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1. JUAMI, the joint undertaking for an African materials institute: building materials science research collaborations and capabilities between continents

   https://doi.org/10.1107/S2056989023010915  

   Billinge, Simon_J L (February 2024, Acta Crystallographica Section E Crystallographic Communications)

   Zema, M (Ed.)

   JUAMI, the joint undertaking for an African materials institute, is a project to build collaborations and materials research capabilities between PhD researchers in Africa, the United States, and the world. Focusing on research-active universities in the East African countries of Kenya, Ethiopia, Tanzania and Uganda, the effort has run a series of schools focused on materials for sustainable energy and materials for sustainable development. These bring together early-career researchers from Africa, the US, and beyond, for two weeks in a close-knit environment. The program includes lectures on cutting-edge research from internationally renowned speakers, highly interactive tutorial lectures on the science behind the research, also from internationally known researchers, and hands-on practicals and team-building exercises that culminate in group proposals from self-formed student teams. The schools have benefited more than 300 early-career students and led to proposals that have received funding and have led to research collaborations and educational non-profits. JUAMI continues and has an ongoing community of alumni who share resources and expertise, and is open to like-minded people who want to join and develop contacts and collaborations internationally. 

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2. PlantGENE report on panel discussion: advancing plant biotechnology in Africa

   https://doi.org/10.1007/s11627-025-10514-8  

   Malzahn, Aimee_A; Songstad, Nicole; Tripathi, Leena; Okwuonu, Ihuoma; Sithole-Niang, Idah; Runo, Steven; Wagaba, Henry; Kouassi, Modeste; Kaeppler, Heidi; Gordon-Kamm, William; et al (March 2025, In Vitro Cellular & Developmental Biology - Plant)

   Abstract This report provides an overview of the content and data collected from the “Successes, Challenges, and Opportunities Plant Transformation Research in Africa” panel discussion. Organized by PlantGENE, this event brought together scientists and stakeholders across the globe to examine the complex challenges and emerging opportunities in plant transformation research in laboratories across Africa. The discussion, rooted in insights from a panel of six leading scientists, highlights critical issues including restrictive regulatory environments, prohibitive costs, and the inconsistent availability of essential research materials. Additionally, the pervasive “brain drain” phenomenon, where skilled researchers leave the continent for better opportunities, exacerbates the difficulties faced by African scientists. Despite these challenges, the report also identifies significant advancements, particularly in the growing recognition of African leadership within universities and national agricultural research systems (NARS). These institutions, supported by highly skilled faculty and motivated graduate students, are producing high-quality research that contributes to global scientific knowledge. The panelists emphasized the necessity of creating an environment that encourages African scientists to remain on the continent and address local challenges through innovative research. Strengthening intra-African networks and fostering collaborations with the global scientific community are proposed as essential strategies to achieve this. This report underscores the critical need for substantial investments from both global and African organizations, working with African governments, to support these efforts. Furthermore, it calls for science-based decision-making and fair regulatory frameworks to align with unique opportunities and risks associated with technological advancements in Africa. This paper details the observations of six panelists and analyzes the results of attendee surveys in order to document these challenges and opportunities while advocating for sustained investment and strategic partnerships to build a thriving bioeconomy across Africa. 

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3. Collaborative opportunity to leverage network infrastructure in the southern hemisphere between Africa, Brazil, and the U.S.

   Morgan, H.; Ibarra, J.; Bezerra, J.; Lopez, L. F.; Chergarova, V.; Cox, D. A.; Stanton, M.; Hazin, A.; Lotz, L.; Mammen, S. (October 2019, UbuntuNet Connect 2019)

   Linking South and North America via a South Atlantic high-performance Research & Education Network (REN) with the nations of Africa’s researchers, students, and knowledge sharing communities has become an increasingly strategic priority. Africa offers research and education communities with unique biological, environmental, geological, anthropological, and cultural resources. Research challenges in atmospheric and geosciences, materials sciences, tropical diseases, biology, astronomy, and other disciplines will benefit by enhancing the technological and social connections between the research and education communities of the U.S., Brazil / Latin America, and Africa. For many years, we have seen the dramatic benefits of high-performance networking in all areas of science and engineering. The Americas Africa Research and eduCation Lightpaths (AARCLight) project (NSF OAC-1638990) provided support for a grant to plan, design, and define a strategy for high capacity research and education network connectivity between the U.S. and West Africa. The study indicated a high level of enthusiasm to engage in collaborative research between the U.S., Brazil, and the African communities. There is collaborative interest in sharing network infrastructure resources in the US at AMPATH in Miami, in Fortaleza and Sao Paulo, Brazil where RedClara and ANSP connect at SouthernLight, and in Cape Town, South Africa. There is strong evidence of multiple ongoing domain science projects between the U.S., Brazil, and Africa that would benefit from a new South Atlantic link. The results of this planning grant successfully supported the need to light a 100G pathway using the South Atlantic Cable System (SACS) connecting to AmLight-ExP in Fortaleza, Brazil, and via the West African Cable System (WACS) cable to the Cape Town, South Africa open exchange point. Based on these findings, AmLight-ExP , a high-performance R&E network supported by a consortium of participants and funding from the NSF is the steward of the SACS 100G link. With collaborative support from UbuntuNet Alliance, RNP, SANReN, and others, AmLight is taking steps to make this first South Atlantic R&E network path available to connect all three continents. This critical infrastructure establishes a new South Atlantic route to integrate with AmLight-ExP, adding resiliency to the global R&E network fabric by adding a new path to Africa and Europe from the southern hemisphere. The SACS cable, shown on Figure 1 as a purple dashed line between Fortaleza, Brazil, and Luanda, Angola, is the first east - west subsea cable in the South Atlantic. We will leverage network infrastructure in the southern hemisphere that is available to the R&E community including spectrum on Monet committed to the AmLight-ExP linking Miami, Fortaleza and São Paulo; a 100G Ethernet link on SACS; TENET’s capacity on WACS; the R&E exchange point in Cape Town-ZAOXI operated by SANReN (South African National Research Network) and TENET connected to WACS and the Ubuntunet Alliance Network connecting East Africa; and the South America eXchange R&E exchange point (SAX) in Fortaleza, operated by RNP and connected via AmLight-ExP via Monet to São Paulo and Miami. The paper will present 1) the key partners in the AmLight-SACS collaboration, 2) the activation plan, 3) how the network will be instrumented for performance measurements, and to capture data for network analytics, and 4) science drivers that will benefit from the use of a South Atlantic network route between the U.S., South America and West Africa. 

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4. Presentation: Collaborating to leverage R&E network infrastructures between Africa, Brazil, and the U.S.

   Morgan, H.; Ibarra, J.; Bezerra, J.; Lopez, L. F.; Chergarova, V.; Cox, D. A.; Stanton, M.; Hazin, A.; Lotz, L.; Mammen, S. (October 2019, UbuntuNet Connect 2019)

   Linking South and North America via a South Atlantic high-performance Research & Education Network (REN) with the nations of Africa’s researchers, students, and knowledge sharing communities has become an increasingly strategic priority. Africa offers research and education communities with unique biological, environmental, geological, anthropological, and cultural resources. Research challenges in atmospheric and geosciences, materials sciences, tropical diseases, biology, astronomy, and other disciplines will benefit by enhancing the technological and social connections between the research and education communities of the U.S., Brazil / Latin America, and Africa. For many years, we have seen the dramatic benefits of high-performance networking in all areas of science and engineering. The Americas Africa Research and eduCation Lightpaths (AARCLight) project (NSF OAC-1638990) provided support for a grant to plan, design, and define a strategy for high capacity research and education network connectivity between the U.S. and West Africa. The study indicated a high level of enthusiasm to engage in collaborative research between the U.S., Brazil, and the African communities. There is collaborative interest in sharing network infrastructure resources in the US at AMPATH in Miami, in Fortaleza and Sao Paulo, Brazil where RedClara and ANSP connect at SouthernLight, and in Cape Town, South Africa. There is strong evidence of multiple ongoing domain science projects between the U.S., Brazil, and Africa that would benefit from a new South Atlantic link. The results of this planning grant successfully supported the need to light a 100G pathway using the South Atlantic Cable System (SACS) connecting to AmLight-ExP in Fortaleza, Brazil, and via the West African Cable System (WACS) cable to the Cape Town, South Africa open exchange point. Based on these findings, AmLight-ExP , a high-performance R&E network supported by a consortium of participants and funding from the NSF is the steward of the SACS 100G link. With collaborative support from UbuntuNet Alliance, RNP, SANReN, and others, AmLight is taking steps to make this first South Atlantic R&E network path available to connect all three continents. This critical infrastructure establishes a new South Atlantic route to integrate with AmLight-ExP, adding resiliency to the global R&E network fabric by adding a new path to Africa and Europe from the southern hemisphere. The SACS cable, shown on Figure 1 as a purple dashed line between Fortaleza, Brazil, and Luanda, Angola, is the first east - west subsea cable in the South Atlantic. We will leverage network infrastructure in the southern hemisphere that is available to the R&E community including spectrum on Monet committed to the AmLight-ExP linking Miami, Fortaleza, and São Paulo; a 100G Ethernet link on SACS; TENET’s capacity on WACS; the R&E exchange point in Cape Town-ZAOXI operated by SANReN (South African National Research Network) and TENET connected to WACS and the Ubuntunet Alliance Network connecting East Africa; and the South America eXchange R&E exchange point (SAX) in Fortaleza, operated by RNP and connected via AmLight-ExP via Monet to São Paulo and Miami. The paper will present 1) the key partners in the AmLight-SACS collaboration, 2) the activation plan, 3) how the network will be instrumented for performance measurements, and to capture data for network analytics, and 4) science drivers that will benefit from the use of a South Atlantic network route between the U.S., South America, and West Africa. 

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5. Building an Infrastructure for Computer Science Education Research and Practice at Scale

   https://doi.org/10.1145/3386527.3405936  

   Brusilovsky, Peter; Koedinger, Ken; Joyner, David A.; Price, Thomas W. (August 2020, Proceedings of the Seventh ACM Conference on Learning at Scale)

   The goal of this workshop is to bring together the existing community of researchers working on Infrastructure Design for Data-Intensive Research in Computer Science Education and a community of Learning at Scale researchers focused on Computer Science Education. While both communities share many similar goals and could greatly benefit from each other work, the interaction between the communities is small. We hope that the proposed workshop will be instrumental in bringing together like-minded researchers from different communities, establishing collaboration, and expanding the scope of infrastructure project to address critical scaling issues. 

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