ICGEB has received funding under the Mattei Plan for Africa: Italy’s strategic diplomacy, development cooperation and investment project to strengthen and renew ties with the Continent.
The ICGEB project is aimed at accelerating technology transfer for the development of microbial bio-inoculant products for the agricultural and food sectors, suitable to the context of African countries. The project promotes entrepreneurship, international collaborations, and the creation of new bottom-up initiatives.
The Mattei Plan for Africa is Italy’s strategic diplomacy, development cooperation, and investment project to strengthen and renew ties with the continent. The Plan includes the development of new projects and active support for initiatives already underway, sharing with African states the phases of elaboration, definition, and implementation, to bring real added value to the local populations.
The Italian Government has identified several pilot countries (Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, Côte d’Ivoire, Mozambique, Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, and Kenya) for the first phase for concrete and ready-to-implement actions along six sectors of intervention: health, education and training, agriculture, water, energy, and infrastructure.
Funded for 2 million euros by the Italian Ministry of University and Research, the project’s duration is foreseen for the next three years and involves bringing 4 strategic projects from the laboratory scale to production scale and 10 innovative projects to accelerate laboratory concepts to pilot scale.
Training is envisaged for 20 Fellows, technology transfer on specific technologies, regulatory systems, and methods to ensure economic gain from implementing innovative technologies.
Accelerating Research & Development, the projects will enhance horizontal dissemination and cross-contamination of ideas, development of local competencies to favour innovation and entrepreneurship.
Italian industries will be involved and will work to enhance knowledge and partnerships from the outset.
“This is an extraordinary opportunity for the ICGEB,” states Marianna Maculan, Chief, External Relations, “Our Member countries in Africa have a total population of 946 million people (69%of the total). Initiatives previously supported by ICGEB on the African Continent and with the Italian and South African Governments, have created a solid technical base that is already developed and ensures a swift lift-off for the project.”
The SIS FVG Meeting for International Cooperation and Scientific Diplomacy, held at the Area Science Park on 26 June, was a great occasion to highlight the success of this project.
