Joint Africa-Europe research to boost conservation biology

AFRICA-EUROPE

As global warming accelerates, Africa’s biodiversity faces growing threats from habitat loss, shifting rainfall patterns and rising temperatures.

Now, Africa’s latest collaboration with Europe in the two continents’ expanding network of Clusters of Research Excellence (CoREs) is taking aim at an urgent quest – safeguarding biodiversity while improving human well-being.

Launched last week by the African Research Universities Alliance (ARUA) and The Guild of European Research-Intensive Universities, the CoRE in Integrative Conservation Biology Research and Training seeks to balance ecosystem protection with community livelihoods, using advanced digital tools to strengthen Africa’s resilience amid global warming.

The cluster will deliver new undergraduate and postgraduate programmes built around data-driven approaches to ecosystem science, including remote sensing, ecological modelling, R-programming (the open-source language widely used for statistical and ecological data analysis), and biodiversity digital twins (virtual, data-driven replicas of real ecosystems that allow scientists to simulate environmental change).

According to the two organisations, the aim is to build regional expertise and bridge the divide between conservation science and social realities on the ground.

“Aligning biodiversity conservation with socioeconomic needs is essential for sustainable solutions amid the escalating climate crisis,” their joint news release reads.

In it, ARUA Secretary-General Professor John Gyapong says: “This new CoRE reaffirms our commitment to equitable partnerships and advancing interdisciplinary science to protect Africa’s biodiversity amid climate challenges.”

Jan Palmowski, the secretary-general of The Guild, agrees: “Researchers across continents must pool their expertise to ensure outcomes that protect ecosystems and strengthen local economies so that communities may prosper long term.”

Nuts and bolts of new cluster

The new CoRE brings together 16 organisations across 12 countries, including ARUA and Guild universities, as well as partners from industry and other research institutions. Its initial focus will be the Eastern Afromontane region, which stretches from Ethiopia to northern Mozambique and is home to some of the world’s most threatened species.

By coupling ecological and social science, the cluster intends training a new generation of African conservation scientists capable of using digital technologies to monitor species, assess ecosystem health, and support evidence-based decision-making.

Its co-leads span leading institutions on both continents: Addis Ababa University (Dr Anagaw Atickem), and the universities of Nairobi (Professor Nicholas Oguge), Oslo (Professors Charlotte Sletten Bjorå, Nils Christian Stenseth and Dr Desalegn Chala), and Bern (Professors Chinwe Ifejika Speranza and Margaret Owuor).

ARUA and The Guild maintain that a multidisciplinary approach will ensure that “conservation strategies are both scientifically rigorous [and] socially relevant, striking a balance between ecosystems and human needs”.

From research networks to global partnerships

The Integrative Conservation Biology cluster is the 22nd Africa-Europe CoRE to be established since the initiative began in June 2023. Together, these structures have become a new model of cross-continental cooperation – multidisciplinary, equitable and long-term (each have a 10-year plan) – guided by the AU-EU Innovation Agenda and supported through the European Union’s Global Gateway strategy and the African Union’s Agenda 2063.

The CoREs are grouped under four AU-EU priority research areas: public health, the green transition, innovation and technology, and capacities for science. The latest addition falls under the green-transition theme.

Each cluster is co-led by African and European universities, connecting researchers from more than 120 institutions in 44 countries – an explicit move away from the transactional funding relationships of the past.

ARUA and The Guild, each comprised of 23 top research universities, say they are “striving for equitable partnerships in an unequal world” – a founding principle that continues to define the CoRE initiative.

“The CoRE initiative is founded on the ambition of creating equitable research partnerships, pooling expertise across continents, and developing a research agenda that is societally driven, not donor-led,” Palmowski told University World News in 2023.

Equity and shared purpose

The launch of the new cluster follows the first Africa-Europe CoRE conference, held at Stellenbosch University in 2024, where more than 200 researchers from both continents took stock of the initiative.

At the event, the AU’s director of strategic planning and delivery, Botho Kebabonye Bayendi, reminded participants that equality also demands self-reliance. Her message echoed ARUA’s broader vision of building Africa’s scientific leadership, supported rather than steered by external partners.

Delivering the ARUA public lecture earlier last year, Professor Funmi Olonisakin, a vice-president of King’s College London, urged the organisation to pursue “knowledge with purpose” – research that tackles real-world problems and serves communities.

She argued that equitable partnerships must be grounded in social justice and intentionality, ensuring that the knowledge generated through the CoREs translates into tangible benefits for Africa’s population.

Digital tools for living landscapes

Beyond traditional biodiversity research, the new CoRE’s focus on biodiversity digital twins and ecological modelling marks a shift toward digital conservation – an emerging field where artificial intelligence, remote sensing and big data converge to monitor and predict environmental change.

Such technologies could transform how African nations assess the impact of climate change, land use and development projects on biodiversity. They also promise to make local conservation efforts more transparent and accountable.

At the same time, ARUA and The Guild emphasise that technology must remain a means to an end – to understand and strengthen relationships between people and nature, rather than replace them.

Science diplomacy and the green transition

The cluster’s launch reinforces the green-transition priority of AU-EU cooperation, which emphasises climate adaptation, sustainable food systems and ecosystem resilience as shared priorities.

It joins other Africa-Europe CoREs addressing nature-based solutions for climate change adaptation and mitigation, renewable energy, sustainable water and land resource management for human well-being, and water resources management for a sustainable and just future – collectively representing a shift towards collaborative, problem-solving science that advances both continents’ development goals.

At the Stellenbosch conference, South Africa’s Deputy Director-General for International Cooperation and Resources, Daan du Toit, described the CoRE initiative as “an important science-diplomacy success because it responds to global challenges with new instruments for cooperation, bringing people, countries and continents together”.

Partnership as a living system

For ARUA, the CoRE network has become central to its strategy of building continental research leadership. Said Gyapong in Stellenbosch: “We came together to ensure that we increase the research we do, that it is relevant and that it impacts society.”

By integrating conservation science with community livelihoods and digital innovation, the new cluster extends that mission. It seeks, not only to protect Africa’s biodiversity, but to do so in ways that empower the continent’s scientists, strengthen academic ecosystems and enhance Africa’s voice in global environmental governance.

If successful, it could offer a new blueprint for collaboration – one that values ecosystems and economies equally, and treats the partnership between Africa and Europe as a living system in itself.