The Canary Islands are making progress in their goal of consolidating their position as a scientific and technological platform between Africa and Europe. This week the archipelago hosted the Education and Science Round Table, a key forum for defining the Canary Islands-Africa Strategy 2025-2027.
The meeting, chaired by Ciro Gutiérrez, Deputy Minister for Universities and Research, brought together academic institutions, innovative companies and organisations with experience in intercontinental cooperation. The aim: to identify projects that strengthen research and development ties.
EMERGE presented its proposal to extend bilateral R&D&I calls for proposals. The organisation considers that this model could position the Canary Islands as an international benchmark in knowledge and technology transfer.
Project leaders underlined that partnerships with priority African countries will allow for scaling up existing programmes, such as the Africa Canarias Challenge, which focuses on innovation and entrepreneurship challenges in strategic sectors.
The Directorate General for Relations with Africa, led by Luis Padilla, supported these initiatives and highlighted the value of joint work in areas such as renewable energy, water, health and circular economy.
The strategy, which will be defined in the coming months, seeks to foster sustainable growth between continents and to take advantage of emerging scientific talent both in the Canary Islands and in neighbouring African countries.
Source: gobiernodecanarias.org; linkedin.com