Image: EU Science & Innovation [CC BY-ND 2.0], via Flickr
RI Days: Dashboard will display innovation projects contributing to AU-EU joint strategy
The African Union and EU have launched a dashboard that will display projects aligning with their 2023 joint innovation agenda as a step towards implementing their vision for 2030.
Launched this week, the ‘Dashboard of initiatives’ is intended to help coordinate innovation efforts and investment in environmental sustainability, health and technology.
At the European Commission’s Research and Innovation Days conference in Brussels on 20 March, African Union innovation commissioner Mohamed Belhocine (pictured) welcomed the dashboard as “a continuation of our horizontal engagement”.
Making an impact
He said he hoped that “where we are investing together will make an impact for the local populations”. The African Union itself is “providing tools” but not implementing the agenda per se, he said, explaining: “It will be up to the teams in the field to take it further.”
Hans Christian Stausboll, acting director of the Africa unit in the European Commission department for international partnerships, said that there are existing joint innovation projects whose progress can now be followed via the dashboard.
Moving forwards, he said that the “political commitment is there; now we just need to implement” the agenda.