The Growth and Development of African Scholarship- Challenges and Opportunities African Academy of Sciences perspective

Berhanu M. Abegaz

20 March 2015, Johannesburg, South Africa

Driving Scientific and Technological Innovation in Africa

APPRECIATION

The African Academy of Sciences Vision To be a MAJOR player in driving sustainable development in Africa through Science, Technology and Innovation (ST&I)

INTRODUCTION

• Academy of all sciences. Est. 1985; honored ca 300 fellows;

• Strategic partnership with AU, PAU and NEPAD;

• Assets worth $8.5 million - financially stable (Endowment Fund, Secretariat building and estate);

• Lean and efficient organization, with strong leadership and compliance with best international corporate management practices.

Mission To mobilize the entire African science and technology community for sustainable development

AAS is inspired by African thinkers

“We shall accumulate machinery and establish steel works, iron foundries and factories; we shall link the various states of our Continent with communications; we shall astound the world with our hydroelectric power; we shall drain marshes and swamps, clear infested areas, feed the undernourished, and rid our people of parasites and disease. It is within the possibility of science and technology to make even the Sahara bloom into a vast field with verdant vegetation for agricultural and industrial developments”.

President Kwame Nkrumah, first speech at the foundation summit of the Organization of African Union, Addis Ababa, 24 May 1963

Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences – GAAS – est. 1959

AAS pan-African roles

RECOGNISING AND SUPPORTING EXCELLENCE

Promote and foster the growth of community of scholars by recognizing, supporting and enhancing excellence in scholarly research undertaken by African scientists:

• AAS Fellowship

• Prizes and awards: Youth excellence

Alliance for Accelerating Research Excellence in Africa

AESA

THINK TANK FUNCTIONS

• Providing evidence

based advise to policy makers

• Advocate greater support for development oriented research and development

• Undertaking review and foresight studies

• Engaging in debates and supporting African teams in global negotiations

DEVELOPMENTAL PROGRAMMATIC

ACTIVITIES

Enhancing Region- and Issue-specific Competencies and Guidance

• Water and Sanitation;

• Sustainable Energy;

• Food Security and Nutritional Wellbeing;

• Health care and Wellbeing;

• Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics education;

• Climate change.

AESA – a joint initiative of AAS and NEPAD • A sustainable platform for supporting African scientists and their

institutions in research leadership, scientific excellence and innovation;

• Partners: NEPAD, Wellcome Trust, DFID and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF);

• Obtained endorsement from AU Summit 2015;

• Initially focus on health research, and later expand to other areas such as food and nutrition, energy, and environment;

• AAS’s vision is that the platform will evolve beyond just being an implementing partner to become a strategic thought partner, setting and aligning a programmatic agenda for the continent

Alliance for Accelerating Excellence in Science in Africa

AESA (est. 2015) A new initiative at AAS and NEPAD

10. …REQUESTS the NPCA in partnership with the African Academy of

Sciences to establish and operationalize the Alliance for Accelerating

Excellence in Science in Africa (AESA) as a platform to stimulate

breakthrough innovations in health to improve the livelihoods of marginalized

and stigmatized communities. CALLS UPON Member States, regional and

global partners as well as private foundations to support the Alliance in order

to strengthen health research and innovation in Africa.

AU Heads of State Decision – 30 January 2015, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Science Production in the World; - Where is Africa?

South Africa 35 , Egypt (42)

Ranking by volume of Science production (Scopus)

13 AFRICAN COUNTRIES

Nigeria (51), Tunisia (52), Morocco (55), Algeria (57), Kenya (66), Ethiopia (80), Tanzania (81), Cameroon (83), Uganda (86), Ghana (87), Zimbabwe (95), Senegal (96), Sudan (100)

18 AFRICAN COUNTRIES

Cote d’Ivoire (103), Botswana (106), Burkina Faso (107), Malawi (108), Libya (111), Zambia (112), Benin (114), Madagascar (117), Congo (120), Mali (121), Gambia (129), Mozambique (130), Gabon (131), Namibia (132), Mauritius (133), Niger (137), Togo (142), Rwanda (147)

18 AFRICAN COUNTRIES

Swaziland (153), Angola (161), CAR (165), Guinea (167), Eritrea (168, DRC (169), Mauritania (170), Sierra Leone (171), Seychelles (173), Guinea Bissau (174), Lesotho (175), Burundi (178), Chad (179), Maldives (191), Djibouti (192), Liberia (194), Equatorial Guinea (197), Cape Verde (200)

Ranking: 1 - 50

Ranking: 51 - 100

Ranking: 101 - 150

Ranking: 151 - 200

Science Production in the World; - Where is Africa?

2+13+18+18 = 51 African countries

Growth of African scientific output, 2005-2010

Source: Computed by Science-Metrix using the Scopus database (Elsevier)

Country / Group 2005-2010 2005-2007 2008-2010% Increase

2008-2010 / 2005-2007Growth Index

World 10,055,974 4,619,523 5,436,451 18% 1.00

African Union 181,454 74,629 106,825 43% 1.22

Community of Sahelo-Saharan States 108,575 43,507 65,068 50% 1.27

South African Development Community 61,778 27,006 34,772 29% 1.09

Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa 60,239 24,357 35,882 47% 1.25

Arab Maghreb Union 42,836 16,461 26,375 60% 1.36

Economic Community of West African States 32,456 13,117 19,339 47% 1.25

Intergovernmental Authority on Development 15,237 6,248 8,989 44% 1.22

East African Community 13,688 5,759 7,929 38% 1.17

Economic Community of Central African States 5,239 2,343 2,896 24% 1.05

Growth of African scientific output, 2005-2010

Cumulative growth is similar to that of fastest growing countries

Source: Computed by Science-Metrix using the Scopus database (Elsevier)

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010

Cum

ulat

ive

grow

th

Year

India

China

Brazil

African Union

Rep. of Korea

Australia

Spain

Netherlands

Switzerland

Italy

• Relatively small, but growing rapidly, with a growth rate similar to that of India, China and Brazil between 2005 and 2010.

• Only 4.3% of the papers in 2008-2010 included inter-African country collaboration, contrasting with a score of 40% for extra-African collaboration between at least one African and one non-African country.

• Overall, the trend of science and technology improvement in the African Union is quite promising

Scientific Output in the Africa Union

Intra-African collaboration is very weak

PLoS Medicine | www.plosmedicine.org Developing ANDI: A Novel Approach to Health Product R&D in Africa 7(6) June 2010

• 31,279 articles 2004-8 • min 30 articles to be shown on the map •2700 lead institutions in 47/53 countries •Top 20 most productive are in SA, Egypt and Nigeria •77 % collaboration outside Africa •5.4% more than one African country

CAPRISA publications by

journal impact factor: 2010-2014

5 5 5

12

7

15

14

3

4

3

8

5

11

10

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

New EnglandJournal ofMedicine

Nature Science Lancet Journal ofInfectiousDiseases

AIDS Journal ofVirology

Nu

mb

er

of

pu

blicati

on

s

2010-2014 CAPRISA 1st author

66%

50%

84

57

169

87

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

160

180

Journals IF <5Journals IF>5

How Jury evaluated for the AU-KNSP: Training and employment history (20%)

Training in the top 500 world Universities

Work Experience in own country, in other African Country, in International

organizations

Publications (70%) In journals (SCI journals, G8-country journals, African journals, other journals),

corresponding author, co-author, multi-author papers

Conference proceedings

Publication of Books

Inventions, patents

Impact (10%)

Supervision of PhD and MSc students

Prizes, awards (institutional/national. Regional, international)

Recommendation letters

Jury assessment

How do we measure the productivity and impact of publications?

99

231

68 73

55 57

25

56

78

85

35 132

89

47 27 52

73

131 99

28

49 72

93

75 25

1380 385

681

658

305

210

135

851 740

635 333

125

107

325

514

301

222

232

52

H-Indices of selected Countries

H-Indices of selected African Countries based on Global comparisons

Japan 635 China 385 S. Korea 333 Iran 135 Malaysia 125 Vietnam 107

USA 1380 Canada 658

UK 851 Germany 740 France 681 Turkey 210

Brazil 305

52

78

25

57

62

72 32

27

49

68

28

73

131

35

56

80

55 25

99

53

55

47

89

75

231

93

85

99

68

72

132

73

Developing intra-African cooperation

– collaboration between African and North scientists resulting in papers published in high impact factor journals is important

– There is a need to assess the role and contribution of the African collaborators – Improvement of African scholarship by increasing growth of Africans as leaders and not followers

– Africa based researchers who are global leaders must be supported to promote trans-national collaboration in Africa

Challenges due to Paucity of data

• Lack of data hampers effective policymaking

• Missing link between producers and users of data;

• Data not presented in user-friendly formats

• Absence of data-sharing culture among funders and producers of data,

• Culture of policies being driven by political views rather than by empirical analysis.

• data are available, but users are unaware of their existence

• An interface between the data producers, analysts, and policymakers can be created in different ways

Inspiring and stimulating African youth

– Africa is the most youthful continent with more than 50% of its population under 25 years of Age.

– It is estimated that by 2040 Africa will have the largest and the youngest global workforce.

– More initiatives needed that are targeted to inspire and stimulate the youth to be involved in quality and relevant research that breeds .innovation

Distribution of CVFs for cohort 1

CIRCLE Program of AAS – Mentorship for 100 Young Africans

AAS’s Young Affiliates’ program

Early-mid Career professionals – PHD, 1st, 2nd Postdoc

Member states, HE and Research Organizations – need to develop them into RESEARCH LEADERS

AAS – Catalytic role to help in the process of this development

Identify Five Affiliates from each region – total 25 per Year

Provide inspirational – tangible support for five years

Link them with Mentors

Participation in unique conferences and workshops

Arrange for 6 month – 1 year stay at Center for Advanced studies

65th Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting Interdisciplinary Meeting with Nobel Laureates from the fields of physics, physiology or medicine and chemistry 28 June - 3 July 2015

First Degree

Masters

PhD

Postdoc

Researcher Leader

3-4 years

4 years

3 years

5 years Second Postdoc or other experience

15-20 years

It takes long - to train and develop

‘Research Leaders’

2 years

One objective!!! long term measure of success- 50 senior fellows leading world class research groups

50 senior fellows leading ‘world class’ research groups

Thank you