The Internet Educational Equal Access
Foundation (IEEAF), along with several partners, has received
a planning
grant from the National Science
Foundation to propose very high speed Internet extensions, on
the order of 10 Gbps, to connect the academic, research, health and
non-governmental organization (NGO) communities in African countries
to the rest of the world. Such connections would provide African
universities and medical centers connectivity equivalent to the best
available to comparable institutions in the United States. To win
the large grant that would allow the network connection to be implemented,

the team that won the NSF planning grant is seeking evidence of academic
collaboration, particularly in science and in health, between U.S.
and Africans in four countries-Ghana and Senegal most importantly,
but also Madagascar and Mozambique-to help the NSF understand, appreciate,
and value the impact of having these high speed connections in place.

The team is requesting information about:

• Joint projects at your institution that involve collaboration with
  scientists, other researchers, medical personnel, and NGOs in any
  of these countries.
• Joint projects with known individuals from or in these countries
  that would take place, but cannot currently because of inadequate
  bandwidth/communication between your institution and the African
  country.
• Projects involving existing or former graduate students from any
  of these countries that are good candidates for joint work upon the
  graduate student’s returns to his or her country.
• Potential projects, previously not conceptualized or implemented
  because of a lack of high-speed Internet connections to institutions
  and researchers in these countries.

Information should be sent via e-mail to africaprojects@internet2.edu