09:30 – 09:50

• NEF Fellows Spotlight Session 2
• Komminist Weldemariam (NEF Fellow, Cameroon)
• Ghada Bassioni (NEF Fellow, Egypt)

09:50 – 11:00

• Plenary Panel 2: Advancement of Science in Africa through Education – Building a pipeline into world-class higher education and research
• The shortage of STEM professionals in the world threatens to weaken economic growth and slow down the scientific advances needed to meet the world’s urgent challenges. In Sub-Saharan Africa, there is a shortage of 2.5 million engineers needed to address the continent’s infrastructural challenges. At the same time, Africa, the world’s most youthful continent, is bursting with energy and creativity – how can this be harnessed? Africa’s capacity to compete in this globalized world relies upon harnessing the potential of its population in full. The majority of the population is missing as long as Africa neglects to address the major inequity of access to STEM education and training among women and youth.

  This panel will examine:
  • Examples of best-practice educational programmes to train tomorrow’s science leaders
  • How to get more women into scientific higher-education
  • What role can technology play in this transformation?

• Opening Remarks – Sir Leszek Borysiewicz (Vice Chancellor, Cambridge University)
• Moderator – Phillip Clay (Former Chancellor of MIT)
• Oley Dibba-Wadda (Executive Secretary, Association for the Development of Education in Africa)
• Jean Lebel (President of IDRC)
• Youngah Park (video message) (President, Korea Institute of Science and Technology Evaluation and Planning (KISTEP), South Korea)
• Reeta Roy (President & CEO, MasterCard Foundation)
• Thierry Zomahoun (President & CEO, AIMS)
• Closing Remarks – Abdellatif Miraoui (President, Agence universitaire de la Francophonie)

11:00 – 11:30

• COFFEE BREAK

11:30 – 12:30

• Parallel Session 4 – Success Stories of Science Funding in Africa
• Successful science programme require long-term and significant funding. A number of good examples of scientific funding initiatives exist and involve strategies to garner successful funding. This session will:
  • Highlight success stories and challenges faced by young scientists
  • Showcase available funding
  Showcase opportunities and gaps in science funding
• Moderator – Vaughan Turekian (Science & Technology Advisor to the Secretary of State, US State Department)
• Berhanu Abegaz (Executive Director, African Academy of Sciences (AAS))
• Sajitha Bashir (Education Sector Manager for Eastern and Southern Africa, World Bank)
• Evelyn Gitau (NEF Fellow, Kenya)
• Simon Kay (Head of International Operations, Wellcome Trust)
• Salif Diop (Member, TWAS)
• Ahmadou Lamine Ndiaye (President, Senegal National Academy of Sciences)

11:30 – 12:30

• Parallel Session 5 – Basic Discovery and Its Developments in Africa
  
• Basic Discovery has led to major developments in science and technology and contributed to impacts in society. For example, semiconductors, nanostructures and medical cyclotrons all originated in curiosity-led research and eventually matured into technology of practical importance. This session will examine the role of basic discovery in Africa and address the questions:
  • Demonstrate why basic discovery is important.
  • Showcase examples of basic discovery
• Moderator – Julian Siddle (BBC)
• Chair – Francisca Nneka Okeke (Professor of Physics, University of Nigeria Nsukka)
• Joseph Ben Geloun (NEF Fellow, Senegal)
• Hallowed Olaoluwa (NEF Fellow, Nigeria)
• Adams Tidjani (Professor, UCAD)

11:30 – 12:30

• Parallel Session 6 – African Researchers Solving Africa’s Health Challenges
• As African development continues at an increasing pace, and with increasing wealth, rapid urbanization and changing lifestyles, the diseases affecting African populations in the future will move beyond malaria into new disease patterns accompanied by widening health inequality.
  • Showcase cutting edge research going into identifying and responding to tomorrow’s disease challenges in Africa
  • Highlight predictions of what diseases will emerge in Africa tomorrow
  • Highlight best practice examples of what can be done.
• Moderator – Alan Kasujja (BBC)
• Chair – Souleymane Mboup (Professor of Microbiology, UCAD)
• Alpha Amadou Sall (Scientific Director, Institut Pasteur de Dakar
• Alta Schutte (NEF Fellow, South Africa)
• Yi Shi (Associate Professor of Structural Biology at Beijing Institutes
  of Life Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China)
• Paul Stoffels (Chief Medical Officer, Johnson & Johnson)
• Closing Remarks – Alan Leshner (Former CEO, American Association for the Advancement of Science)

12:30 – 13:45

• LUNCH BREAK

13:45 – 15:45

• Closed Session for Science Ministers
  
• Co-Chaired by the Senegalese Ministry for Higher Education and Research and co-chaired and Supported by the German Research Foundation, this session will bring together Ministers of Science/Education/Research with heads of research councils to form bilateral partnerships.

13:45 – 14:00

• NEF Fellows Spotlight Session 3
• Axel Ngonga (NEF Fellow, Cameroon)
• Sherien Elagroudy (NEF Fellow, Egypt)
• Wilfred Ndifon (NEF Fellow, Cameroon)

14:00 – 15:00

• Plenary Panel 3: ‘Made in Africa’ – How Africa Can Increasingly Engage in Knowledge-Based Enterprise
• As one of the world’s youngest and most dynamic continents, endowed with rich resources, Africa must continue to move up the value addition chain, going beyond increasing consumption to increasing production and value-addition. This panel will:
  • Highlight key challenges and opportunities to be harnessed to develop a knowledge-based enterprise ecosystem in Africa.
  • Showcase success stories and best-practices.
• Moderator – Alan Kasujja (Presenter of Newsday on BBC World Service)
• Solomon Assefa (Director of IBM Africa Research Lab, IBM)
• Ebi Atawodi (General Manager Lagos, Uber)
• Aminata Sall Diallo (Professor and Special Advisor, MINESUP/Senegal)
• Ignace Gatare (Director General, National Commission on Science and Technology, Rwanda)
• Maarten van Herpen (Director of Innovation for Africa, Royal Philips)

15:00 – 15:30

• COFFEE BREAK

15:30 – 16:30

• Parallel Session 7: Using Data Science to Drive Development
• The increasing prevalence of information, driven by mobile device and other data generation/collection sources, can provide a rich dataset of information to drive development. The phenomenon of “big data”, where information coming from different sources offers the potential to develop new products and services is leading the way in Africa. Mobile-banking transactions, satellite images, call logs and online user-generated content, crowdsourcing and market research are examples of these exciting opportunities in Africa. This panel will discuss how data science is driving development on the continent and the trajectory of the field in the future.

  This panel will:
  • Highlight cutting edge research going into using data for development
  • Showcase examples of African data for development leading the world
  • Highlight examples (either at the city or national level) of using big data from around the world

• Chair – Yabebal Tadesse Fantaye (AIMS ARETE Junior Chair)
• Moderator – Nick Perkins (Director, SciDev.net)
• Naser Faruqui (Director of Technology and Innovation, International Development Research Centre (IDRC), Canada)
• Abba Gumel (Arizona State University & NEF SPC Member)
• Assane Gueye (NEF Fellow, Senegal)
• Mariéme Jamme (President, Spot One Global Solutions)

15:30 – 16:30

• Parallel Session 8 – Science in Africa – Top Scientific Discoveries/Initiatives in Africa (Part II)
• This session will identify and analyze past and current scientific discoveries in Africa. This panel will pay tribute to the history of great scientific achievements in Africa by showcasing the scientists and discoveries made by African scientists. This panel will address the questions:
  • How did scientific research in Africa and by African scientists shape history?
  • What can young scientists learn from their predecessors?
  • In what ways has science proven that Africa is the cradle of human civilization?
• Opening Remarks – John Silvanus Wilson Jr. (President, Morehouse College)
• Moderator – Serge Michel (Le Monde Afrique)
• Ikechukwu Achebe (Visiting Scholar, Brown University)
• Rose Gana Fomban Leke (Professor of Immunology and Parasitology, University of Yaounde I, Cameroon)
• Iruka Okeke (Professor of Pharmaceutical Microbiology, University of Ibadan, Nigeria)
• Ahmadou Wague (Professor of Nuclear Physics, UCAD, Senegal)

15:30 – 16:30

• Parallel Session 9: Sowing the Seeds for Africa’s Green Revolution
  
• Food self-sufficiency is a key goal for most nations, yet Africa has not made as much progress as it could. There are promising signs, including investments in agriculture, the growth of companies and scientific research that improve seed varieties and fertilizers and supplies. This session will assemble experts from the fields of agriculture, trade, ecology and global development look at the opportunities and challenges of food security in Africa.

  The session will examine:
  • What are the key barriers to improving national and regional food security? Showcase cutting edge research going into moving towards food self-sufficiency
  • The potential and risks of GMO food.
  • Showcase examples of good agricultural policy

• Moderator – Joachim von Braun (Director of Center for Development Research, University of Bonn)
• Ousmane Badiane (Africa Director, International Food Policy Research Institute, Senegal)
• Noble Banadda (NEF Fellow, Uganda)
• Marceline Egnin (Professor of Crop Molecular Genetics & Plant Biotechnology, Tuskegee University)
• Voster Muchenje (Research Professor, University of Fort Hare
• HE Minister Abdoulaye Seck (Minister of Agriculture, Senegal)

18:00 – 19:30

• UNESCO Side-Event on Science Diplomacy

19:30 – 22:00

• Dinner Hosted by Government of Senegal