Periodic Reporting for period 1 - SEADE (Strengthening the Europe-Africa Digital Ecosystem Through Increased R&I Cooperation)
Berichtszeitraum: 2024-01-01 bis 2024-12-31
Over the past ten years, there has been increasing interest and activity in the African Digital and Innovation ecosystem, leading to a wide variety of projects and initiatives looking to support collaboration between the EU and Africa. Such projects have built a wealth of expertise and learnings, which offers a strong position from which to draw for AU-EU digital cooperation. However, the growing number of active donors, initiatives and projects can often result in overlaps and fragmentation, ultimately generating information overload for ecosystem actors.
SEADE provides a comprehensive solution for drawing out legacy outputs from Research & Innovation (R&I) and Digital Transformation actions in EU and Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), bringing the Unique Selling Point elements together to stimulate R&I cooperation in the digital field among SSA and EU R&I organisations. The SEADE solution is captured within research industry-based programmes and services developed within the project, made accessible through the SEADE Digital Environment, a focused website within the existing EiA digital platform.
With the focus of many actions being the startup innovation ecosystem, the full innovation value chain, starting with research, has not always been fully addressed and supported. SEADE conducts stakeholder and ecosystem research to identify support gaps and expand the services of the project to meet the need of targeted support mechanisms for the R&IID community. It is, therefore, the overarching aim of this project to draw together the existing legacy and develop new expanded services, to address the gaps in the research value chain, providing a seamless ‘Route-to-Market’ pathway for the R&I actors in transferring research knowledge into market success, ensuring the R&IID ecosystem can be supported to build prosperous knowledge societies, support the development of economic growth, and facilitate job market boosting.
In terms of impact, SEADE aims to bridge the gap in digital skill and research excellence between R&IID actors across the continents for eye-to-eye cooperation. The project promotes Africa’s economic growth by facilitating the pathway to market for digital solutions. It is based on a deep human-centred participatory approach that puts emphasis on underrepresented R&IID actors, aiming to create an inclusive enabling environment. Through creating and sharing impact-driven success stories, sustainability of cross-continental R&I cooperation is increased.
SEADE provides a comprehensive solution for drawing out legacy outputs from Research & Innovation (R&I) and Digital Transformation actions in EU and Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), bringing the Unique Selling Point elements together to stimulate R&I cooperation in the digital field among SSA and EU R&I organisations. The SEADE solution is captured within research industry-based programmes and services developed within the project, made accessible through the SEADE Digital Environment, a focused website within the existing EiA digital platform.
With the focus of many actions being the startup innovation ecosystem, the full innovation value chain, starting with research, has not always been fully addressed and supported. SEADE conducts stakeholder and ecosystem research to identify support gaps and expand the services of the project to meet the need of targeted support mechanisms for the R&IID community. It is, therefore, the overarching aim of this project to draw together the existing legacy and develop new expanded services, to address the gaps in the research value chain, providing a seamless ‘Route-to-Market’ pathway for the R&I actors in transferring research knowledge into market success, ensuring the R&IID ecosystem can be supported to build prosperous knowledge societies, support the development of economic growth, and facilitate job market boosting.
In terms of impact, SEADE aims to bridge the gap in digital skill and research excellence between R&IID actors across the continents for eye-to-eye cooperation. The project promotes Africa’s economic growth by facilitating the pathway to market for digital solutions. It is based on a deep human-centred participatory approach that puts emphasis on underrepresented R&IID actors, aiming to create an inclusive enabling environment. Through creating and sharing impact-driven success stories, sustainability of cross-continental R&I cooperation is increased.
SEADE partners have successfully gathered insights to understand the needs of EU and SSA R&IID stakeholders. The D1.1 Stakeholder Research Methodology and Design provided a structured strategy as a basis. Research across Ghana, Kenya, Senegal, and South Africa engaged 122 participants, complemented by 129 UXR survey responses. Capacity-building initiatives, including UXR training, strengthened stakeholder engagement, while in-depth data analysis identified ecosystem gaps, informing future policies and service improvements. Findings were summarised in D1.2 AU/EU R&I Cooperation in Digital – Stakeholder Research Outcomes (WP1).
A mapping of R&I and digital policies and strategies across the AU-EU and in the pilot regions as well as a gap analysis to provide policy recommendations and suitable tools and services for the identified needs was done through literature analysis and pooling of knowledge across the consortium in the first period. The four pilot regions collected over 100 R&I and digital policies/strategies. Relevant policymakers and local stakeholders were identified and 37 in-depth interviews conducted to uncover gaps and opportunities within the region’s R&I and digital policy landscape. A respective survey was disseminated widely, gathering 221 responses and providing a robust dataset for analysis (WP2).
A total of 300 existing projects and initiatives were collected, analyzed and a list of digital tools and services s draw up (WP2). 4 tools were identified as viable for integration into the SEADE Digital Environment within the existing EiA platform, supplemented by 5 additional non-legacy tools. User flows and UX wireframes for the evolution of the EiA platform were drafted. A live demonstration webinar of the registration process for R&IID users on the EiA platform was conducted with 70 participants (WP3). The research conducted provided a basis for a gap analysis and recommendations regarding potentially beneficial policies, tools and services to meet ecosystem needs (WP2). To strengthen R&I support, and address identified needs, several ‘Route-to-Market’ Capacity Building Programmes and R&I Matchmaking Activities were implemented (WP4): 4 webinars on pilot regions with 142 attendees, 2 Learning Expeditions (in Ghana with 13 participants and in South Africa with 18 participants), 2 soft-landing programmes (in Senegal and South Africa with 10 participants each), 1 e-pitching event (49 participants) and 1 reverse pitch (59 participants). In addition, the Twinning programme was launched and 36 applications received.
1 online Pilot-Lead Training workshop was conducted with 25 participants from partner organisations in Ghana (HAPA/AAU), Kenya (WAZI/AAU), Senegal (BOND/BPI) and South Africa (MET/EIAC). It served to equip attendees with insights and a methodology for a human-centred approach to data collection and analysis (WP1).
1 large project event, the SEADE R&I Summit in Cape Town in December 2024 brought R&IID stakeholders and project partners (120 attendees) together to engage in discussions on project findings and activities (WP6).
An open call for success stories was launched, promoted applications received. Applications were analysed and evaluated by project partners using the principles outlined in the impact assessment framework. 5 top success stories were selected (WP5). These were announced and invited to the award ceremony during the 1st SEADE R&I Summit (WP6).
5 in person workshops were conducted (one in Senegal, one in Kenya, one in Ghana and two in South Africa); with a total of 118 participants, introducing tools and services of the EiA platform for R&IID actors including e.g. Teachable, the Marketplace and the Twinning programme (WP5).
A mapping of R&I and digital policies and strategies across the AU-EU and in the pilot regions as well as a gap analysis to provide policy recommendations and suitable tools and services for the identified needs was done through literature analysis and pooling of knowledge across the consortium in the first period. The four pilot regions collected over 100 R&I and digital policies/strategies. Relevant policymakers and local stakeholders were identified and 37 in-depth interviews conducted to uncover gaps and opportunities within the region’s R&I and digital policy landscape. A respective survey was disseminated widely, gathering 221 responses and providing a robust dataset for analysis (WP2).
A total of 300 existing projects and initiatives were collected, analyzed and a list of digital tools and services s draw up (WP2). 4 tools were identified as viable for integration into the SEADE Digital Environment within the existing EiA platform, supplemented by 5 additional non-legacy tools. User flows and UX wireframes for the evolution of the EiA platform were drafted. A live demonstration webinar of the registration process for R&IID users on the EiA platform was conducted with 70 participants (WP3). The research conducted provided a basis for a gap analysis and recommendations regarding potentially beneficial policies, tools and services to meet ecosystem needs (WP2). To strengthen R&I support, and address identified needs, several ‘Route-to-Market’ Capacity Building Programmes and R&I Matchmaking Activities were implemented (WP4): 4 webinars on pilot regions with 142 attendees, 2 Learning Expeditions (in Ghana with 13 participants and in South Africa with 18 participants), 2 soft-landing programmes (in Senegal and South Africa with 10 participants each), 1 e-pitching event (49 participants) and 1 reverse pitch (59 participants). In addition, the Twinning programme was launched and 36 applications received.
1 online Pilot-Lead Training workshop was conducted with 25 participants from partner organisations in Ghana (HAPA/AAU), Kenya (WAZI/AAU), Senegal (BOND/BPI) and South Africa (MET/EIAC). It served to equip attendees with insights and a methodology for a human-centred approach to data collection and analysis (WP1).
1 large project event, the SEADE R&I Summit in Cape Town in December 2024 brought R&IID stakeholders and project partners (120 attendees) together to engage in discussions on project findings and activities (WP6).
An open call for success stories was launched, promoted applications received. Applications were analysed and evaluated by project partners using the principles outlined in the impact assessment framework. 5 top success stories were selected (WP5). These were announced and invited to the award ceremony during the 1st SEADE R&I Summit (WP6).
5 in person workshops were conducted (one in Senegal, one in Kenya, one in Ghana and two in South Africa); with a total of 118 participants, introducing tools and services of the EiA platform for R&IID actors including e.g. Teachable, the Marketplace and the Twinning programme (WP5).
there are no final results to be reported yet, however, two webinars were conducted and one workshop to identify the develop a preliminary list of the project results and define an IP management and exploitation strategy.