Around the World in TBED

Two projects, one in the United Kingdom and another in Africa, are working to improve the information economy, university training and research in their respective regions. A new United Kingdom strategy includes a partnership between the national government, industry, and academia in support of the information technology sector. In Africa, the World Bank will engage in an international effort to promote education and research, supporting regional economic development across the continent.

The World Bank plans to launch the African Centers of Excellence project in July. Originally proposed in summer 2012, the World Bank board approved the program last month. The Centers of Excellence program will invest $129 million to “strengthen the capacity of selected universities and their partner institutions to deliver high quality training and applied research at the region level within areas of STEM, Health, and Agriculture that are of particular are of particular relevance to Africa's development,” according to the World Bank's Project Information Document.

Twenty-five percent of the funding will go to health, another 25 percent will go to agricultural extension, and the remaining 50 percent will be used in tertiary education. In an interview, the World Bank economists stated that it is hoping to create 10 to 15 centers across West and Central Africa at seven to 10 higher education institutions. Institutions in these regions will be able to apply for $8 million in funding per center.

Target applied research areas for these centers include water, infrastructure, banking and IT, as well as other sectors useful to regional development.

Metrics for the program will look at training capacity, through the number of graduates in specialized courses and programs; development relevance, through student placement in internships and jobs and the amount of revenue in joint research; regional impact of the center, by the number of international students and faculty at the center; and, the quality of education, via research output and international accreditation.

In the United Kingdom, the Government has released its Information Economy Strategy, a guide for a series of actions to improve the information economy — essentially what is termed IT in the United States — in the country. The strategy focuses on partnerships with both industry and academia.

Among the initiatives that will be undertaken is an industry-led program that will assist small- and medium-sized companies with beginning or expanding their on-line presence. It is intended that this program will reach 1.6 million businesses in the next five years. The government also will assist in the creation of a research facility in 5G mobile technology — the 5G Innovation Centre at the University of Surrey, which has secured more than $50 million in research funding from the Higher Education Funding Council for England.

The government will create a single online platform for businesses to view their tax records, and will digitally transform 25 of the top public services across eight government departments over the next 10 months. In addition, in October, a data capability strategy will be published, with input from government, industry, and academia. Along with this, an Information Economy Council will be created, which will be composed of the same three sectors to monitor the progress of the program and to develop strategy.

Other actions include the promotion and innovative teaching tools and the creation of Massive Online Open Courses for computing and data science, as well as charging Ofcom, the independent regulator and competition authority for the United Kingdom communications industries, to create an online database which would allow short-term spectrum licenses for 5G research.