Developing a Cyber-infrastructure for Enhancing Regional Collaboration on Education, Research, Science, Technology and Innovation

This paper discusses the development of the Southern African Development Community shared cyber-infrastructure. The cyber-infrastructure aims to entrench regional integration through collaboration around education, research & development and innovation to address data and computationally intensive problems of regional significance and impact. It aims to achieve this by developing computational and data infrastructure, promoting research data sharing, pooling expertise and resources and consolidation through Centers of Excellence. The cyber-infrastructure is developed through a SADC Framework instrument that defined strategic goals and objectives and the components of the cyber-infrastructure. Furthermore, focus areas of resourcing, an implementation mechanism, the requisite policy framework, governance structures were defined together with resource mobilisation strategies and the necessary monitoring & evaluation reporting instruments.