18 Nov 2024

The 2024 Science Granting Councils Initiative in Sub-Saharan Africa (SGCI) Annual Forum and the Global Research Council (GRC) Sub-Saharan Africa regional meeting was concluded on Friday with an academic symposium themed: Working Together in Co-Creation to Address Global Challenges and Research Management in the Era of Artificial Intelligence.

The theme was regarded, as per the Ministry of Communications and Innovation’s report, as of critical importance in Sub-Saharan Africa as it complemented the ongoing conversations and aligned actions through the Science Granting Councils (SGCs) in the region.

When asked to sum up the anthology of the annual fora since their inception in 2015, head of Ghana Research Council, Mr Cephas Mensah, under the Ghana Ministry of Environment Science, Technology and Innovation, said participants had learnt several things about the power of; collaboration through a strong research in innovation and ecosystem.

Mr Mensah added that the aforementioned academic symposium had served as a platform where all the Granting Councils and research projects that had been funded by Granting Councils were identified so as to allow the researchers to come and showcase their work, how their research would impact the society and what benefit the research would be to the broader community.

Mr Mensah also said the delegates (partners and GRCs) served as representatives of the entire global community through science, technology and innovation.

Furthermore, he said this year’s meeting was a success in that it recognised the need to continue working as a co-creation as well as the need to continue looking into the new emerging technologies in the area of research, especially with the advent of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and its impact on Sub-Saharan African countries.

Mr Mensah also urged African governments to rethink the prioritisation of funds into research and innovation to enable researchers to unlock, identify and address a number of factors such as biodiversity, food security issues, climate change, social inequalities, governance, among others.

The 13th GRC Annual Meeting will be hosted by the Research, Development and Innovation Authority and King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology in partnership with the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on May 18-22, 2025. Ends