The African Initiative for Planetary and Space Science is glad to announce the submission of the project “Astronomy and Astrophysics Arising Across Africa (5A)” to the Research and Innovation Staff Exchange (RISE) Call: H2020-MSCA-RISE-2020.

This project is led by Eric Lagadec and Mamadou Ndiaye, two members of the AFIPS committees from the Côte d’Azur Observatory in France. AFIPS, launched in 2017, had the ambition to contribute to the building of a community of researchers in planetary and space science in Africa, and this project is clearly making a decisive step forward: the project was elaborated and improved via weekly virtual meeting involving researchers from Belgium, Burkina Faso, Egypt, Ethiopia, France, Italy, Morocco, Senegal, South Africa and Spain.

Its success would allow:

– the attribution of visiting positions for researchers belonging to institutions from the participating African and European countries (500 months allocated in total).

– the organization of 7 workshops across Africa and the Canary Islands.

– The support to existing and in-progress African Astronomical observatories and network of observatories between Africa and Europe.

– Research activities in the wide areas of Astronomy and space sciences, including planetary sciences, stellar physics, extragalactic science.

– The creation of new dark sky reserves in Africa, based on the experience of Morocco and France in this domain.

Contacts:
Project leaders
Eric Lagadec (eric.lagadec@oca.eu), Mamadou Ndiaye (mamadou.ndiaye@oca.eu)
Work package leaders
Planetary Sciences: David Baratoux (david.baratoux@ird.fr), Salma Sylla (salma.sylla@ucad.edu.sn)
Stellar and Solar Physics: Katrien Kolenberg (katrien.kolenberg@kuleuven.be), Shazrene Mohamed (shazrene@saao.ac.za)
Galactic and Extragalactic Science: Mirjana Pović (mpovic@iaa.es), Rubén García-Benito (rgb@iaa.es)
Instrumentation and Site Testing: Mamadou N’Diaye (mamadou.ndiaye@oca.eu), Zouhair Benkhaldoun (zouhair@uca.ac.ma)
Inclusion in Astronomy: Paola Marziani (paola.marziani@inaf.it), Somaya Mohamed Saad (saadmhsaad@gmail.com)
Outreach, dissemination and communication: Eric Lagadec (eric.lagadec@oca.eu), Zacharie Kam (szachkam@gmail.com)

Best wishes of success to this project !