PAERIP survey of reciprocal access to Africa/Europe research infrastructures

1. PAERIP survey of reciprocal access to Africa/Europe research infrastructures Zeinab El-Sadr Ministry of Higher Education & Scientific Research, Egypt

2. Promoting Access to RIs • Better knowledge of what is available in Africa and Europe • Dissemination of access opportunities and procedures • Assigning country contact points for the RI • Collaboration with research groups in relevant science areas • Joining RI as associate partner • Countries joining networks as associate members • Proposals subject to independent peer review • Open access mechanisms based on scientific merit • Country membership subscriptions • Financial support from national funding agencies or other sources • Co-funding of joint projects • Payment of user fees • Broadband networks • Knowing how industrial partners can profit from using the RI

3. Access depends on the RI Type • Centrally located RI • Distributed RI • Static and mobile observation sites • Networks of data - sample repositories • Networks for the purpose of periodic multi-country surveys

4. Europe

5. Access schemes for scientists from non-EU states to ESFRI affiliated RI Types: • Those that have or are being established in response to EU contribution to internationalefforts to address the global grand challenges such as climate change, atmospheric pollution, energy supply, healthcare, water resources, etc. • Those that primarily focus on global competitiveness of the EU, not only in various fields of science, but also on technological development and commercialisation. Principles of access: • Follow policies of open access and sharing of information on a global scale and are often linked to global networks with similar objectives • Emphasise, although not exclusively, participation of and direct benefit to member EU states.

6. 1. Centrally located RI • Examples:ESS, ESFR, EXFEL, FAIR, JHR, Spiral2 and ILL 20/20 “Complementary RI facilities located at different centres in Europe and can either consist of highly specialized instrumentation (ELI) or networks of specialist research laboratories (ECRIN, INFRAFRONTIER, INSTRUCT).” • Mode of Access: • Usually free of charge for scientists affiliated to research institutions in member countries who finance the bulk of the operation and maintenance of the facility. • Facilities are generally also accessible to scientists of other countries. • CERN: • The responsible funding agency of a non-member country has to negotiate a fixed term access agreement on behalf of its potential users and their PhD students that includes a maintenance and operational fee. • All travelling and accommodation costs to access the facility are borne by the user of the facility. • Scientists /teams of scientists have to subject their scientific case to a peer review process before access to the facility is granted. In addition, FAIR plans to “promote the education and training of scientists and engineers from all over the world on a literally global scale”.

7. 2. Distributed RI • Examples:ELI, ECRIN, INFRAFRONTIER and INSTRUCT • Mode of Access: • Various approaches to access are indicated. • INSTRUCT: • Provides access to scientists from countries that have paid the INSTRUCT annual membership fee of € 50 000 and who submit their proposals to gain access. • ECRIN clinical research infrastructure: • Accessible to all clinical researchers in the EU member and associated states. • plans to develop partnerships with clinical research infrastructures in other world regions, and with developing countries through a capacity building programme.

8. 3. Static & Mobile Observation Sites • Examples:EURO-ARGO, IAGOS Rely on instrumentation that gathers data on a continuous or close to continuous basis for monitoring the impact of human activity on long-term climate change and natural variability of the oceans and atmosphere respectively, with both having an open access policy to the sharing of data and information.

9. 4. Networks of data – Sample repositories • Examples:BBMR-International Society for Biological and Environmental Repositories (ISBER), GBIF, European, Middle-Eastern and African Society for Biopreservation and Biobanking (ESBB), Global Biological Resource Centre Network (GBRCN) and the Word Federation of Culture Collections (WFCC). “ Type of RI aims to make the wealth of knowledge vested in existing fragmented technology, resources and services scattered across Europe freely available for all to access, study and process. The format of these RI usually follows a hub-and-nodes model, where the hubs coordinate activities, such as the management and curation of collections, standardisation, distribution and analysis of samples and data, as well as access.” • GBIF: • A network of nodes in six regions of the globe, including Africa where nodes have been established in sixteen countries. • Node mangers are the designated contact points for scientists wishing to access data and through GBIF also LifeWatch.

10. 5. Networks for the purpose of periodic multi-country surveys • Examples:The European Social Survey (ESS) and SHARE, both centrally coordinated RI which facilitate periodic multi-country surveys. • Mode of Access: • For ESS participating countries are expected to cover the costs of fieldwork and co-ordination of the survey at the national level. • SHARE relies for funding from a variety of national and international funders. Data is available to researchers for scientific purposes at no cost, but subject to certain conditions.

11. Africa

12. Access schemes for scientists to pan-African RI • Very few truly pan-African RI exist, and in many instances detail regarding access is not readily available. • In general though, such pan-African infrastructures can also be classified in the following two types: • Those established to enable African contributions to the global challenges, and • Those in that support initiatives to enhance Africa’s global competitiveness in various scientific endeavours. • Few of the pan-African RI have the capacity to enhance Africa’s technological capabilities for commercialisation. The latter comment excludes national RI such as various examples located e.g. in South Africa (listed under TIA). • Furthermore the type 1 RI have in most instances been established with the assistance of global funding agencies, including the EU, and their sustainability will in most instances depend heavily on continued foreign support.

13. 1. Centrally located RI • Examples:SALT, MeerKAT and HESS • Mode of Access: Various. • SALT: • SALT is funded by a consortium of international partners from South Africa, the United States, Germany, Poland, India, the United Kingdom and New Zealand. Astronomers of partner institutions in the countries listed have access to the telescope in proportion to their respective investments. • Access to SALT of European and African astronomers not connected to a partner institution is only possible through collaborative arrangements with scientists of any of the partner institutions. • MeerKAT: • RI currently under construction and funded at this stage exclusively by the South African Government. It has from the onset been conceptualised as a research facility accessible to the global scientific community and some observing time has already been allocated to leading astronomers, including the UK and the Netherlands. • Access to the instrument is free of charge to scientists globally and based on detailed proposals that are reviewed by a panel of peers. Successful applicants will need to cover own travelling and accommodation expenses as well as any costs related to data transfer and manipulation.

14. 2. Distributed RI • Examples: VLBI Africa, SKA. • VLBI Africa initiative is still at a very early stage of development and will entail the refurbishment of several obsolete 32 meter satellite communications antennae located across Africa into radio telescopes. The first conversion of such an antenna is presently under way in Ghana with other conversions planned. • SKA if the final decision should favour the bid to locate this facility in Southern Africa. • Access Mode: No details regarding access and participation in this initiative are publicly available at this stage, although it is anticipated that data from VLBI Africa will become part of the global VLBI network which includes the Consortium for Very Long Baseline Interferometry in Europe (ELVBI). Another example is the.

15. 4. Static and Mobile observation sites • Examples:AfricaArray, INDEPTH, AEGEOS. • Mode of Access: Various. • AfricaArray : - 16 academic institutions in 12 African countries as affiliated partners and 6 academic institutions in Europe as affiliated partners. - Affiliated partners have access to seismic data from the Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology (IRIS), which is providing AfricaArray with seismic data management (archiving and distribution) through its Data Management Centre. GPS and weather data management (archiving and distribution), on the other hand, is provided UNAVCO (a non-profit university-governed consortium that facilitates geoscience research and education using geodesy) through its data management facility. • INDEPTH: - INDEPTH Network supports wider and responsible access to the longitudinal data generated by its member centres, the individual member centres have their specific data-use agreements. A number of data access/sharing protocols for cross-site research/data are co-ordinated by the Secretariat. Efforts are underway to produce an INDEPTH data sharing policy that will be subscribed to by all its member centres and to achieve its goal of making its data widely and freely available to all researchers and decision-makers.

16. 5. Networks of data – sample repositories • Examples: The network of African GBIF nodes and the discussions concerning the African Digital Libraries and Archives initiative. • GBIF: • A network of nodes in six regions of the globe, including Africa where nodes have been established in sixteen countries. • Node mangers are the designated contact points for scientists wishing to access data and through GBIF also LifeWatch.

17. Concluding remarks on access • The majority of cases access by individual scientists from Africa to the European RI is very difficult, except for those RI who have an open access policies to data. • Access to other RI is either provided: • By virtue of agreements between the RI management and the responsible funding agency/ministry of the home country of the researcher concerned, which has substantive cost implications mostly beyond the capabilities of the individual concerned, or • Through the national correspondent of regional/global networks affiliated with the European RI. In this case it is usually pertains primarily to environmental observational and global change sciences. • Indirect access, i.e. through a European collaborator who is entitled access by virtue of his/her institution/country being a member of the RI concerned, recognises the African researcher as a team member of the European scientist and his/her institutional affiliation, but will not recognise the African researcher’s affiliation by institution or country. • Access by European scientists to pan-African RI seems according to this preliminary assessment not as complicated, as in most instances the RI concerned have been established in collaboration with European scientists or funding from European funding agencies. This will however be interrogated further.

18. How to improve access • Raise the awareness on Information on African Research Facilities and increasing its visibility. • Promoting African R&D and programmes • Continental/Regional coordination to facilitate RI partnership in both continent • Simplified issuing of visas for researchers • Consistent framework for the exchange of research samples • Access during the construction phase • Integrated Infrastructure Initiatives

19. Thank you for your attention!