, complementing existing regular or semi-regular macro-level data collection activities?
To address these questions, we plan to conduct a survey of funding programmes of African science granting councils in Africa, and to develop novel data analysis based on grant data, and funding acknowledgements in publications.
This project is funded by IDRC (Canada) and conducted in collaboration with CREST at Stellenbosch University (coordinator), Future Africa at the University of Pretoria in South Africa, and CSIR-Science and Technology Policy Research Institute (STEPRI) in Ghana.
Duration
1 August 2023 – 31 October 2024
Keywords
STI in Africa, Science funding, funding flows, Science Granting Councels
Partners
Stellenbosch University, University of Pretoria, STEPRI (Ghana)
CWTS Staff
Jeroen van Honk, Jonathan Dudek, Ismael Rafols, Rodrigo Costas, Carole de Bordes