As STISA-2034 call closes, Africa’s research councils look ahead

With the deadline for the SGCI/STISA-2034 Multilateral Call approaching on 25 September, research institutions and consortia that have not yet submitted their expressions of interest have until the end of the day to do so.

The Call seeks collaborative research approaches to some of Africa’s pressing development priorities, with opportunities spanning health, agriculture, artificial intelligence, energy, and the environment.

For those who have already submitted, the focus now shifts to what stronger collaboration can deliver beyond individual research proposals.

From 28 September to 2 October, science granting councils and partners from across Africa will gather in Windhoek, Namibia, for the SGCI Annual Forum. The meeting will provide an opportunity to strengthen collaboration across the continent’s research and innovation ecosystem and consider a broader question: What can 20 African science granting councils achieve through greater coordination?

That question lies at the heart of the opportunity behind SGCI-3.

Africa’s science granting councils operate within different national research systems, but many face common challenges. These include strengthening research funding systems, supporting researchers and institutions, improving the use of evidence in policy and practice, and ensuring that research responds to national and regional development priorities.

Greater coordination can create opportunities for councils to learn from one another, share approaches and build partnerships that extend beyond national boundaries.

The SGCI-3 framework provides a platform for this. With 20 science granting councils involved, the initiative brings together institutions with different experiences and capacities but a shared interest in strengthening Africa’s research and innovation landscape.

The Annual Forum in Windhoek comes at a significant moment. Just days after the close of the SGCI/STISA-2034 Multilateral Call, councils and partners will have an opportunity to reflect on how collaborative research can be supported by stronger institutional relationships and systems.

The Multilateral Call encourages researchers and institutions to work across boundaries and develop collaborative responses to challenges that affect countries and communities across Africa. The Forum creates space for the institutions that fund and support that research to consider how they can also work together more effectively.

Such coordination could help councils share lessons from funding programmes, strengthen institutional capacity and identify opportunities for joint approaches to research and innovation funding. It can also support greater alignment between research investment and Africa’s broader science, technology and innovation priorities.

For SGCI-3, therefore, collaboration is about bringing researchers together around particular projects and strengthening the institutions and relationships that make sustained research collaboration possible.

As the Call closes on 25 September, attention will turn to Windhoek, where the conversation moves from the immediate task of submitting collaborative research proposals to a broader discussion about building stronger and more connected science granting systems.

The opportunity is to ensure that the momentum generated through collaborative research is matched by stronger coordination among the institutions supporting it and helping position Africa’s science granting councils to contribute more collectively to the continent’s research and innovation ambitions.

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Published on 24 September 2026

By Jackie Opara-Fatoye