The Excellence in Africa initiative is officially launched

A delegation from EPFL attended the launching event, accompanied by the Swiss Ambassador to Morocco, Mr. Guillaume Scheurer, and by a delegation of beneficiaries of the "Junior Faculty Development" and "Digital Education" programmes. As the organisation of very large events is currently not allowed in Morocco due to the pandemic, the speeches were broadcast live on the web.

The kick-off meeting highlighted several key elements.

First, the success of the EXAF calls for proposals must be pointed out. The number of applications received for the three programmes was outstanding: 182 applications from 27 countries for the Junior Faculty Development programme (JFD), approximately 850 for the 100 PhDs for Africa programme, and 44 applications from 19 countries for the Centre of Competence in Digital Education programme.

The second element was raised by Olivier Küttel, Head of international affairs at EPFL and by Jérôme Chenal, EXAF co-director. “We need to think big in order to develop effective collaborations between renowned institutions”. During the initial discussions between EPFL and UM6P, Mr. Hicham El Habti, President of UM6P, challenged his interlocutors to develop a first proposal oriented towards the 100 PhDs for Africa programme. Finally, three programmes to support excellence in research, innovation and education have been defined and launched.

The third element concerns the universities selected to develop a centre of competence in digital education (C-CoDE). These universities are now aware that the production of MOOCs is a complex process, involving many different competences and professionals.

Finally, all the stakeholders of the Excellence in Africa initiative underlined the common language, which effectively unites them. This is evidenced by the success of the initial calls for projects, although these calls were not broadly communicated. The next calls for proposals in 2022 and 2023 should be therefore very successful.