A presentation at the Taylor & Francis Editors Indaba in Midrand on 20 March 2015 by Prof Berhanu Abegaz, the Executive Director of the African Academy of Sciences (AAS).

1. 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

2. APPRECIATION

3. 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

4. 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

5. 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.

6. 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

7. 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

8. Science Production in the World;
- Where is Africa?

9. 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

10. 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 / 2005-2007
Growth 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

11. 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
Cumulativegrowth
Year
India
China
Brazil
African Union
Rep. of Korea
Australia
Spain
Netherlands
Switzerland
Italy

12. • 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

13. 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

15. 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 England
Journal of
Medicine
Nature Science Lancet Journal of
Infectious
Diseases
AIDS Journal of
Virology
Numberofpublications
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

16. 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

18. How do we measure the productivity and
impact of publications?

19. 99
231
6873
55
57
25
56
78
85
35 132
89
47 27 52
73
13199
28
49
72
93
75
25
1380
385
681
658
305
210
135
851
740
635333
125
107
325
514
301
222
232
52
H-Indices of selected Countries

20. 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
5525
99
53
55
47
89
75
231
93
85
99
68
72
132
73

21. 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

22. 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

23. 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

24. Distribution of CVFs for cohort 1
CIRCLE Program of AAS – Mentorship for 100 Young Africans

25. 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

26. 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

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

28. Thank you