African research councils are leveraging triangular and multilateral research partnerships to build science in Africa

Over the past few decades, the NRF has established and developed long-standing bilateral partnerships with global partners, through which international collaborations have been enhanced. Since the advent of the Science Granting Councils Initiative in Sub-Saharan Africa (SGCI), the NRF, with select global partners, has worked to leverage these partnerships to benefit research endeavours on the continent.

In the spirit of enhancing partnerships among public funders of research in Africa, the collective capacities of public funders of research – including global partners – are strengthened through hands-on experience and empowered through collaboration in the design of funding programmes and in defining research priorities.

These expanded partnerships have the potential to contribute to the sustainability and deepening of research focus areas and networks, in part due to their much longer-term nature as opposed to short-term project funding cycles, moving from topic to topic as the funders’ interests and priorities change. This kind of sustainability of funding over the long-term for research programmes that address complex developmental issues also contributes to greater societal impact of research in Africa.

In this article, we explore two such examples of how the NRF has partnered with global partners to expand bilateral research partnerships to include researchers and public funders of research on the rest of the continent. The two examples are the Africa-Japan Collaborative Research (AJ CORE) Programme, and the Long-Term Europe-Africa Water-Energy-Food (LEAWEF) Nexus Research Programme.

Drawing on prior experience and learning

In the pursuit of these new partnerships, the NRF has drawn inspiration and experience from the O.R. Tambo Africa Research Chairs Initiative (ORTARChI) which provided important lessons on how to engage and work with sister councils effectively.

As with ORTARChI, SGCs on the continent have continued to address the paucity of funding available for African science through the design of programmes and partnerships where the onus for funding is distributed across participating SGCs. Thus, for example, in the AJ CORE and LEAWEF initiatives, instead of a global partner introducing a call and requesting researchers on the continent to apply for funding in their individual capacities, the call conceptualisation involves SGCs, including collective contributions to the funding pots to support a funding opportunity. All the funding partners then fund researchers in their own countries. This engenders greater ownership and commitment by the SGCs as they need to be accountable for the allocation of funds and monitoring of expenditures.

Another advantage of the ORTARChI was that the NRF had already conducted due diligence processes on the participating SGCs to assess and strengthen their capacities, systems and procedures to ensure the responsible receipt, disbursement and management of funds. This has helped navigate concerns on the part of global partners around funding flows and accountability of funds disbursed.

The Africa-Japan Collaborative Research (AJ CORE) Programme

The AJ CORE emanated from a bilateral partnership between the NRF of South Africa and the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST), which had been implemented in three-year intervals. AJ CORE was launched in August 2019 following a workshop held in Dakar in 2018 with select SGCI participating councils where the idea of establishing a new initiative in the context of the Africa-Japan cooperation was conceived.  

AJ CORE aims to support joint research and innovation projects in designated fields of science. Each consortium is required to include a researcher from South Africa, Japan and an SGCI participating country.

In the first call (2019), two SGCs were able to commit funds to the new initiative, namely the Senegal Ministry of Higher Education, Research and Innovation (MESRI) and Burkina Faso’s Fonds National de la Recherche et de I’Innovation pour le Developpment (FONRID). Four projects were funded. Principal investigators from Zambia and Ghana also participated in projects with the respective universities of the PIs, contributing in kind and in monetary terms to support their participation.

The second call (2021) only had a funding commitment from one SGC, namely the Botswana Department of Research, Science and Technology (DRST). Encouragingly, the third and fourth calls, which went out in 2023 and 2024 respectively, garnered a much more positive response with four SGCs joining the third call and eight SGCs committing funding to the fourth call.

Improving resilience and sustainability of funding through expanded SGC participation

The implementation of this expanded, distributed funding model through AJ CORE has not been without its teething problems. For instance, although Mozambique and Sierra Leone SGCs joined the third call in 2023, neither council ultimately funded any projects. There were various possible contributing factors to this, such as the short turnaround time for that particular call (6 to 7 weeks); the lack of matchmaking opportunities (researchers from Mozambique and Sierra Leone could not find South African and Japanese researchers with whom they could work); and the fact that the funding call was only presented in English, possibly making it difficult for researchers to respond. The programme has sought to address some of these challenges in the fourth call by, for example, extending the call application period and by hosting a matchmaking webinar. As a result, in the current 4th call, there has been a record number of applications since the inception of this initiative, with PIs from Mozambique actively participating.

Despite these challenges, extending the existing bilateral partnership between the NRF and JST to include other African SGCs appears to have contributed to Africa’s quest for research funding to become more resilient and sustainable over the long-term. This is evidenced, firstly, by the increased number of SGCs who have come to the table – from two African SGCs committing funding in the first call to eight SGC partners in the fourth call. Secondly, those countries and councils that participated in previous calls have consistently increased their commitments (funds) in the current call.

The AJ CORE programme demonstrates the power of international partnerships in the advancement of impactful research and innovation. Since its inception, AJ CORE has produced a robust collection of academic publications, conference presentations, and community resources. This infographic highlights the programme’s collective contributions to scientific knowledge, higher education, and community engagement—reinforcing AJ CORE’s commitment to sustainable development and capacity building across Africa and Japan.

Furthermore, this programme exemplifies how international partnerships can drive meaningful change in critical areas such as food security, environmental sustainability, and public health. By connecting researchers and communities across Africa and Japan, AJ CORE addresses some of the world’s most pressing challenges. These funded projects not only contribute to improving the quality of life for countless communities but also establish a foundation of knowledge and skills to sustain future generations.

AJ CORE’s work highlights the importance of international cooperation in the achievement of sustainable development goals, bridging diverse expertise to foster impactful, long-term solutions. These achievements reflect the programme’s commitment to building a sustainable and mutually beneficial research ecosystem that bridges Africa and Japan and fosters academic and social progress across regions.

The Long-Term Europe-Africa Water-Energy-Food (LEAWEF) Nexus Research Programme

The LEAWEF is a new programme with the first call for proposals launched in September 2024. The programme builds on the bilateral cooperation between the Dutch Research Council (NWO) and South Africa’s NRF. The NRF and NWO have previously supported a long-term scientific collaboration in the Water, Energy and Food (WEF) Nexus field, where they have jointly funded research projects for several years.  During this time, it became apparent that there was a need for more comprehensive analyses and a broader geographic perspective given the global nature of the research focus area.

Consequently, LEAWEF seeks to broaden the programme to include researchers in the rest of the continent, through a partnership with SGCs. It intends to advance both science and practice-oriented knowledge and to work towards innovative solutions for high scientific, environmental and societal impact.

Furthermore, the SGCs aim to enhance and strengthen sustainable research collaboration between their countries, by inviting consortia in which researchers from knowledge institutions from participating countries will work with societal partners from the public, semi-public and private sectors to increase the societal relevance of their research.

This first call includes nine SGCs from Africa partnering with NWO. The LEAWEF partners aim to fund approximately seven projects for a maximum of 48 months. The objective is to expand to more countries on both continents in future calls.

With the funding model of the LEAWEF, each participating Council contributes based on their committed funds. All ten Councils invest in this project to foster resilience and ensure that African researchers can be funded by their governments. This approach promotes accountability and capacity building among the participating Councils.

Active participation in the development of call documents and agreements enhances the capabilities within the continent and directly impacts the sustainability not only of specific projects but also of research funding throughout Africa.

A key ingredient of the successful initiation of AJ CORE and LEAWEF has been the NRF’s ability to leverage its partnerships based on the trust and credibility the organisation has built up with its global partners over many years. As such, the NRF acts as a trusted intermediary between these partners and the NRF’s sister agencies in the SGCI.

Through the expansion of these bilateral partnerships to include other African SGCs, the benefits that have been experienced by South African researchers, such as skills development and expertise through working collaboratively in multi-country and inter/transdisciplinary ways with global partners, are extended to researchers and scientists from other African countries.