A planning committee of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine will convene key partners from African and US organizations and institutions to discuss how best to support African universities, under the aegis of their governments, related NGOs and partnership initiatives (e.g. ARUA, AAS, PASET etc.), to become more effective research universities in STEM fields. A key goal of this activity is to launch a medium-large scale US-Africa engagement initiative that grows the capacity of African university STEM programs to impact African economic development, address the challenges of climate change and sustainability, and exploit the opportunities created by the digital revolution.
The planning committee will organize a workshop of key African and US leaders to develop an outline of next steps in creating a multi-year, joint African-US initiative to increase the capacity of African universities in STEM fields. A rapporteur-authored workshop proceedings in brief will be produced following report review and distributed widely in the US and Africa as a resource in developing and raising funds for the new initiative.