The Mattei Plan, a pilot project promoted by Italy in 2023 to improve cooperation and relationships between Italy and Africa, is a unique opportunity to strengthen educational collaboration and scientific diplomacy with the African countries selected by the Presidency of the Council of Ministers.
The academic relationships between Italy and Africa have roots in the long history of exchanges confirmed by numbers. As Giovanna Iannantuoni, President of the Conference of Italian University Rectors (CRUI) reminded, several Italian universities have already started 773 academic agreements and 267 projects within the Plan 7 strategic areas (Health, Education and Training, Agriculture, Water, Energy, Infrastructure, Culture) with the countries involved in the project. Moreover, 13,289 students from Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, Côte d’Ivoire, Mozambique, Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia and Kenya are attending courses in Italy.
“There are many fields of knowledge in which Italian and African universities could improve collaborations: from renewable energy to artificial intelligence, from biotechnology to medicine, from agriculture to water management, just to mention a few. Italian universities wish to share their know-how in research, knowledge transfer and training with African universities, with the aim of developing relationships of egalitarian collaboration and common growth,” Iannantuoni said during the hearing at the Senate Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee.
Therefore, the CRUI has proposed the following:
- The activation of joint doctoral programs, taking advantage of university networks within the PNRR (Centres, Extended Partnerships, Innovation Ecosystems, Innovation Infrastructures). Ph.D. programmes offer students the opportunity to spend a year at Italian universities;
- The implementation, within life-long learning, of adult training courses on capacity building, aimed mainly at managers and executive officers from the ruling classes.
