The African Network on Learning, Innovation and Competence Building Systems (AfricaLics) is a research and capacity building network with a Secretariat hosted by ACTS.
The Network’s vision is to support African countries towards developing and utilizing high quality research, conducted by African researchers, to enable more informed policy decisions to be made relating to the use of science, technology, and innovation (STI) for economic and social development as well as efficient governance.
ACTS hosts the AfricaLics Secretariat. With support from the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida), the Network has been implementing a research capacity building (RCB) program entitled “Enhancing research capacity on Innovation and Development (I&D) in Africa.” Some of the activities under this RCB program include PhD academies; Research conferences; PhD visiting fellowships program (VFP); Policy engagements/Outreach (webinar series) among others.
PhD Academies
The purpose of the PhD Academies held annually is to support the training of African Doctoral students engaged in research in the field of I&D; a multidisciplinary social science research area that includes elements of innovation studies and development studies.
This is an under-acknowledged field of study in much of Africa. The Academies provide a chance for PhD students to come together and support each other as well as receive training and stimulate their awareness of policy and management issues related to this field of research.
The major goal is to ensure that young scholars are equipped with the requisite research, theoretical and analytical capability to interrogate the African innovation landscape with the goal of being able to generate evidence-based insights for potential uptake by policymakers, private sector and civil society actors, international development agencies and other stakeholders.
In 2021 AfricaLics in collaboration with the university of Gondar hosted the 7th PhD academy which was two weeks of online training (Week 1: 26th - 30th July 2021 and Week 2: 20th - 24th September 2021). Due to the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic, the Academy was held online through Zoom.
The Academy hosted students from Africa and a handful of students from the rest of the world. The Academy invited frontier researchers in the field of innovation and development from around the world to provide lectures and mentor students.
PhD Visiting Fellowship Program (VFP) For African Countries
The VFP fellowships offer opportunities for PhD and postdoctoral students from low income and low-middle income African countries to receive additional training and capacity building support in innovation and development at Aalborg University (AAU), Denmark. Despite the COVID-19 global pandemic, five AfricaLics PhD visiting fellows from the 2020 - 2021 cohort had an opportunity to visit and stay in Denmark between August 2021 and end of October 2021.
The study visits to AAU provided the students with opportunities to present their work and interact with peers, mentors and other scholars working in the field of I&D. It provided them with time away from home to focus on writing and studying, attend a few events and selected PhD courses and make use of library facilities and other support services. The five PhD fellows were from Ghana, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Tanzania and Zambia.
Research Conferences
The overall purpose of the conferences is to present and discuss current state of the art research on Innovation and Development issues in Africa. Conferences target specifically the academic community, but also bring in policy makers, the business community and civil society. Conferences aim to bring together leading scholars (between 150 - 200) working on I&D in Africa and other actors interested in the I&D field. To date AfricaLics has organized 4 research conferences, which are held after every 2 years.
Visiting PhD fellows with AAU mentors.
More information about AfricaLics PhD Academies can be accessed here.
