Pic by DamienHR on flickr.com, CC BY-SA 2.0

The Government of Finland (GoF) and the South African Department of Science and Technology (DST) view the investments in research, development and innovation capacity as critical to the successful building of a sustainable information society in South Africa both in a national and regional context.

The South African Government, through the Department of Science and Technology, has partnered with the Government of Finland, through the Ministry for Foreign Affairs in establishing knowledge society programs. The focus of the South Africa – Finland Knowledge Partnership Programme (SAFIPA) is to support ICT entrepreneurs, organisations and initiatives with variety of interventions, including grant support and technical assistance.

The overall objective of the SAFIPA programme is to support the creation of an environment which facilitates the development and deployment of ICT service applications for the benefit of South African citizens.  Thus the programme is addressing the creation and delivery models of ICT based service applications which are suitable for local conditions especially in the most vulnerable parts of population.

SAFIPA seeks to strengthen partnerships between Finnish and South African organisations through knowledge exchange and information sharing.

Finland is a land of innovation, a centre of excellence and world leader  with regards to ICT innovation. It has a well established National System of Innovation (NSI) encompassing a network of universities, a national innovation agency, numerous   science parks as well as multinational corporate R&D units.  This technology ecology of ICT innovation is the backbone of its knowledge society and it churns out cutting edge, world class ICT products and services that are exported to the world.

As part of capacity building we will be supporting South African entities on an annual knowledge exchange visit to Finland and its innovation system. South African entities (entrepreneurs, NGOs, academic institutions and government agencies) are encouraged to apply for this open call.

Objectives and highlights of knowledge exchange visit:

• This time the call is especially directed to people interested in e-Health, e-Learning and e-Government.

Application Procedure and Plans:

Candidate selection:

The same working committee as last time (Ms. Helena Tapper, Mr. Mmboneni Muofhe and Mr. Laurens Cloete) will make the candidate selection assisted by the SAFIPA team. We will again select 10 participants and 2 “runner-ups” who will be included if someone cancels or if the budget allows to take more.

Trip:

The actual trip will take place on 10-17.4.2010. Most of the meetings will be in the Greater Helsinki region, but some individuals/part of the group may travel within Finland to other areas if necessary. The group will have joint meetings and at some points split into theme-specific meetings. Participants are also allowed to organize individual meetings for themselves with pre-approval from SAFIPA.

Chosen KEF delegates are encouraged to create connections with Finnish counterparts already before hand where possible, and identify organisations they seek to visit. All participants are expected to write a trip report afterwards.

The following information is required from prospective delegates:

1. Motivation Letter

Interested   organisations and individuals are requested to submit a 1 page motivation letter to SAFIPA.  Your motivation should be brief information about your organisation as well as current (and future) ICT projects working on e-Health, e-Learning and e-Government.  You need to articulate how a knowledge visit to Finland can enhance   your current work as well as contribute to ICT innovation and learning’s in South Africa.

1. Orgnanisational information
   1. Name of organisation
   2. Your CV
   3. Registration and corporate
   4. Human resource and portfolio
   5. ID information
   6. Geographical spread
   7. Current  ICT projects and initiatives
   8. Innovations of note
   9. Future ICT plans

Please forward your motivation  memo as well as organisational  information to:

C/o Lorraine Shikwane

SAFIPA Programme Office

Email: lshikwane@csir.co.za

url:     www.safipa.com

NB: The call closes on 12 February 2010.