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The AERAP Africa-Europe Science Collaboration Platform will organise a roundtable discussion on 8-9 December 2021 to consider the contribution of science to the priorities for the EU-Africa summit, currently scheduled for 17-18 February 2022 under the French Council Presidency of the European Union (1 January -30 June 2022). The purpose of the meeting will be to promote awareness of the contribution of collaborative research and development as a critical aspect of EU-Africa relations and collaborations while recognising the context of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, which provides a critical narrative.

The general topics that will inform the discussions include:
  1. The Neighbourhood, Development and International Cooperation Instrument, NDICI, also known as Global Europe, needs to reflect the enormous potential of collaborative and inclusive science to address the policy objectives addressed by the instrument, including digital transition and the Green deal; the Communication from the Commission on the Global Approach to Research and Innovation is a key paper: the Communication is intended to ....serve as a guide in implementing the international dimension of the new EU programme for civil research and innovation, Horizon Europe, and its synergies with other EU programmes, in particular the Neighbourhood, Development and International Cooperation Instrument - Global Europe.  For example, the Communication does not address the impact of the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which has extraterritorial application and its implications for research collaboration, particularly in medical science and health research.
  2. Accelerate an inclusive approach to collaborative research, recognising Africa leadership and the untapped potential of women and girls to contribute to science and innovation. This needs to start with a more cohesive approach to policymaking and regulation. 
  3. Consider how to leveraged synergies between funding mechanisms led by the EU and development finance provided by the African Development Bank, the European Investment Bank, the World Bank and others;
  4. Raise awareness of the unforeseen and unintended impact of EU regulations on potential research collaborations. These include data privacy, the General Data Protection Regulation, the In-vitro Diagnostics Regulation (IVDR), the Medical Devices Regulation (MDR) and the Clinical Trials Regulation. Good regulation cannot act as a barrier between you and African researchers. African nations need to build their enabling regulatory environment and pursue regulatory compliance with the EU. There is also an urgent need to create an enabling environment for trust relationships;
  5. Indigenous knowledge needs to be recognised as a force for good and part equation when promoting Africa-Europe science collaboration, including developing relevant information services and linking indigenous knowledge to data capacities; patent data and WTO TRIPS Art. 66.2 is key also;
  6. We will also consider the importance of the SDGs in this context, including enabling local and community (Local 2030) science and efficacy part of the global response.
Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the Member States of the African Union (AU) and the European Union (EU) met in Kigali, Rwanda, on 26 October 2021, took stock of progress regarding the priority areas adopted during the last AU – EU Summit held in 2017, in Abidjan. The Communique provides some guidance on priorities for the EU-AU Summit on 17-18 Feb 2022.

AERAP is a response to the European Parliament Written Declaration 45 on Science Capacity Building in Africa. This call was repeated by the Heads of State of the African Union through their Decision Assembly/AU/Dec.407 CXVIII. AERAP encourages policymakers to understand the need for an enabling policy and regulatory environment for science cooperation with Africa and championing leadership in Africa and Europe to demonstrate science’s contribution to society and address shared global challenges.


Communication from the Commission on the Global Approach to Research and Innovation
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Ralf Sudbrak

Global AMR R&D Hub
Interim Secretariat Lead
Deutschland
Websitehttps://globalamrhub.org/
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Dr. Ralf Sudbrak is Interim Secretariat Lead at the Global AMR R&D Hub in Berlin. The main goal of the HUB is to promote high-level coordination among governments and upstream funders from different world regions, in order to better align national and international R&D efforts in the fight against AMR. The central deliverable of the GLOBAL AMR R&D HUB will be a close to real-time Dynamic Dashboard providing information and analysis at a high level on current initiatives, funding flows and activities in the field of AMR R&D. Ralf is a biologist by training and specialist in genetic and genomics as well as personalised medicine. From 2014 to 2018 he was involved as an independent researcher in tenders of the European Commission about the assessment of European Added Value and the economic impact of the EU framework programmes FP7 and Horizon2020 and the evaluation of personalised medicine and medical technology projects of the FP7 framework programme. From 2013 to 2014 he worked in a young Berlin-based SME that has been specialised in the development of novel processes and technologies in personalised medicine in cancer patients. Until 2013 he used to work at the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics in Berlin, Germany, for over 15 years. He was involved in the Human Genome project and later was project leader in the 1000 Genome project. He participated as principal investigator, workpackage leader and coordinator in several EU and national funded projects. He published his research findings in over 50 publications in peer-reviewed journals including, Nature, Nature Genetics and Science.