External evaluation of the Science Granting Councils Initiative in sub-Saharan Africa : final report - volume 1

After seven years of implementation, IDRC commissioned an external evaluation (EE) to assess the extent to which the Initiative is achieving its strategic objectives. The evaluation assesses the achievements, the role of the SGCI in actual and perceived changes, and how results have been achieved, as well as key lessons learned. The evaluation recommends actions for strengthening the overall performance of the Initiative over the next three years and certainly beyond. This final EE report is based on a thorough analysis of the literature and documentation made available to the consultants, interviews with the SGCI Initiative Management Team (IMT) and the SGCI monitoring, evaluation and learning (MEL) consultant, a workshop held in April 2022 with SGCI participating Councils and Collaborating Technical Agencies (CTAs), additional consultations with bilateral funding partners, the CTAs and all the Science Granting Councils (SGCs), and a specific engagement for conducting case studies with six selected SGCs and their research communities and external stakeholders (ministries, other research partners) in Uganda, Malawi, Botswana, Rwanda, Burkina Faso and Senegal. All in all, 56 interviews were conducted

External evaluation of the Science Granting Council Initiative in sub-Saharan Africa : annexes

The report includes annexes from the external evaluation of the Science Granting Council Initiative in sub-Saharan Africa, including case study reports, interviews reports, and bibliography

Foresight Africa: Top Priorities for the Continent 2020-2030

The new year 2020 marks the beginning of a promising decade for Africa. Through at least the first half of the decade, economic growth across Africa will continue to outperform that of other regions, with the continent continuing to be home to seven of the world's 10 fastest-growing economies. Collective action among African and global policymakers to improve the livelihoods of all under the blueprint of the Sustainable Development Goals and the African Union's Agenda 2063 is representative of the shared energy and excitement around Africa's potential. With business environments improving, regional integration centered around the African Continental Free Trade Agreement progressing, and the transformational technologies of Fourth Industrial Revolution spreading, never before has the region been better primed for trade, investment, and mutually beneficial partnerships. The recent, unprecedented interest of an increasingly diversified group of external partners for engagement with Africa highlights this potential. Despite the continent's promise, though, obstacles to success linger, as job creation still has not caught up with the growing youth labor force, gaps in good and inclusive governance remain, and climate change as well as state fragility threaten to reverse the hard-fought-for gains of recent decades.This special edition of Foresight Africa highlights the triumphs of past years as well as strategies from our experts to tackle forthcoming, but surmountable, obstacles to a prosperous continent by 2030

The metal/polymer interface : a combined ionic spectrometries and density functional theory study

Doctorat en sciences naturelles appliquées -- UCL, 199

Electrical evaluation of 130-nm MOSFETs with TSV proximity in 3D-SIC structure

Through-silicon via (TSV) proximity is electrically evaluated for the first time based on a 130-nm CMOS platform. Transistors with TSVs in a two die stacking structure were successfully designed, fabricated and tested. With a minimum distance of 1.1 μm from a 5.2 μm diameter TSV, both PMOS and NMOS showed normal functionality. No performance degradation was identified compared to control cases without TSVs. The stability of this structure was investigated by thermal cycling tests. Measurements after 1000 cycles between -55 and 125°C demonstrated good robustness of the stacked integrated circuit (SIC) structure. Residual stress induced by the TSVs was experimentally examined by micro-Raman spectroscopy. The results revealed that TSV induced stress is negligible for carrier mobility in this technology.status: publishe

The aluminium/poly (ethylene terephthalate) interface: a density functional theory study

Thanks to a first-principle approach (density functional theory, plane wave basis set and pseudopotentials) we analyze poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) and its interface with aluminium. The theoretically simulated density of valence states (DOVS) spectra for model polymer chains are discussed in relation to XPS spectra recorded on the pristine PET and the metallized PET valence band regions. Then, in order to understand the nature of the local interactions between the metal and the polymer functional groups, different Al/PET binding configurations are generated and their stabilities are discussed in term of adsorption energies. Finally, the charge redistribution induced by the interaction of the metal atoms with the carbonyl sites is discussed