Overcoming an unequal world through equitable partnerships – official launch of the Africa-Europe CoRE IPD

When the Africa-Europe Cluster of Research Excellence in Inequalities, Poverty, and Deprivation (CoRE IPD) was officially launched on 18 July 2024, many months of hard work had already gone into this collaboration. This was evident not only from presentations at the launch, but also from the fact that the launch took place during the first summer school of the Cluster.

The school, which was hosted by ACEIR’s node at the University of Nairobi, applied a multidisciplinary lens to the roots of inequality, poverty, and deprivation in Africa. In attendance were just over 40 early career researchers who got to sharpen their skills in data and multinational poverty measurement and analysis.

The CoRE IPD is one of 20 Clusters of Research Excellence (CoRE) set up jointly by the African Research Universities Alliance (ARUA) and The Guild of European Research-Intensive Universities (The Guild) to give effect to the AU-EU Innovation Agenda. This agreement aims to strengthen indigenous African research capacities and nurture equitable cross-continental collaborations on societal and scientific challenges.

Ongoing commitment to collaboration for Africa's development

For many in the leadership of the CoRE IPD and its partners, working together is not a new arrangement – some of them have been collaborating for years, even decades since starting their research careers. In 2018, a strong group of scholars from the Cluster’s ARUA partners – the universities of Ghana, Kenya, and Cape Town – formalised such collaborations on research, capacity building, and data curation when ACEIR was founded.

“We shared a commitment to African development over a long time and the ARUA-EU framework for a cluster of research excellence has helped us sharpen our contribution to this common mission”, ACEIR director and co-lead of the CoRE IPD, Prof. Murray Leibbrandt from the University of Cape Town, told the launch gathering.  

“Similarly, The Guild partners – the universities of Aarhus, Göttingen, and Groningen – have an excellent commitment to long-term cooperation for sustainable and equitable development on the African continent.”

Resonating with the AU-EU priority area for capacities for science 

This commitment to tackle societal challenges, coupled with these teams’ track records in research excellence, training, capacity building, and data curation are what resonated with the agenda of the CoRE initiative of ARUA and The Guild.

Sean Rowlands, The Guild’s senior policy officer which supports the CoRE, addressed the launch virtually from Brussels. He explained that while the CoRE IPD has many links to the AU-EU cooperation priority areas of public health, green transition, innovation and technology, it primarily relates to the priority area of cooperation for capacities for science.

“It's not just about the topics of the research – inequalities, poverty, and deprivation; it's about the way that the research is carried out to reflect the AU-EU Innovation Agenda principles of scientific excellence; inclusivity and equity in multilateral partnerships; and a commitment to societal change through research, education, and capacity building.” 

Six themes guiding research agenda, capacity building and training

The Guild partners’ co-lead, Prof. Robert Lensink from the University of Groningen, told the launch that the CoRE IPD’s work comprises a mixture of joint research programmes; capacity building for young scholars’; and training for policy, civil society, and private sector role-players.

Multidisciplinary research groups are now being set up for the six research themes of the Cluster: 1. the historical determinants of inequality; 2. structural change, employment, and inequality; 3. agricultural development, food and nutrition security and inequality; 4. climate change, migration, social cohesion and equity within societies; 5. health inequalities; and 6. financial inclusion and inequality.  

“These significant inequality related themes reflect the different expertise in the CoRE IPD research groups from the different universities” explained Prof. Lensink.

Creating new opportunities for knowledge exchanges

African and European postgraduate students and researchers participating in the Cluster will gain coordinated access to these different expertise and other resources such as partners’ excellent data infrastructures and research and development policy networks on both continents. 

A key feature of the CoRE IPD’s approach is therefore to create opportunities for African researchers to visit and work with teams at the European partner universities, and vice versa. 

The merits of this two-way approach to research and capacity development were highlighted by Prof. Victor Murinde, the Executive Director of the African Economic Research Consortium (AERC). He spoke of the need for new ways to grow the capacities of the next generation of African researchers in economics, especially female PhD students, and the benefits of mentoring and knowledge exchanges between African and European scholars and students.

Prof. Murinde’s remarks came only a week prior to ARUA announcing a pilot project of 16 joint PhD programmes aimed at changing how doctoral training is done in Africa. One of the programmes – in Sustainable Development Studies – is curated by a team from ACEIR and the ARUA Centre of Excellence in Climate and Development and is co-led by The Guild partners’ lead researchers for the CoRE IPD and another Africa-Europe Cluster of Research Excellence. 

The AERC, which has the largest network of an existing collaborative PhD training in economics on the continent, is one of the other confirmed programme partners.

But, Prof. Lensink pointed out, “we also want to go beyond academic-only work and focus on policy impact and collaborate with policymakers. We have plenty of highly qualified impact experts in the CoRE IPD and will develop an impact evaluation course for policymakers and other role-players.”

Affirming institutional support and opportunities of funding

Making a 10-year commitment to this ambitious Africa-Europe research collaboration requires support from the highest level in the partner universities. This dedication is there, Prof. Stephen K. Gitahi from the University of Nairobi asserted in his welcoming address at the launch.

With some seed funding confirmed, several grant proposals for the CoRE IPD’s different components and research themes have been submitted in the past months. The collaborative ARUA PhD programme was the first to be successful, while the others are in various stages of shortlisting and interviewing.

Funding opportunities are also emerging through the AU-EU agenda that regards research and innovation as a key bridge between the continents, as Rowlands pointed out:

“The more researchers can demonstrate in practice the AU-EU principles of scientific excellence, inclusivity and equity in multilateral partnerships, the more collaborative research will get properly recognised and supported through funding instruments in the long term.”

Watch the launch recording.

Visit the website of the Africa-Europe Cluster of Research Excellence in Inequalities, Poverty, and Deprivation.

Photo: Official account of the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Nairobi, Kenya, via X.