Africa Research Connect (ARC) is a platform designed to address critical challenges that have long hampered the continent’s research potential: resource scarcity, inequitable funding distribution, fragmented data, and limited visibility. The platform acts as a dynamic connector, linking researchers with potential collaborators, available funding opportunities, and relevant datasets, effectively breaking down information silos by acting as a forum to showcase African institutions, highlighting their unique strengths and facilitating strategic partnerships that can amplify their impact.
The platform offers multilingual access and is demonstrably improving the research ecosystem by dramatically enhancing the visibility of African research, fostering crucial regional and international collaborations across the continent and globally, streamlining access to vital information, and empowering data-driven decision-making.
The Research Readiness Assessment is a novel, comprehensive initiative designed to evaluate the capacity of African institutions to conduct high-quality, ethical, and impactful research. The initiative assesses institutions across four crucial dimensions: institutional capacity, human capital, research output and networks, and financial and grants management.
By leveraging the ARC platform, RRAT not only enables real-time data collection and bench-marking but also promotes peer learning, transparency, and coordinated capacity-building. This ensures that insights gained from the assessment translate into actionable strategies, informed policy-making, and stronger, interconnected research ecosystems.
The assessment provides a starting point for due diligence conversations- a baseline understanding of the institution’s capacity. So far, a total of 814 institutions, across 54 African countries, have completed the assessment.
The Initiative’s Good Financial Grant Practice (GFGP) program is transforming grant administration at universities and research institutions across Africa. We support African research institutions to strengthen their financial management capacities through the Good Financial Grant Practices (GFGP) certification process.
GFGP – the international standard for accountability and trust – helps institutions assess and enhance their capacities to better manage grants, mitigate audit risks, foster greater accountability, and improve their competitiveness for funding.
The process features a self-assessment by the institution, independent audit, and certification at Bronze, Silver, Gold or Platinum levels. So far, 150 institutions have been engaged in Ethiopia, Kenya and Nigeria, with five certified at the gold level and one at the platinum level
The Afrika Journals Platform was created to address the lack of representation of African Journals in major international databases; only 7% are currently indexed. This limited visibility hinders the global reach of African research and restricts African scholars’ participation in international academic discourse. The platform aims to centralize African journals, enhance their digital presence, and support their journey toward international indexing, ultimately increasing their discoverability and competitiveness.
Through the APHRC Virtual Learning Academy (soma.aphrc.org), we offer self-paced courses that extend capacity strengthening beyond geographical barriers. Our goal is to reach a wider audience by providing accessible, flexible, and high-quality courses that promote research evidence generation and uptake, advancing Africa’s self-sufficiency in research and development. Our courses are demand-driven and range from Gender Transformative Programming,Human Rights and African Human Rights Mechanisms, Global Early Adolescent Study Toolkit Training to Evidence Informed Decision Making (EIDM) offered in French and English. We have also integrated a Community of Practice Platform within the Academy to foster peer learning among course participants.
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