With a budget of €11 million, the calls for proposals will be launched in January and will offer research funding in areas such as agriculture, health, climate change and energy, grouped under three headings: "Renewable Energy", "Interfacing Challenges" and "Idea driven research". This initiative has been developed within the framework of the €2 million, three-year "ERA-Net for Africa" (ERAfrica) project.

European and African countries will jointly fund collaborative research projects. The calls will offer research funding in areas such as agriculture, health, climate change and energy, grouped under three headings: "Renewable Energy", "Interfacing Challenges" and "Idea driven research". These calls have been developed within the framework of the €2 million, three-year "ERA-Net for Africa" (ERAfrica) project. The European Commission also announced on 5 November that it will propose further €1 billion for Africa clinical trials partnership.

The project calls are expected to be published in mid-January 2013 with a deadline for application of around mid-April 2013. Signing of the contracts is foreseen from December 2013 to May 2014. The new agreement concerns ministries and public institutions from 15 countries: Austria, Belgium, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Egypt, Finland, France, Germany, Kenya, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, South Africa, Switzerland and Turkey. Together they have agreed to fund research for at least €11 million, with the five African states contributing nearly €4 million.

ERAfrica was set up to facilitate networking of African and European funders of research and innovation and to work towards joint project calls. It is funded from the EU's seventh framework programme for research and technological development (FP7). In addition to ERAfrica, FP7 has provided nearly €137 million in funding for over 900 African participations in EU research projects or initiatives.