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What Is the African Research Ecosystem?
The African research ecosystem refers to the interconnected network of researchers, universities, research institutions, academic journals, publishers, funding organisations, research communities, and other stakeholders involved in producing, publishing, sharing, and discovering research across Africa. It includes the people, organisations, systems, and relationships that support the development and movement of knowledge across the continent.
The ecosystem extends across different countries, regions, disciplines, and research communities, connecting local research activity with broader African and international scholarly networks.
How Does the African Research Ecosystem Work?
The African research ecosystem operates through interactions between the people and organisations involved in research.
Researchers produce knowledge
Researchers develop questions, conduct studies, analyse evidence, and produce findings across a wide range of disciplines and research areas.
Universities and research institutions support research
Universities, research centres, laboratories, and other institutions provide environments, expertise, infrastructure, and academic communities that support research activity.
Journals and publishers communicate research
Academic journals, publishers, conference proceedings, and other scholarly channels provide ways for researchers to communicate findings and contribute to academic discussions.
Funding supports research activity
Research may be supported through universities, governments, foundations, international organisations, private organisations, and other funding sources.
Research communities connect scholars
Researchers working on related questions can form academic communities and networks that facilitate collaboration, knowledge exchange, and the development of new research.
Discovery systems connect research
Indexes, databases, repositories, search systems, and other discovery tools help users find research, researchers, journals, and institutions within the wider ecosystem.
What Makes Up the African Research Ecosystem?
The African research ecosystem includes multiple interconnected components.
Researchers
Researchers are central to the ecosystem because they generate questions, conduct studies, produce findings, and contribute to scholarly knowledge.
Universities and Research Institutions
Academic and research institutions provide infrastructure, programmes, expertise, and communities that support research and training.
Academic Journals
Journals provide an important channel for publishing and communicating research findings.
Publishers
Academic publishers support the production, distribution, and communication of scholarly publications.
Research Funders
Funding organisations provide financial resources that can support research projects, programmes, infrastructure, and researchers.
Research Networks
Research networks connect researchers and institutions around shared disciplines, topics, geographic areas, or research interests.
Research Infrastructure
Research infrastructure includes the physical facilities, equipment, digital systems, data resources, laboratories, repositories, and other resources that support research.
Discovery and Indexing Systems
Indexes, databases, repositories, and other discovery systems help organise and make scholarly information easier to find and explore.
Why Is the African Research Ecosystem Important?
A strong research ecosystem allows different parts of the scholarly community to interact and support the production and use of knowledge.
Supports knowledge production
Researchers and institutions generate new evidence, findings, methods, and ideas across different fields.
Encourages collaboration
Connections between researchers, institutions, and research communities can create opportunities for collaborative research across disciplines and countries.
Strengthens research communication
Journals, publishers, conferences, repositories, and other channels allow research findings to move between researchers and wider audiences.
Supports research capacity
Universities, research institutions, funding organisations, and research networks contribute to developing researchers, skills, infrastructure, and research capabilities.
Improves research discovery
When research information is organised and connected, users can more easily identify relevant publications, researchers, institutions, topics, and disciplines.
African Research Ecosystem Across the Continent
The African research ecosystem extends across North, West, Central, East, and Southern Africa.
Each region contains different research institutions, academic communities, journals, research priorities, and publishing environments.
Research activity can also cross regional and national boundaries. Researchers and institutions may collaborate across several African countries or work with international partners on shared research questions.
This creates a research landscape that is both geographically diverse and increasingly interconnected.
Challenges in the African Research Ecosystem
The African research ecosystem includes many established research communities and institutions, but users may still encounter challenges when trying to navigate research across the continent.
These can include:
- Research information distributed across different platforms
- Difficulty discovering relevant publications across multiple sources
- Limited connections between information about researchers, institutions, journals, and topics
- Differences in publishing and research environments between countries
- Fragmented research information across disciplines and regions
- Difficulty identifying related research across geographic boundaries
Improving how research information is organised and discovered can help users navigate this complexity more effectively.
African Research Ecosystem and Research Discovery
Research discovery is an important part of the wider research ecosystem.
A researcher may begin with a specific question but need to explore several connected parts of the ecosystem to fully understand the available scholarship.
For example:
Research topic → Publications → Researchers → Institutions → Journals → Related research
Connecting these elements can help researchers identify existing knowledge, discover relevant experts, find institutions working on similar questions, and explore related areas of scholarship.
A structured research index can provide one pathway for creating these connections.
African Research Ecosystem at Afropus
Afropus is building an index focused on making African research discoverable.
Its framework brings together four core areas:
- Journals
- Researchers
- Institutions
- Ideas
It also provides a framework for exploring topics and disciplines across African scholarship.
Afropus describes its geographic scope in terms of five regions and 55 jurisdictions, with regional balance as a goal. Its evaluation framework includes published criteria, integrity gates, transparency, and appeals.
By connecting journals, researchers, institutions, ideas, topics, and disciplines, Afropus is designed to provide a clearer way of navigating the relationships that make up the African research ecosystem.
Related Terms
- African Research
- African Academic Research
- African Scholarship
- African Research Discovery
- African Academic Index
- African Research Visibility
- Research Ecosystem
- Research Network
- Research Institution
- Research Discoverability
FAQs
What is the African research ecosystem?
The African research ecosystem is the interconnected network of researchers, institutions, journals, publishers, funders, research communities, infrastructure, and discovery systems involved in producing and sharing research across Africa.
Who is part of the African research ecosystem?
Researchers, universities, research centres, academic journals, publishers, funding organisations, research networks, governments, and other organisations involved in research can form part of the ecosystem.
Why is the African research ecosystem important?
It supports knowledge production, research collaboration, scholarly communication, research capacity, and the discovery and use of research across the continent.
What are the main components of the African research ecosystem?
Key components include researchers, research institutions, universities, journals, publishers, funders, research networks, research infrastructure, and research discovery systems.
How does research discovery fit into the African research ecosystem?
Research discovery connects users with the publications, researchers, institutions, journals, topics, and ideas that make up the wider research ecosystem.
How does Afropus relate to the African research ecosystem?
Afropus is developing an index that connects journals, researchers, institutions, ideas, topics, and disciplines to make African research more discoverable and provide a clearer way to explore the continent’s research ecosystem.