What WP5 is About

Work Package 5 (WP5) focuses on one of the most important challenges of the project — how to make DIGITAfrica sustainable in the long run. Beyond designing the technical or training aspects of the Research Infrastructure (RI), WP5 looks at the bigger picture:
how to build a lasting community, define a shared mission, and create a structure that can keep running after the project ends.

This means understanding what kind of governance model, funding approach, and partnerships will make the RI work for African researchers in a realistic and inclusive way.

What We’ve Been Working On

Over the past months, we’ve started by laying the foundations:

• Reviewing how other initiatives such as SoBigData++, SLICES, and the Africa Open Science Platform have organized their sustainability and governance.
• Setting up first discussions with WP2 and WP4 to make sure that what we design fits with the RI’s technical and training activities.
• Identifying key institutions — ministries, universities, NRENs, and research councils — that could later be part of DIGITAfrica’s governance and funding model.

What Comes Next

In the next months, WP5 will move from ideas to action.
We’ll start reaching out to key partners in Africa and Europe to co-develop a governance and sustainability framework, ensuring that the RI is both ambitious and realistic.

We’ll also work closely with other WPs to connect the dots, making sure that governance reflects real technical needs, community priorities, and capacity-building goals.

By the end of the project, the aim is to have a clear, actionable sustainability plan, one that gives DIGITAfrica a strong identity, a community-driven vision, and a realistic path to stay alive and impactful well beyond the project’s lifetime.

Authors: Marta Barroso (BSC), Serge Fdida (Sorbonne Université), Damien Antoni (UMA), Joyce Nakatumba-Nabende (UCT), and the DIGITAfrica WP5 team