The IST-Africa Initiative is an active and growing partnership, founded by IIMC, Ireland in 2002.
During 2005 – 2007 with European Commission funding under the IST Programme of Framework Programme 6 (FP6), IST-Africa has trained over 1,000 government officials and researchers in Botswana, South Africa, Mozambique and Tanzania (in key areas including eGovernment, eHealth, eLearning).
During 2012 – 2013, IST-Africa is focused on supporting the Implementation of 8th Africa-EU Partnership on Science, Information Society & Space; strengthening the research dimension of Information Society policy dialogues between the European Commission and African countries and key regional organisations; analysis of African ICT research priorities, including long term perspectives aligned with EU priorities and recommendations for future Africa – EU co-operation initiatives, including identification of matching counterpart funding and raising wider awareness of African research capacity, promoting participation of African organizations in the ICT Theme of FP7 and Horizon 2020 and identifying co-operation opportunities in fields of mutual interest.