The Global Research Council’s (GRC) Regional Meeting for Sub-Saharan Africa and the Academic Symposium of the Science Granting Councils Initiative in Sub-Saharan Africa (SGCI) took place in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, between 10 and 13 November 2025.

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The GRC Regional Meeting provided a forum for presidents of national and regional research funding organisations, enabling them to exchange views on current research-policy developments and to deepen their cooperation. The SGCI Academic Symposium meanwhile was an opportunity for researchers to take part in discussions about current scientific topics, to increase visibility of their research work and to engage in networking. The two events were held simultaneously to improve coherence between research funding, research policy and practical application, to strengthen the regional role of African countries in the global research landscape, and to highlight the ways in which institutions from African countries are shaping the continent’s future in the area of research.

A particular highlight of the two events was an interactive session titled Bridging Communities through Curiosity-driven Research (CDR): Connecting Funders and Researchers for Africa’s Knowledge Future. Making a case for CDR that interlinked the GRC Regional Meeting and the SGCI Academic Symposium. As part of this session, short lectures were delivered from both the African and the international perspective, illustrating the value of CDR for boosting scientific progress, innovation and societal resilience. The speakers questioned conventional methods based on practical examples and demonstrated how promoting curiosity-driven research can lead to fundamental insights and applications that are relevant to society. After the lectures, the participants were encouraged to engage in open and in-depth discussions about the ways in which CDR can help to shape the future of research and innovation in African countries. By bringing together the considerations of research funding organisations and the practical experience of researchers, the session highlighted the role of curiosity as a uniting power that can overcome discipline-related and geographic limitations.

The GRC Annual Meeting 2027 in Cape Town, South Africa, that is jointly organised by the DFG and the National Research Foundation (NRF) South Africa is also going to focus on CDR. The NRF and the DFG have set up a Scientific Advisory Committee to ensure that the scientific direction of the GRC Annual Meeting 2027 and the related debate about CDR will be in line with global scientific priorities. Among other duties, this committee will inform and moderate scientific debate about CDR in the run-up to the GRC Annual Meeting 2027, and it is also instructed to ensure that a wide range of scientific perspectives from around the world will be taken into account in this process. The six researchers that form the committee are from Côte d’Ivoire, Germany, South Africa and Tanzania. They met for a kick-off meeting in Bulawayo.