Dear all,
As agreed during the call, here is the summary of today’s discussions:
- Proposal deadline: 2 October (36 days left)
- Consortium
- We need at least 3 startups and living labs in Africa, if we do not have them, it will be a no-go and we will stop the proposal.
- UCAD brings a startup (SOTILMA farm), a living lab (UCAD rurale) and two center of excellence.
- Pending replies from UCT, UMA, STR and UN.
- If we receive more than three living labs/startups in total, selection will be made on a first-come, first-served basis.
- Deadline: Wednesday 3/9, EoB.
- We need SoBigData to identify GenAI solutions developed in Europe. SoBigData is key here and if they cannot participate, we cannot move forward with the proposal.
- Due to time constrains, we will have to split the writing of the proposal sections and write in parallel.
- WP leadership: as we did in DIGITAfrica, we suggest to have 2 co-WP leaders (1 Africa + 1 EU). Please apply as WP leaders and then, Serge will revise the overall consistency and confirm the final list by the end of the week.
- Deadline: tomorrow Thursday 28/8 EoB.
- Proposal template: SU will provide a more detailed template with what’s expected per section. The different sections will be allocated among the partners.
Regarding the presentation, you will find it in the shared folder.
Last but not least, we propose to organise our next call on Friday 5 Sept. Please indicate by this Friday noon, your availability.
Thank you and in the meantime, please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions.
Best regards,
Émilie
On 26 Aug 2025, at 15:35, Serge Fdida <serge.fdida@lip6.fr> wrote:
Dear all,
I hope this mail finds you well and that you had a nice break.
We need to get very well organized and engaged in order to move forward with this proposal, knowing that the deadline is very tight.
It will be challenging to prepare a strong proposal.
This is the feedback we received regarding the African partnership.
Tomorrow, we’ll have to be very precise and practical to decide if we can prepare a proposal as well as the few parters and start-ups that we can involve.
Please get prepared.
- UCT
- "We have quite a few Agri startups that I can reach out to, one or two based in Cape Town »
- UCAD
- "UCAD rurale" peut servir de living lab (Professeur Abdala Gamby DIEDHIOU, Institut Supérieur d'Agriculture et Entreprenariat (ISAE), UCAD)
- SOTILMA farm comme startup
- 2 Centres d’Excellence: Centres d’Excellence Africain en Agriculture pour la Sécurité Alimentaire et Nutritionnelle (CEA-AGRISAN) & Centre d’Excellence Africain Environnement, Santé et Sociétés (CEA-AGIR)
- UMA
- "We also have a local technological company that is interested and well-positioned to contribute, especially in the areas of agriculture and digital skills development. »
- STR
- "Strathmore has established mechanisms for identifying and working with reliable project partner companies, hence it will be possible to identify the Technological Companies. »
- UN
- response from Louis about some possibilities
Kind regards
-serge
Sorbonne Université
Laboratoire LIP6-CNRS
Le 21 août 2025 à 18:13 +0200, Émilie Mespoulhes <emilie.mespoulhes@lip6.fr>, a écrit :
Dear all,
Thank you for your respective replies.
Please save the date: the meeting is scheduled for Wednesday 27 August, 4 pm (CEST).
The zoom link and the calendar invite will follow.
Best regards,
Émilie
On 28 Jul 2025, at 11:24, Émilie Mespoulhes <emilie.mespoulhes@lip6.fr> wrote:
Dear all,
Here is link for the call to be scheduled by the end of August / early September.
Thank you.
Best regards,
Émilie
On 23 Jul 2025, at 14:41, Émilie Mespoulhes <emilie.mespoulhes@lip6.fr> wrote:
Dear all,
For your information, you have been all invited to join the mailing list (
genai-for-africa@npafi.org). If you have not received the notification, please let me know. If you want to add someone to the mailing list, please contact me.
Regarding the shared folder, here is the link and password.
Another email will follow in order to schedule a call for end of August / early September.
Kind regards,
Émilie
On 23 Jul 2025, at 11:53, Serge Fdida <serge.fdida@sorbonne-universite.fr> wrote:
Dear all,
Thanks for your positive feedback regarding this possible response to the Africa Initiative III solicitation, although we cannot guaranty your participation at this stage as it will depend on the ability of each partner to contribute.
You will find attached the position document.
1) We target Smart agriculture as the main domain of application
2) We need to identify African needs, potential and gap analysis in this domain
3) We have to identify GenAI solutions developed in Europe
4) Three living labs will be used for our playground
5) We want also to have a training dimension
Deadline is october 2, thus very short.
African partners:
We’ll select only 3 living labs in Africa. Policy will not be first come first served but the best ones, properly argued. We have to involve one start-up per living lab as a partner (3 new partners to add). Please provide asap information about startup, living labs and engagement of local/regional stakeholders, with the objective to deploy GenAI solutions. The other 2 African countries could stay as a way to replicate the work in the future.
European partners:
@CNR/all: Identify EU GenAI solutions that have the potential to be used in the living labs. At this stage we need to be able to demonstrate that we have a good knowledge of the fields, tools and solutions.
@UTH/CLAN: you have a strong experience eon smart agriculture, you van help in identify the needs and solutions
@Fokus/INRIA: how would you like to contribute?
Emilie will send you a share folder where all information will be located as well as the exploder for the mailing list.
We know that the deadline is short and we are aware of the vacation the period ahead of us, therefore:
- let us know if you can’t fulfill your obligation
- send us information about what I mentioned above
- wed’ll start populating the proposal
- we’ll set up a call for end of august / early september.
Best Regards
-serge
Sorbonne Université
Laboratoire LIP6-CNRS
<HORIZON_CL4_2025_04_HUMAN_08_proposal_synopsis_v0_2.docx>
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