UNIVERSITE DE LOME

Their core work

Université de Lomé is a public university in Togo, West Africa, contributing African academic expertise to EU-Africa research partnerships. Their H2020 participation reflects two distinct but related threads: satellite navigation capacity building in Africa (MAGNIFIC) and long-term renewable energy research between Europe and the African Union (LEAP-RE). They bring local scientific capacity, regional knowledge of West African energy and technology conditions, and institutional legitimacy as a national university to international consortia. For European partners, they function as the African academic anchor in projects requiring on-the-ground research presence and policy connections in sub-Saharan Africa.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

In the 2015–2017 period, the university's H2020 engagement centered on space technology — specifically GNSS infrastructure and navigation system outreach in Africa, a capacity-building and awareness domain rather than core research. By 2020, their focus shifted decisively toward renewable energy, joining the large-scale LEAP-RE partnership that runs through 2026 and represents the dominant long-term EU-AU research agenda in clean energy. The trajectory suggests a move from space-sector capacity building toward substantive energy research, mirroring Togo's and the broader African Union's strategic priorities around energy access and the green transition.

They are positioning themselves as a long-term African academic partner in EU-funded renewable energy research, with LEAP-RE running until 2026 — suggesting continued relevance for anyone building EU-AU clean energy consortia.

How they like to work

Université de Lomé participates exclusively as a consortium partner and has never led an H2020 project, which is typical for African universities entering EU research networks through international cooperation programmes. Despite only two projects, they sit within very large consortia — LEAP-RE alone involves dozens of European and African institutions — giving them an unusually wide partner network relative to their project count. This suggests they are comfortable operating as one node in a complex multi-country programme rather than driving the research agenda themselves.

With 95 unique consortium partners across 34 countries from just two projects, the university's network is disproportionately broad — a direct result of participating in large-scale EU-AU programmes with wide African and European membership. Their geographic reach spans both Europe and sub-Saharan Africa, with a natural anchor in West Africa through their Togo base.

What sets them apart

As one of very few Togolese universities in the H2020 database, Université de Lomé offers something rare: institutional credibility and local research infrastructure in francophone West Africa. For European consortia that need an African partner with national university status in Togo or the broader ECOWAS region, there are almost no comparable alternatives in the H2020 ecosystem. Their dual presence in both space-technology and renewable energy programmes also means they span two strategic EU-Africa cooperation tracks, which broadens their relevance for consortium builders.

Highlights from their portfolio

• LEAP-RE
  A flagship EU-AU long-term research partnership on renewable energy running through 2026, representing the university's most substantive and longest-running engagement with the European research community.
• MAGNIFIC
  An early entry into H2020 focused on spreading European satellite navigation (GNSS) capabilities across Africa — unusual for a West African university and indicative of the institution's openness to cross-domain European partnerships.