The 2016 SGCI Annual Forum in Maputo, Mozambique

The 2016 Annual Forum (AF) will be held in Maputo (Mozambique) from the 23^rd to 25^th November 2016 alongside the 2016 regional meeting of the Global Research Council (GRC). It is be co-organized by the Fundo Nacional de Investigação (National Research Fund), African Union Commission-New Partnership for Africa’s Development (AUC-NEPAD), and the SGCI under the theme: “Investing in Research Excellence in Africa”. The specific objectives of the forum are as follows:

• To enable sharing of lessons and best practices on research excellence among Africa’s Science Granting Councils and with other scholars and policy makers across the world. To inform this sharing process, the SGCI has commissioned a research paper on “investing in research excellence in Africa” that will be presented and discussed at the forum. The Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) as well as the UK perspectives on research excellence will also be shared during the forum;
• To hold the first reflective Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) workshop for participating Science Granting Councils and Collaborating Technical Agencies (CTAs), and to discuss the roles of the CTAs and Councils in gathering data about the SGCI’s contributions to strengthening the performance and influence of Councils;
• To provide an overview of the planned case studies of the political economy of Science Granting Councils;
• To discuss the revised SGCI Implementation Plan;
• To strengthen capacity of Mozambique’s National Research Fund to convene continental multi-stakeholder STI policy dialogues and debates;
• To introduce the SGCI to government, private sector, scientific and other key stakeholders in Mozambique and the Southern Africa region; and
• To convene a 1- day inception and planning meeting of the ACTS consortium project (SGCI Theme 3 - Partnerships among SGCs and the private sector).