Businesses seek stronger research cooperation with Africa

Industry group calls for more vocational training and greater mobility through Erasmus

The industry group Business Europe has urged the European Commission to boost research and education links between Europe and Africa. It said a strategy for relations between the continents, which the Commission is due to present in March, “presents a major opportunity” for a “paradigm shift” in ties.

“Co-operation between universities, research institutions and vocational education and training programmes from both continents need to be strengthened, including under the EU Erasmus+ [mobility] programme,” group president Pierre Gattaz and director general Markus Beyrer wrote in a letter to Commission president Ursula von der Leyen on 11 February.