Emerging African Innovation Leaders G7 Exchange & Empowerment Program for enabling Innovation

within the Next Production Revolution

Prof Paola Garrone, PoliMIProf Pierluigi Leone, PoliTODr Susanna Sancassani, PoliMIProf. Emanuela Colombo, PoliMI

The G7 Italian Presidency wish to raise attention on the opportunity to announce at the

Taormina Summit the introduction of an “Emerging African Innovation Leaders G7

Exchange and Training Program”, that could be built upon the following pillars:

Origin and Rational of the InitiativeFrom G7 declaration to ICA background paper

Human Capital 4 Innovation

INNOVATION AS AN ASSET for PROSPERITY

• The 2030 Agenda calls for a transformative

change in the socio-economic assets

• The Next Production Revolution is expected

to reshape design, engineering & production

• Physical and social Infrastructures development needs to comply with

the climate change policy (Paris Agreement, Addis Ababa Action Agenda)

• Infrastructure development needs to be designed to avoid the risk of

technological lock-in to configurations that may fail beyond 2050.

Origin and Rational of the InitiativeFrom G7 declaration to ICA background paper

Role of NPR for leapfrogging in Africa

Global Level

Africa

• Africa may jump into this enabling

stage for further leapfrogging opportunity

Decarbonisation & Mobility

Digitalisation

DIGITALISATION, DECARBONISATION & MOBILITY

• Clusters of emerging technologies

are pivotal within the NPR and SDGs

and may comply with Paris Agreement

Digital, Energy & Mobility match NPR & SDG

Origin and Rational of the InitiativeFrom G7 declaration to ICA background paper

• Digital & Green Tech (Energy &

mobility) appears as the most relevant

General Objective

To boost Africa embracement of

the Next Production Revolution

while enforcing the EU-Au

cooperation on the matter and the

mutual benefit and socio-economic

innovation that may come when

coping this approach with

Sustainable Development Goals to

promote an equitable and long

lasting prosperity in different

countries.

Emerging African Innovation Leaders: G7 Exchange & Empowerment Program for enabling Innovation within the NPR

Specific Objective

To accompany empowerment and

ownership of selected African

Countries toward the embracement of

the NPR. The proposal will represent

pilot experiences and benchmarking

case study since it will be based on the

selection of representative countries

to test the approach in different

regional frames

Expected Results

Emerging African Innovation Leaders: G7 Exchange & Empowerment Program for enabling Innovation within the NPR

A qualified community of AFRICA INNOVATION

BROKERS (AIBs) is created as the seed for the next

generation of African Leaders, equipped with the right

and verified capacity and competences for boosting

Africa leapfrogging within NPR

A platform for innovation, the AFRICA

INNOVATION CRADLE is working as a digital tool

to enable the AIBs to replicate and expand their

pilot experience toward a larger number of local

innovation networks.

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2

A cascade of benficiaries

Emerging African Innovation Leaders: G7 Exchange & Empowerment Program for enabling Innovation within the NPR

A qualified community of AFRICA INNOVATION

BROKERS (AIBs) is created as the seed for the next

generation of African Leaders, equipped with the

right and verified capacity and competences for

boosting Africa leapfrogging within NPR

A platform for innovation, the AFRICA

INNOVATION CRADLE is working as a digital tool

to enable the AIBs to replicate and expand their

pilot experience toward a larger number of local

innovation networks.

1

The G7 Italian Presidency wish to raise attention on the opportunity to announce at the Taormina Summit the introduction of an

“Emerging African Innovation Leaders G7 Exchange and Training Program”, that could be built upon the following pillars:

The 18 African Innovation Brokers

The 18 National Institutions/administrations

The 180 second generation AIBs trained by the 18 AIBs

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Expected Results

The Sustainability PillarsHuman capital first

Thought a project of capacity building, the idea goes well beyond

the delivery of training hours

Centralityof Human

Capital

Blended learningfor Competence &

Capacity

RestitutionPhase for effectiveimpact

The Sustainability PillarsThe “supply chain” of empowerment Centrality

of Human Capital

Blended learningfor Competence &

Capacity

RestitutionPhase for effectiveimpact

PHYSICAL and VIRTUAL STRATEGY

A proactive way to promote knowledge and technology transfer and

activating opportunities for mutual learning

The Target CountriesA pilot starting point for future extension

PHYSICAL and VIRTUAL STRATEGYTunisia

Ethiopia

Kenya

Mozambique

Nigeria

Niger

Among the 22 Priority countries

Representative of African Regions

G7 Outreach Countries in Taormina

The Direct and Indirect BeneficiariesA pilot starting point for future extension

A CASCADE OF BENEFICIARIES

The 18 African Innovation Brokers

The 18 National Institutions/administrations

• knowledge chain actors: National Extension Services, Universities & Research centres.

• existing networks supporting innovation & new economy SMEs

• citizens for innovation & local communities:

The 180 second generation AIBs trained by the 18 AIBs

AIBs selection process

1. Call for applications

2. Evaluation of applications and Interview

3. Grading Rubric and selection

Specific ObjectiveTo accompany empowerment and ownership of selected African Countries toward

the embracement of the NPR.

WP2 AFRICAN INNOVATION

BROKERS (AIBs) empowermentDesign, development and delivering of all

the capacity building and interactive

activities useful to empower AFRICAN

INNOVATION BROKERS (AIBs)

18 AIBs trained + 180 innovators in Tunisia

Niger, Nigeria, Kenya Ethiopia,

Mozambique.

WP3 AFRICAN INNOVATION CRADLEDesign and development of the virtual

laboratory (AFRICA INNOVATION CRADLE)

useful to support the capacity building

activities and the collaborative activities

within the network in order to activate new

innovative entrepreneurial opportunities in

African countries at both national and

international level.

WP1 State of art analysis, Selection of AIBs, Creation of the network

Analysis of the context at Political, social, and infrastructural level and selection

of the actors involved in the pilot activities

WP5Project

Management

Project

Managers,

External

Quality

experts, M&E

experts and

Auditor

WP4 Project Dissemination, Quality and SustainabilityA Dissemination Plan is organised to describe the activities to be performed to foster the

sustainability of the project after the funding period. A Quality Management Process that the

project team will follow to assure and control the quality of all procedures, processes and

deliverables produced during the course of programme. A Sustainability Plan will be produced in

order to guarantee the sustainability of the project after the funding period

Long term

impact

The Schematic Structure - The WPs

“The only way to discover the true boundary of possible is to proceed a bit further into the impossible” - Blaise Pascal

Thank you for your attention!