IST-Africa 2008 · IST-Africa 2008 - 2009, Regional Impact of Information Society Technologies in Africa

IST-Africa (2008 – 2009) is a collaborative Initiative between 2 European and 7 African partners, government agencies responsible for ICT adoption and SandT research policy in 6 African ACP Countries (Botswana, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, Tanzania, Uganda), and a FP7 National Contact Point (NCP) for South Africa. Main objectives are:<br/>· To open up the ERA to Africa, identify ICT activities, common needs and opportunities for ICT research collaboration between Europe and Africa;<br/>· To promote research cooperation between European and African organizations under FP7-ICT, and promote the inclusion of African partners in proposals addressing:<br/>o Challenge 1: Pervasive and Trusted Network and Service Infrastructures<br/>o Challenge 4: Digital Libraries and Content<br/>o Challenge 5: Towards sustainable and personalised healthcare<br/>o Challenge 6: ICT for Mobility, Environmental Sustainability and Energy Efficiency<br/>o Challenge 7: ICT for Independent Living and Inclusion<br/>· Investigate regulation and its role in ICT take-up and usage in relation to areas such as mobile communication, broadband, accessibility and security <br/>· Analyse the RTD policy approach of developing and developed nations to provide valuable knowledge and inform Information Society related decisions at a policy level<br/>· To deliver 28 FP7 Training Workshops in IST-Africa Partner Countries to raise awareness of opportunities to participate in the FP7 ICT Research Theme, provide insight into open calls, and provide necessary support to interested organizations<br/>· To deliver 2 international research conferences in Africa (300+ delegates) to facilitate European-African networking, and highlight opportunities for research collaboration<br/>· To deliver 4 European IST-Africa Workshops, focused on raising awareness of collaboration opportunities and supporting Policy Dialogues with Africa <br/>· To maximize regional impact by engaging with key SandT stakeholders and publishing relevant reports, news, papers and presentat