On Monday 23rd September, LEAP-RE coordination team was in Addis-Abeba, Ethiopia, and had the great honour and pleasure to meet the African Union Head of Energy Division, Ms Sara Elhag, and M. Shehu Ibrahim Khaleel, Electricity Policy and regulatory Expert at the Department of Infrastructure and Energy.

Discussions focused on:

1. The establishment of a bi-continental co-funding mechanism: Two calls for projects have been launched in 2021 and 2022, with 220+ beneficiary organisations in over 30 countries in Europe and Africa. The full list of projects we have funded is available here. We can now confirm that our Partnership will be launching two new calls for projects in 2025 and 2026, under the effective guidance of the French National Research Agency (ANR).
2. A Strategic assessment for growth potential thanks to an ongoing analysis of Go to Market potential: LEAP-RE will particularly explore strategies for scaling renewable energy innovations through market uptake of renewable energy technologies (development and commercialization, policy, building partnerships for market entry). We also look forward to addressing funding RE innovation in Africa (innovative financing models, public-private partnerships in RE projects, investment, incentives, risk insurance, etc.
3. The annual organisation of a high-level scientific and political forum: After Nairobi in 2021, Pretoria in 2022 and Kigali in 2023, in a few days’ time we will be meeting in Milan, Italy, at the prestigious Politecnico di Milano (POLIMI), to bring together the members of our community. The detailed agenda for the Forum is available here, most of the sessions will be public and accessible online.
4. Institutional Teaming & Twinning capacities: This involves co-designing research agendas and decision-making processes. Our Partnership is investigating new collaborative patterns which instruments are based on formal agreements between African and European institutions to promote long-term collaboration (twinning), and an emergent process where individuals and groups with multidisciplinary skills collaborate (teaming). This co-construction is key to pave the way for an inclusive partnership in critical challenges such as green energy and climate change with access to infrastructure, technology, and research laboratories.
5. An online platform that brings together members of our community, but which is intended to be open to all Euro-African sustainable energy practitioners. It currently has 1,330 active users and aims at being a tool for project design and matchmaking with a view to future Calls, as well as for sharing experience and knowledge.

Thus, LEAP-RE could be instrumental with a view to implementing ambitious African strategies (Africa 2063, African Continental Master Plan) and European strategies (Partnership on Climate Change and Sustainable Energy (CCSE) as part of the AU-EU HLPD on Science Technology and Innovation, AU/EU Innovation Agenda on Green Transition) on sustainable energy and energy access.

Stay tuned for more updates!