EU leaders urge closer research ties with Africa

The EU should boost its research collaboration with African countries and support innovation on the continent, senior EU figures have said ahead of a high-level summit.

In anticipation of the EU-African Union leaders’ summit on 29 and 30 November, Antonio Tajani, the president of the European Parliament, and Andrus Ansip, the digital single market commissioner, stressed the need for more cooperation on research and innovation.

In a guest post on Ansip’s blog published on 27 November, Tajani called for more R&D cooperation with African countries via the Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions and Horizon 2020. “We need to facilitate higher education exchanges, support scholarships via Erasmus+ [and] extend cross-border interchange programmes for young entrepreneurs,” he said.