High-Level Session on EU Funding Opportunities for Higher Education Institutions
The hybrid event was arranged in collaboration with the Ministry of Education, Innovation, Youth, Sport, Arts and Culture (MEIYSAC), the National Commission on Research, Science and Technology (NCRST), the European Union (EU) and EURAXESS and it brought together approximately 200 participants from Namibia and several other African countries. The event included practical guidance on accessing EU funding and collaboration opportunities and featured presentations on Erasmus Capacity Building in Higher Education and Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions.
In his opening remarks, Dr Lisho Mundia, the Deputy Executive Director for the department of Higher Education, Training, Research and Innovation, highlighted that the newly established Ministry of Education, Innovation, Youth, Sport, Arts and Culture (MEIYSAC) intentionally aligns formal education, cutting-edge innovation, youth empowerment, sports, and cultural heritage into one coordinated framework. He emphasized that the European Union’s flagship programs, Horizon Europe and Erasmus Plus, serve as a powerful engine for holistic human capital development and urged Namibian academics, researchers, and youth to move past being passive participants, utilize the workshop to navigate the competitive application processes, and proactively build a sustainable ecosystem for international collaboration.
During the session, Deputy Head of Delegation and Chargé d'Affaires, Mr Ian Dupont, underlined that “across Sub-Saharan Africa, participation in Erasmus+ and related programmes has grown rapidly. Thousands of African students and staff have taken part in mobility schemes with European universities, and hundreds of institutions participate in capacity building and joint degree projects. Building on this foundation, there is no reason why Namibian researchers and institutions should not be present in ever larger numbers in EU funded Horizon Europe, Erasmus+ programmes.”
The event is part of a series of awareness-raising and capacity-building initiatives aimed at enhancing Namibia’s involvement in EU funded international research, innovation, academic mobility and higher-education collaboration programmes, thereby improving access to funding for research, innovation, cooperation and mobility among Namibian academia.
Ministry of Education, Namibia