IBRO and the International Basic Sciences Programme (IBSP) of UNESCO have formed a partnership to create an initiative, Building Brain Sciences in Africa, in a bid to develop and sustain brain research across the African continent. The new collaboration builds further on the long-standing association between UNESCO and IBRO as the core for a broad-based partnership with other international and African organizations. Launching this new initiative, UNESCO IBSP will provide support for joint IBRO-UNESCO activities during 2008 and 2009.

IBRO through its Africa Regional Committee (ARC) has an established programme of neuroscience training in several African countries, and it is anticipated that IBRO Affiliated Societies and supporters (governmental agencies and private foundations) around the world will also contribute to this effort. It is thus anticipated that Building Brain Sciences in Africa will act as a catalyst to attract new support in Africa for capacity building.

The partnership will involve a central coordinating site linked to research centres elsewhere in the African continent. Its main goals will be to:

• Promote neuroscience training in Africa.
• Establish effective research collaborations within the African continent.
• Encourage research cooperation of African trainees and investigators with scientists and institutions outside Africa.
• Encourage and support return of well-trained African investigators to their home countries.
• Reinforce interactions between basic and clinical brain sciences in Africa.
• Increase public awareness of brain research for the solution of health problems in Africa.