NRF and JST co-host the funders meeting for Africa-Japan collaborative research programme (AJ-CORE)

The National Research Foundation (NRF) of South Africa and the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST) co-hosted an Africa-Japan Collaborative Research Programme (AJ-CORE) Funders’ Meeting on the margins of the World Science Forum in Cape Town, on 8 December 2022.  AJ-CORE is a partnership between the NRF South Africa and the JST of Japan and supports joint research and innovation projects in designated fields of science between researchers from Japan, South Africa and the 17 African countries whose ministries and granting councils are a participating members in the Science Granting Councils Initiative (SGCI). AJ-CORE aims to build and connect knowledge to increase the impact of research, explore new development paths, enhance human capacity development in Science, Technology and Innovation, find new ways to accelerate transitions to sustainable development, and contribute to SDGs.

The meeting on 8 December was meant to finalise the collaborative framework to be launched in February 2023 and finalise plans for the researchers’ workshop to be hosted in Pretoria (South Africa) during the first quarter of the year. The meeting was attended by all AJ-CORE current funders, i.e. National Research Foundation (South Africa), Japan Science and Technology Agency  (Japan), Fonds National de la Recherche et de l’Innovation pour le Development (Burkina Faso), Ministère de l’Enseignement supérieur, de la Recherche et de I’Innovation (Senegal), Department of Research, Science and Technology  (Botswana), National Research Fund (Kenya), Fundo Nacional de Investigação (Mozambique),  Ministry of Technical and Higher Education (Sierra Leone).