Under the aegis of the European Commission (DG INFSO, International Relations Unit), the EuroAfrica-ICT consortium (primarily Sigma Orionis and Makerere University), with the support of the University of Khartoum, successfully organised the 15th Regional EuroAfrica-ICT FP7 Awareness Workshop. Over 70 delegates attended the workshop, among them Sudanese and European authorities and key ICT stakeholders from Europe, Sudan (North and South), Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania and Tunisia. The main objective of this Workshop was to raise awareness on FP7/ICT and to promote the development of Euro-African collaborative projects on ICT research between sub-Saharan African and European research institutes.
Sahar Alamin, UN Radio Station, Republic of Sudan, introduced the first day of the workshop, briefly presenting the history of the University of Khartoum and giving an overview of the EuroAfrica-ICT FP7 Awareness Workshops. Then Venansius Baryamureeba, Vice Chancellor of the Makerere University, took over as chair for the opening session. In his remarks, he acknowledged the importance of ICTs as resources for knowledge creation, information storage and distance learning.

On behalf of the organising team at the University of Khartoum, El Siddig Ahmed El Mustafa El Sheikh, Vice Chancellor of the University of Khartoum, welcomed all participants to Sudan.

Speaking in the opening session, Heiberg Claus, Councellor, Delegation of the European Union to Sudan, stressed that the EU devoted resources to the development of ICTs for its citizens and for the rest of the world, in line with the objectives of the European Digital Agenda that aims at maximizing the social and economic potential of ICTs, and most notably the Internet, a vital medium of economic and societal activity for doing business, working, playing and communicating freely.

The opening speeches concluded with the Guest of Honour, Her Excellency Teresa Siricio Iro, State Minister of ICT, Republic of Sudan, who insisted on the importance of ICT for the economic and social development of Sudan. The main objective of the country is to provide reliable and affordable ICT services to all Sudanese citizens towards achieving information and knowledge based society, she said. In demonstrating how the government is planning to achieve this, she mentioned that Sudan is already connected to Egypt and Ethiopia through a 20,000 km optical fibre cable, with ongoing branches towards Eritrea and Chad. She then officially opened the 15th Regional EuroAfrica-ICT FP7 Awareness Workshop.

The presentations began with a keynote address by Izzeldin Kamil Amin, National Telecommunication Corporation (NTC) & CITMC Representative, addressing the programmes and projects of regional and continental scope for the development of the ICT sector in Africa. Speakers then focused on the opportunities and challenges resulting from S&T/ICT Research in North and East Africa: Bazara Barry (University of Khartoum), Leila Azouz Saidane (National School of Sciences and Informatics, Tunisia), and Eric Mwangi (Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Technology, Kenya).

In the following session the European Union Framework Programme 7 for Research & Development (FP7), and the EuroAfrica-ICT.org initiative were presented by Karine Valin (Sigma Orionis) and Idris A. Rai (Makerere University), respectively. In both presentations they particularly stressed the importance of thinking about ICT collaborative research projects at the Euro-African level.

The next session focused on Euro-African S&T/ICT collaborative projects. Case studies were selected from Sudan (presented by Hisham Abushama, University of Khartoum) and Uganda (presented by Jude Lubega, Makerere University).

The following session, chaired by the Vice Chancellor of Makerere University, concerned experiences and lessons learned participating in FP7/ICT collaborative projects. Presenters during the session included Segopotso Moshapo (SAP/Meraka Unit for Technology Development, South Africa), Walid Barhoumi (Superior School of Technology and Computing, Tunisia), and Idris A. Rai (Makerere University).

In the final session, Idris A. Rai introduced the objectives of the ‘birds-of-a-feather’ sessions to participants, who were then divided into four groups to discuss four ICT research themes (e-Learning, e-Health, e-Governance and Mobile applications) during break-out sessions taking place on the second day. The first day was crowned with a cultural evening where the delegates were regaled by a myriad of traditional dances and performances.
During the second day of the workshop, participants split themselves into the four thematic groups identified the previous day. They shared their insights and perspectives regarding ICT research priorities in each area, expressing their views on challenges, priorities and recommendations related to future EU-African collaboration. The rapporteurs of the four sessions presented the results of each discussion during a wrap-up session, followed by a question/answer session that allowed participants attending other thematic groups to express themselves and to eventually make links with the concerns of their own working group. All in all, the participants made a significant effort to develop ideas for credible Euro-African ICT research projects. The challenge now is to develop and refine further these emerging projects ideas.

In the afternoon, workshop participants visited the following ICT laboratories:

1. The Data Centre of the University of Khartoum, which is managed by the Administration of Information Technology and Networks, located at the central campus of the university. This centre provides ICT services to students, academic and management staff and researchers in all campuses of the university. It contains servers, routers, firewalls and other network facilities that provide e-services and Internet 24×7 to the university community, thanks to a qualified network of engineers, software developers and administrative staff.

2. The Network Operation Centres (NOC) of the Sudanese Universities Information Network, at the Data Centre of the University of Khartoum. A NOC consists of one or more locations from which control is exercised over a computer network. The NOCs of the Sudanese Universities Information Network (SUIN) are hosted and technically managed at the University of Khartoum and at the Sudan University of Science and Technology. The SUIN is the National Research and Education Network in Sudan, whose main objective is to collectively secure broadband connectivity between the Sudanese research and educational institutions, with other NRENs in the region and the rest of the World. An additional objective is to increase sharing of knowledge and collaboration for research, education and development activities.

3. An exhibition of innovative ICT research projects of Sudanese students and graduates at the Telecom Tower, set up on the second floor of the Telecom Tower by the University of Khartoum and the Sudan University of Science and Technology. The exhibition consisted of 10 projects from both electronics and communication engineering and from IT and computer science, implemented using both hardware and software tools. Projects included a stereo vision robotic arm, a mobile backup system, secure SMS in mobile banking and a multi-touch screen.

The second day of the workshop concluded with a Nile cruise, offered by the Ministry of Communication and IT of Sudan, and a dinner at the Guest House of the University of Khartoum, which was the occasion to further strengthen the links between participants and to reassert the intention of both Europeans and Africans to work together in the near future.