AFRICAN UNION

Their core work

The African Union is the pan-African intergovernmental organization representing all 55 African member states, headquartered in Addis Ababa. In H2020, they did not conduct research themselves — their contribution is institutional: bringing formal continental-level political backing, access to African national science agencies and ministries, and the credibility to convene government bodies across an entire continent. Both projects they joined were Coordination and Support Actions, confirming their function as a policy bridge and institutional legitimizer between European research frameworks and African governance structures. For any consortium needing formal African government engagement, they are an entry point that no university or research institute can replicate.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

From 2015 to 2018, the African Union's H2020 engagement was broad and structural — RINEA was about laying the groundwork for EU-Africa research cooperation: building networks, aligning funding mechanisms, and establishing policy frameworks for science and innovation exchange. By 2018–2022, the focus had narrowed sharply and concretely into food and nutrition security and sustainable agriculture, reflecting the maturation of the EU-AU partnership from general architecture into sector-specific implementation. The shift suggests the foundational diplomatic and institutional work was largely completed in phase one, and phase two moved toward operationalizing specific thematic programs under that framework.

The African Union is moving from broad institutional bridge-building toward specific programmatic implementation in food security and agriculture, suggesting future consortium value is strongest in projects with an explicit African food systems or sustainable agriculture dimension.

How they like to work

The African Union has participated in every H2020 project as a partner, never as coordinator — consistent with their role as a political and institutional counterpart rather than a project manager or research executor. Despite only two projects, they have accumulated 43 consortium partners across 25 countries, reflecting the large multi-stakeholder consortia typical of EU-AU cooperation actions. Working with them means gaining continental-level institutional endorsement and access to African government networks, but project leadership and technical execution will always sit with other consortium members.

43 unique partners across 25 countries in just two projects — an unusually wide network that reflects the multi-continental, multi-institutional nature of EU-Africa cooperation programs. Their connections span European research bodies, African national science agencies, and intergovernmental organizations on both continents.

What sets them apart

The African Union is the only organization that can bring formal intergovernmental backing from 55 African member states into a research consortium — no university, research institute, or NGO can substitute for that. Their value is access: to African heads of state science advisors, national research funding agencies, and continent-wide policy alignment processes that require an intergovernmental mandate. For EU-funded projects that need genuine African governmental engagement rather than a token African partner, the AU is the gold-standard anchor institution.

Highlights from their portfolio

• LEAP4FNSSA
  The highest-funded project (EUR 82,346) and the most concrete expression of the formal EU-AU long-term research partnership, directly addressing food and nutrition security across an entire continent.
• RINEA
  The foundation project that established the EU-Africa research and innovation network — without RINEA's networking and policy groundwork, later sector-specific programs like LEAP4FNSSA would not have had an institutional framework to build on.