About Us

NEAR seeks to explore the changing landscape of EU-Africa relations, to enable researchers, policy-makers and third sector representatives to work collaboratively on a global scale to examine the challenges facing the relationship and help shape their future. In particular, it seeks to foster genuine and close collaboration between African and European researchers, and between a number of existing organisations and projects engaged in Africa-EU research. As such it is firmly multinational and wide-ranging, based on the inclusion of UACES members as well as non-members, with a clear focus on interdisciplinarity, and collaboration between researchers at all stages of their professional life. Our constitutive aims are:

•    To facilitate genuine and close collaboration between African and European researchers in the study of EU-Africa relations.

• To examine the consequences of the challenges and rapid transformation of EU-Africa relations for European and African states and societies, as well as for the EU and African regional organisations.

• To secure future funding for large research projects, involving the full and active inclusion of African institutions and researchers, and to support the longevity of the network.