The European Research Council (ERC) is looking for progressive application by African grant-seekers according to Jean-Pierre Bourguignon, the council's president. The president is mourning the diminishing number of African researchers seeking grants from his council, blaming the apathy on lack of awareness.

Speaking at the African Academy of Sciences offices in Nairobi, on 20 March the French-born mathematician described the situation as wanting and was part of the agenda of his visit to Africa.

He observed that scientists and scholars faced difficulties working in Africa, noting that a few nations have great working conditions and had given research the priority it deserved.

The World University News reports that Africa had the lowest number of grant applications between 2014 and 2018 and only 12 Africans have received an ERC grant, the winners being applicants from Morocco, South Africa, Algeria, Tunisia, Cameroon and Egypt.

As per Stefano A Dejak, EU envoy to Kenya noticed that science and innovation were key segments of the Africa-EU organization. The ERC is Europe’s premier research funding organisation that promotes research to researchers from around the world.

It has supported around 9,000 top scientists at different phases of their professions, and its awards are available to researchers of any nationality with around 17 per cent of ERC-financed researchers being non-European nationals

The ERC is part of Horizon 2020, a scheme that aims at achieving more breakthroughs and discoveries by taking great ideas from the laboratory to market.

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Story by Carolyne Nyokabi

The Article; https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20190401143138133