CAAST Net Plus

UNEP DTU led the work of CAAST Net Plus on Africa-Europe climate change research collaborations, focusing on the role of science, technology and innovation as a means to tackle climate change. Towards that end, we generated various analytical outputs (see below), including a summary of our work in a chapter entitled “EU-Africa collaborations for climate change research and innovation: what difference have they made?” in the book EU-Africa Research and Innovation Cooperation for Global Challenges.

A key focus of our work was capacity building in support of climate change research collaboration, on both mitigation and adaptation-related issues that were prioritised by stakeholders at various fora. The deep imbalances that exist between European and African capacities to conduct climate change research presented a solid basis for collaboration on an issue of mutual bi-regional interest. CAAST-Net Plus designed and launched a climate change capacity platform in 2016 to focus our efforts on specific activities, which complement related efforts to strengthen climate change research.

The outcomes of this work were: 1) support to early career African academics to pursue research that better reflects the needs of African business, industry and policy-making in support of the uptake of sector-specific targets for low-carbon or climate-resilient development; and 2) the African researchers involved were in better position to secure funding through the European Commission’s Horizon 2020 funding mechanism, private sector and other sources. Three sector-specific events were organised by UNEP DTU; in Kigali (focusing on energy) in July 2016, in Accra (focusing on agriculture) in November 2016, and in Kampala (focusing on health) in March 2017. In total, more than 50 African researchers had the opportunity to strengthen their research proposals and funding plans, by attending these events.