The AEIP Communities of Practice: progress and next steps

The Africa-Europe Innovation Platform (AEIP), in partnership with the Association of African Universities, is advancing structured collaboration between African and European innovation actors through a series of Communities of Practice.

Formally launched on 22 October 2025 in Brussels during the AEIP’s flagship stakeholder event: Bridging Continents through Innovation: Africa-Europe Innovation Dialogues, the Communities of Practice began with a focus on Entrepreneurship and Innovation.

The Communities of Practice provide a structured forum where professionals working in related fields exchange knowledge and share experiences. In the AEIP context, these bring together all innovation stakeholders from across Africa and Europe to foster practical cooperation, strengthen policy alignment and reinforce innovation ecosystems in both regions.

What has been achieved so far

The Entrepreneurship and innovation CoP has convened a series of knowledge co-creation sessions with a membership close to 200 and stakeholders contributing towards entrepreneurship and innovation in their respective expertise from December 2025 to February 2026.

Topics discussed included strengthening research-to-market linkages, enhancing startup support and ecosystem coordination mechanisms, and identifying regulatory and policy bottlenecks. Through structured online exchanges, participants shared good practices, institutional experiences and lessons learned from their respective contexts.

A central outcome of the process has been the co-development of a draft policy brief outlining actionable recommendations to strengthen entrepreneurship and innovation ecosystems across both continents. The brief reflects joint priorities identified by participants and provides a practical reference for policymakers and ecosystem leaders.

The final policy brief will be completed and disseminated to policymakers, higher education institutions, innovation agencies and ecosystem actors across Africa and Europe.

With this phase completed, the Entrepreneurship and innovation CoP now moves towards implementation. The next steps include:

• Strategic dissemination of the policy brief at regional and international platforms
• Targeted stakeholder engagement sessions
• Continued peer-learning exchanges among CoP members
• Exploration of collaborative pilot initiatives
• Monitoring progress on agreed ecosystem priorities

Launch of the next Communities of Practice

The AEIP launched a new Community of Practice on Commercialisation of innovative products on 27 February 2026. This CoP will focus on:

• Strengthening university–industry collaboration frameworks
• Research valorisation and technology transfer systems
• Intellectual property management
• Innovation financing and investment readiness
• Facilitating structured EU–AU cooperation on research commercialisation

Dates:

• First meeting: 5 March 2026, 12:30 to 14:00 GMT
• Second Meeting: 13 March 2026, 12:00 to 14:00 GMT
• Third Meeting: 18 March 2026,12:00 to 14:00 GMT
• Final meeting (Webinar): 20 March 2026, 12:30 to 14:00GMT

In parallel, a Climate change and sustainable education CoP will soon begin, expanding AEIP’s CoP engagement into areas that link innovation with sustainable development priorities.

This CoP will address climate-aligned curricula and resources, strengthen collaboration between scientists, communities and policy-makers, and support climate adaptation, mitigation and resilience efforts.

Dates:

• Launch: 27 March 2026, 12:30 to 13:30 GMT
• First meeting: 3 April 2026, 12:00 to 14:00 GMT
• Second meeting: 10 April 2026, 12:00 to 14:00 GMT
• Final meeting (Webinar): 17 April 2026, 12:30 to 14:00 GMT

Innovation ecosystems thrive on collaboration. Innovation stakeholders from across Africa and Europe are encouraged to participate in these Communities of Practice to contribute expertise, exchange experience and shape joint solutions that support innovation-led growth across both regions.

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