JRC is excited to introduce the Clean Energy Access Prioritiser (CEAP), a decision support tool now available for the entire African continent. CEAP is designed to guide decision-making for clean energy interventions and investments by identifying the most feasible areas for projects. This web-based platform integrates environmental, climate-related, and socio-economic factors, allowing stakeholders to prioritize areas based on their specific needs and goals. By combining 25 key variables and using a 5 km grid, CEAP helps pinpoint areas with the greatest potential for clean energy projects and those where challenges may be more significant. The CEAP tool aims at enabling policymakers and community leaders to make more informed decisions, targeting their efforts and resources where they are needed most. This can lead to clean energy reaching more people, faster and more sustainably. We invite you to explore CEAP and learn more about its capabilities. The tool is accessible here, and a detailed overview of its development is available in an open-access, peer-reviewed paper.

The UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) and the Government of Uganda organized the 2025 Africa Regional Forum on Sustainable Development- the annual intergovernmental forum - in collaboration with the African Union Commission (AUC), the African Development Bank (AfDB), and the UN system organizations.

The Africa Higher Education Centers of Excellence (ACE) Program marks a decade of impactful contributions to higher education, research, and innovation across Africa. Since its inception in 2014, the program has played a pivotal role in enhancing the quality, relevance, and accessibility of postgraduate education and research in the priority areas of Agriculture, Environment, Education and Applied Sciences, Health, and STEM.

Driving job creation and economic growth through sustainable and inclusive science, technology and innovation solutions for the 2030 Agenda and Agenda 2063.

The first edition of the ArcX Programme Annual Forum, scheduled for September 2025 in Nairobi, Kenya, will gather key stakeholders to promote sustainable development through regional cooperation. This event will bring together representatives from the European Commission, the African Union, Regional Centres of Excellence (RCoEs), research institutions, private sector, and civil society for knowledge exchange and collaboration. The Forum will discuss best practices, policy alignment, and innovative sustainability approaches, aiding Africa’s green transition. Acknowledging Africa’s complex environmental and socio-economic challenges, the ArcX Programme highlights the key role of RCoEs in connecting policy and research. The Forum will feature panel discussions, workshops, and networking sessions to explore solutions to Science, Technology, and Innovation (STI) challenges, emphasizing impact-driven research and policy integration.

JRC is pleased to announce that the Africa Knowledge Platform (AKP) is now open for contributions from RCoE partners. With the two new modules - a spatial upload and a service API module - you can easily upload and share your spatial and tabular data with the ArcX programme community. The user-friendly interface makes it simple for you to autonomously share your information, enhancing collaboration and contributing to the growth of our community's knowledge base. By sharing your data, you'll not only be supporting the community but also gaining greater visibility for your work and contributing to a more comprehensive understanding of our shared goals. Ready to get started? Contact the AKP team at jrc-africa@ec.europa.eu for more information on how to register and use your account.

The Ocean is our planet’s largest ecosystem. It is essential for life and livelihoods. It provides food, medicine, is a source of recreation, it shapes our cultures and identities. It secures trade routes. It also absorbs CO2 and is central to our global response to climate change. Protecting it means taking care of the global health of our planet and our future. And this is vital for Europe, Africa and everyone! The Ocean is however faced with a multitude of threats (e.g. marine pollution, overfishing, unsustainable shipping, etc.). It also remains largely unknown. This is where this new project - Ocean Prediction Enhancement in Regions of Africa (OPERA) - comes in.

A newly released discussion paper, supported by FARA, RUFORUM, and the Joint Research Centre (JRC), reinforces the ArcX programme’s commitment to promoting sustainable agriculture and food and nutrition security across the continent. Developed in collaboration with the Regional Multi-actor Research Networks (RMRNs), the paper investigates how agroecological practices can enhance food systems and well-being in Africa. Drawing on a series of expert webinars and an extensive desk review, the paper highlights both the proven benefits and persistent challenges of agroecology. It also identifies critical knowledge gaps to guide future research and policymaking. 📘 Read the paper: How can agroecology contribute to improving food security in Africa?

All three Regional Multiactor Research Networks in Africa on Agroecology were kicked off in February and March. Cick on each, for more information: RAENS, Southern Africa RADiUS, West Africa RMRN in East Africa

From March 11-13, 2025, the DESIRA-Lift conference, in Brussels gathered African and European partners to explore how research and innovation can drive large-scale transformation in agrifood systems. Under the banner “Moving Together: Enhancing Agroecology Research in Africa”, stakeholders like RUFORUM, FARA, and regional agroecology networks shared updates on collaborative efforts to identify key challenges and co-develop solutions across East, West, and Southern Africa. With EU support and scientific backing from the JRC, these networks—Regional Multi-Actor Research Networks (RMRNs)—are working to embed agroecology in university curricula, align efforts across regions, and promote joint advocacy and training. The closed-door session marked the first formal gathering of these RMRNs, fostering strategic alignment and paving the way for stronger synergy in data sharing, monitoring, and policy engagement.

From February 17th to 21st, a technical meeting was held at the JRC premises in Ispra as part of the NaturAfrica programme, an EU International Partnerships (INTPA) initiative that supports biodiversity conservation in Africa. The meeting brought together a delegation from the Central African Forest Observatory (OFAC) and B4Life to exchange ideas and discuss the programme's development. The representatives of the Biodiversity component of the ArcX programme (JRC.D.6) led the discussions, with interventions from other JRC programmes and projects representatives.

This is the second issue of the Africa Regional Centre of Excellence (ArcX) programme newsletter.

We are thrilled to share our newly published 2024 ECVAM Status Report!
The report highlights our progress in contributing to wider EU efforts to reduce and ultimately eliminate the use of animals in testing and research.
Some key takeaways:
✅ Biotechnology boom: Unprecedented growth in the biotech sector is driving innovation and transforming many domains including biomedical research, development of medicines and in vitro testing.
✅ Standards for in vitro biotech innovation: ECVAM’s work has been instrumental in driving standardisation efforts in the in vitro biotech sector, including contributing to a standardisation roadmap produced by the CEN-CENELEC Focus Group on Organ on Chip.
✅ Better protection of workers and consumers from mutagenic chemicals: ECVAM is leading an informal working group at the UN updating GHS classification criteria to improve the identification of mutagenic chemicals and make better use of non-animal hazard data.
✅ Roadmap to phase out animal testing: We are actively supporting the preparation of the Commission’s roadmap to accelerate the replacement of animal testing in chemical safety assessments.
Learn more by diving into the full report!

Use of alternatives to animal testing for Environmental Safety Assessment (ESA): Report from the 2023 EPAA partners’ forum

IARC Workshop on the Key Characteristics of Carcinogens

Response to Letter to Editors submitted by PE Rasmussen, P Huntsman, TM Singer, MN Jacobs, and CC Trevithick-Sutton (Aug 2024)

International STakeholder NETwork (ISTNET) Workshop for creating a developmental and reproductive toxicity (DART) testing roadmap for regulatory purposes

An overview of immune safety avatar: mimicking the effects of immunomodulatory therapies on the immune system

Bridging imaging-based in vitro methods from biomedical research to regulatory toxicology

The OECD Test Guidelines Programme has released a publication detailing methods for testing chemicals for thyroid hormone disruption. Since 2014, member countries and research centres have focused on developing in vitro assays for this complex area. The document includes OECD consensus reports on the validation status of 11 in vitro methods, based on EU-NETVAL activities from 2017 to 2022.