Partnerships with Africa

The Gulbenkian Foundation seeks to contribute towards raising the levels of learning and qualifications in the STEM areas among young people, boosting the level of autonomy and local leadership of research agendas as well as strengthening the opportunities and support for emerging PALOP artists.

This intervention has the broader objective of strengthening critical thinking and autonomous economic development in the Portuguese-speaking African Countries (PALOP) – Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique and São Tomé and Príncipe.

Our approach

The choice to focus on the three problems results from the accumulated experience with the initiatives and partnerships undertaken in the last cycle, the fact that these sectors receive little attention from national governments and the international community, as well as the recognition by local and international stakeholders of the added value of the driving role that the Foundation has played in these areas.

Key areas of action

STEM education

Foster the talent of young people and reinforce the postgraduate offer in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) subjects, in order to increase their learning and qualifications in these areas, particularly in mathematics.

Support initiatives that stimulate the interest, the capacity and the vocation of young people in secondary and higher education to study and research mathematics, and promote the undertaking of postgraduate training, also giving continuity to those started in the previous cycle.

Health Sciences Research

Strengthen research capacity in health sciences and train human resources for research, given the low degree of autonomy and local leadership of research agendas in this area.

Support projects and activities to consolidate the careers of young researchers from PALOP countries and strengthen partnerships between hospitals and universities and/or research centres. It will also provide short-term training courses in transversal competencies in health research and promote postgraduate training, through calls for proposals and/or invitations to higher education institutions.

Support for the internationalisation of artists

Increase international recognition of emerging PALOP artists, increasing opportunities and support to integrate global trends in the arts.

Support the participation in artistic residencies in the visual arts and in curating in Portugal, in the PALOP countries (by supporting local artistic institutions that promote this type of residency) and outside the PALOP countries. It will also support the training of artists and curators, through local masterclasses, with international trainers, in transversal areas that contribute to the qualification of artists.