A study on the state-of-the-art of e-Infrastructures uptake in Africa

Abstract

e-Science is a pioneering method that uses integrated collections of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), or e-Infrastructures, to enable scientists across the world to collaboratively work on more and more ambitious projects. Have advances and access to ICTs enabled African e-Infrastructure development? This paper aims to understand the current state of e-Infrastructure uptake in Africa and present some of these initiatives across the African continent by exploring the current landscape emerging from a survey of early consumers. These initiatives are discussed in terms of key projects and user communities that they are addressing. In line with wider perceptions that e-Infrastructures will re-shape the ways research is performed, this study yielded 34 current or planned e-Infrastructure projects across 13 African countries addressing a range of research domains, and identified 7 user communities across these disciplines. Our findings suggest that the African research community is increasingly interested and involved in e-Infrastructure development activities in response to the issue of limited access to dedicated global research and education resources. The study can contribute to the ongoing discussion on how e-Infrastructures can positively promote the research, technological development and innovation potential of developing countries.

User requirements for national research and education networks for research in West and Central Africa

“…In this context, e-infrastructures can be conceptualized as information infrastructures and play an increasing role in the advancement of knowledge and technology and their utilization by allowing interoperability in networked IT-service delivery (David et al, 2006;Eriksson and Goldkuhl, 2013;Luo and Olson, 2008;Spyridonis et al, 2015). Hanseth and Lyytinen (2010, p.4) define the notion of e-Infrastructure as follows: 'a shared, open (and unbounded), heterogeneous and evolving socio-technical system consisting of a set of IT capabilities and their users, operations and design communities'.…”

“…European Commission-led investments in e-infrastructures have gone well beyond European borders and have been used to either build e-infrastructures in various regions of the world or to extend them further in Africa, Asia and Latin America (Barjak et al, 2010;Catlett, 2003). Prior to 2010, with few exceptions, African universities and research centres lacked access to dedicated global research and education resources because they were not connected to the global e-Infrastructure via high-performance national and regional networks (Andronico et al, 2011;Spyridonis et al, 2015). As a result, research centres and higher education institutions in Africa requiring such access for direct peering with external networks were not well represented in global research communities.…”

Reported needs of information resources, research tools, connectivity and infrastructure among African Pharmacological Scientists to improve future patient care and health

“…Encouragingly, African research communities are increasingly involved in e-infrastructure activities [21,22]. There are also suggestions of 34 planned or on-going e-infrastructure activities in 13 (22.4%) among 58 African countries in a 2014 survey, which also revealed the focus of user communities to be mainly in natural sciences and life sciences [22].…”

“…Encouragingly, African research communities are increasingly involved in e-infrastructure activities [21,22]. There are also suggestions of 34 planned or on-going e-infrastructure activities in 13 (22.4%) among 58 African countries in a 2014 survey, which also revealed the focus of user communities to be mainly in natural sciences and life sciences [22]. European Union funded projects such as the joint Trans Africa Network Development (TANDEM) and The West and Central Africa Research and Education Network (WACREN) project, an offshoot of the Africa Connect project, continue to build and operate a potentially world class network infrastructure in Africa, developing state of the art services and promoting collaborations among the research and education communities both regionally and internationally [23].…”

Social Capital Based Partnership Model for Reaching 100% Universal Access of Improve Water and Sanitation Services

“…[8][9][10][11]. Those are the assessment tool to explore an interorganization partnership, an integration for collection information and communication, systematic framework to assure the infrastructure development and evidence-based implementation of partnership [12][13][14][15].…”