The year began with a lot of promise for ARUA. There was rapidly growing interest around the world in what ARUA was doing to enhance the performance of African research universities, both in the region and globally. The network was set to build on various initiatives from the previous year, which had led to significant agreements and collaborations with leading global research and funding organisations. It was this growing worldwide interest in ARUA that led us to begin working closely with the Guild of European Research Universities, and to collaborate in the mobilisation of resources to support research and innovation in partnership with the European Union and the African Union.

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Ernest Aryeetey, Eivind Engebretsen, Åse Gornitzka, Peter Maassen and Svein Stølen  

The gigantic global scientific efforts to develop a vaccine to mitigate the devastating impact of COVID-19 on societies have reached a point where the mass production and use of effective vaccines are a reality. But, in the subsequent race that is unfolding to produce and purchase vaccines, the gross global inequalities in the access to vaccinations, as well as in the science that makes that possible, have been exposed.