Delegation from the German Bundestang (Federal Parliament) visits icipe
On July 11, 2019, icipe was honored to host members of the Committee of Education, Research and Technology Assessment of the German Federal Parliament. icipe has several collaborations with Germany including through the German Academic Exchange Services (DAAD), focused on providing PhD level capacity building through icipe’s African Regional Postgraduate Programme in Insect Sciences (ARPPIS); and more recently the Max Planck Partner Group that supports high quality international research partnerships.
The Delegation had the opportunity to learn about icipe’s work and more specifically the Regional Scholarship and Innovations Fund (RSIF), a flagship project of the Partnership for Applied Science, Engineering and Technology (PASET). RSIF aims to strengthen training, research and innovation environments at selected African Universities in PASET priority areas and enhance the generation of transformative technologies that respond to African problems and ultimately contribute to the economic growth of Sub Saharan African Countries.
The Parliamentarians noted PASET Priority thematic areas and the opportunities that exist for collaboration between Germany and Africa specifically in the area of ICTs including big data, robotics, and artificial intelligence which hold strong promise for Africa’s development. Ms. Anke Domscheit-Berg, the Spokeswoman for the Left Party Parliamentary Group on the Committee on Digital Agenda and Group’s spokeswoman on internet policy highlighted the importance of using digital technologies to revolutionize production techniques to reduce the cost of labour, turnaround time and increased production in major sectors of Africa’s economy especially food production.
In addition the parliamentarians emphasized the need to enhance collaboration with German universities, research institutions and the private sector to increase knowledge generation to solve Africa’s challenges.
Visit www.rsif-paset.org for more information about PASET RSIF.
PASET is an African government-led initiative created to accelerate building of a scientific and technically skilled labor force by focusing on the continuum of skills from foundational skills to upper secondary/technical/vocational training as well as higher education, scientific research and innovation. icipe was appointed the Regional Coordination Unit for the Fund and is responsible for project implementation. PASET Priority Thematic Areas are: (a)ICTs including big data and artificial intelligence; (b)food security and agribusiness; (c)minerals, mining and materials engineering; (d)energy including renewables; and (e) climate change