Nigeria-EU Innovation Days

About the Event

BRIEF SUMMARY

Nigeria-EU Innovation Days

The Nigeria-EU Innovation Days are designed to bring together representatives of the Nigerian, African at large, and European research and innovation ecosystems in a structured, yet informal, setting to:

  • Showcase the vibrancy of the Nigeria-EU and Africa-EU cooperation on research & innovation and give visibility to meaningful success stories in this partnership
  • Promote innovation uptake in Nigeria among private and public procurers and investors
  • Facilitate knowledge sharing around funding and collaboration opportunities
  • Facilitate networking for future Nigeria-EU, Africa-EU and cross-Africa collaborations
0

Participants

0 +

Innovators

0 +

Investors

0 +

Speakers

The event aims to attract around 300 participants onsite, including stakeholders from Nigeria (80%), West African countries (mostly), and representatives of the EU Member States in Nigeria, including innovators, entrepreneurs, researchers, doctoral students, private sector professionals, policymakers, and public procurers.

The event will focus on four areas, in line with the priority areas of the AU-EU Cooperation on Research and Innovation and the AU-EU Innovation Agenda:

  • Healthcare (in line with the priority area of Public Health)
  • Smart sustainable agriculture (in line with the priority area of Green Transition)
  • Industry 4.0 (in line with the priority area of Innovation & Technology)
  • Creative industries (in line with the priority areas of Innovation & Technology, Cross-cutting issues, and Capacities for Science)

Speakers will be invited to share testimonials and views on cutting-edge and innovative approaches in each of these areas, with applications to the Nigerian context. The two-day format will focus on AU-EU (West) Africa collaboration on Day 1 and Nigeria-EU collaboration on Day 2.

Day 1

  • Overview and stock-taking on the AU-EU Innovation Agenda: one year after adoption, including an overview of Nigeria's involvement in the AU-EU Innovation Agenda from 2022 to date.
  • Showcase success stories of Nigeria-EU and West Africa-EU cooperation on research and innovation.
  • Overview on funding, training, collaboration, and networking opportunities (e.g., Horizon Europe, Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions, ERASMUS+, Euraxess Africa, EUREKA).
  • Brainstorming session on Nigeria's and Nigeria-EU cooperation's unmet needs on research and innovation.
  • Identify inhibitors and drivers for innovation uptake in Nigeria (Higher Education Institutions, Industry, and SMEs).

Day 2

  • Showcasing Nigeria's innovations and entrepreneurship's excellences in the four areas – a selection of presentations on “case in point” initiatives on:
  • Healthcare
  • Smart sustainable agriculture
  • Industry 4.0
  • Creative industries (i.e., film, music and fashion design)
  • Nigeria-EU Innovation Fair – 1st Edition!, aiming to:
  • Foster Nigeria-EU research and innovation collaborations
  • Facilitate the matchmaking between Nigerian innovators & clients/investors (private/public)

This event will also provide for the novel opportunity to engage R&I stakeholders from Nigeria and beyond in an “innovative” poetry workshop, in which participants could draft poetry pieces on Innovation and Nigeria-EU, Africa-EU cooperation and read and perform them to the audience at the end of Day 2.