CEA-FIRST: Consortium Europe-Africa for Research and Innovation on Food Systems Transformation

The African Union and the European Union alongside a number of implementing partners have launched the Consortium Europe-Africa on Research and Innovation for Food Systems Transformation. The CEA-FIRST is a bicontinental effort put together to operationalise the International Research Consortium (IRC) as a long-term platform on Food and Nutrition Security and Sustainable Agriculture (FNSSA) in line with the FNSSA Roadmap of the AU-EU High-Level Policy Dialogue (HLPD). This IRC is a member-based, multi-actor platform and will work towards increasing synergies and coherence while reducing fragmentation and duplication of research efforts. Its aim is to promote higher returns on investments and impact on business development in Africa and Europe, by linking actors, research and innovation projects, initiatives, and funding programmes.

The project brings together 21 partners from Europe and Africa, partly from the former LEAP4FNSSA, extended with new public and private network partners covering a wide range of expertise and stakeholders (research, NGOs, donors, extension workers, etc.) involved in the field of food and nutritional security and sustainable agriculture.

The CEA-FIRST will:

1. Provide public access to an extensive platform of knowledge in food and nutrition security and sustainable agriculture
2. Offer a robust methodology for analysing Research and Innovation (R&I) activities and priorities.
3. Support the updating of the AU-EU R&I FNSSA Roadmap
4. Establish operational working groups and thematic research calls.
5. Facilitate connections between the IRC and the AU-EU High-Level Policy Dialogue.
6. Create a learning environment, including communication channels, to support multi stakeholder networks and to strengthen R&I coordination.
7. The IRC will also serve related AU-EU policy priorities, such as the Climate Change and Sustainable Energy and the Innovation Agenda of the HLPD, as well as the European Green Deal priorities (and farm to fork strategy) and the AU priorities like the African Free Trade Area.

The final policy output of CEA-FIRST will be a functional IRC, with its validated IRC Process Map and Manual. The Manual will guide the activities of the IRC as the main bicontinental long-term, sustainable platform for R&I in line with the EU AU FNSSA Roadmap, a platform which will also serve other AU-EU policy priorities, such as the Climate Change and Sustainable Energy (CCSE) and the Innovation Agenda of the HLPD, as well as the European Green Deal priorities (and in particular the farm to fork strategy) and the AU priorities like the African Free Trade Area.

The project will have a 4-years duration, from December 2023 to November 2027.