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Science for Africa Foundation is already hiring former African Academy of Sciences staff
International donors who pulled money from the African Academy of Sciences last year amid a governance row are in talks with a new science foundation for Africa to manage some of their research funding.
Although those involved in discussions around the Science for Africa Foundation are being cagey with details, the nascent body based in Nairobi, Kenya, is already hiring former AAS staff.
The foundation is in talks with biomedical research charity the Wellcome Trust and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, two of the funders that withdrew grants from the AAS’ research management arm in July last year.
“We’re having a constructive discussion with the Science for Africa Foundation about how Wellcome can continue to fulfil our commitment to supporting African science,” said a spokesperson for the London-based charity.
Millions in play
AAS’ grant management arm, the Alliance for Accelerating Excellence in Science in Africa (AESA), was created in 2015 as a partnership between the academy, the African Union Development Agency and global funding partners including Wellcome and Gates.
AESA’s purpose was to ‘shift the centre of gravity’ of African research funding decision-making from Seattle, London and other global donor hubs to the continent itself. It came to manage hundreds of millions of dollars worth of grants.
However, Wellcome, Gates and the United Kingdom Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) pulled their grants from the platform at the end of July last year, citing concerns about the governance of the AAS. The academy’s executive council strongly rejected the funders’ allegations.
The academy made nearly half of its secretariat staff redundant after the funding was pulled. Most were re-hired by consultancy firm PwC Kenya, tasked by Wellcome to manage its AESA grants while it looked for a more permanent solution.
Research Professional News understands many of them now work with the Science for Africa Foundation, which is being established and operationalised by PwC according to a job advert for a human resources manager to serve the foundation.
Transition period
Neither Wellcome nor the Gates Foundation would comment on which research programmes the new foundation might handle, saying that discussions were ongoing.
A Gates Foundation spokesperson said: “We continue to have productive conversations with all stakeholders involved in this transition, including the Science for Africa Foundation, and our focus remains on working alongside the other funders to ensure the important work of the programmes administered under AESA moves forward without further disruption.”
Catherine Ngila, AAS acting executive director, told Research Professional News that she had heard about the Science For Africa Foundation, but that the foundation’s staff who used to work at the AAS had not yet officially approached her organisation for a partnership.
She wrote in an email that the Gates Foundation “still has some grants in the AAS” and that the academy “still has some engagement with FCDO to a small extent” through a climate change programme.
“So far, we only engage with PwC on Wellcome Trust grantees and I am told [the Science for Africa Foundation] is working closely with PwC to aid in transitioning,” she wrote.