The conference will be held over three days and will admit about 250 participants from all over the world with about half of the participants from ARUA universities. The first two days of the conference will feature three plenary sessions per day, each addressing the broad theme of the Conference. These will be used to present the ‘lay of the land’ papers and map out the possibilities for how African universities can best respond to artificial intelligence. They will be delivered by known international experts from Africa and elsewhere. Additionally, each of the first two days will include 10 parallel sessions, exploring the various sub-thematic areas of interest related to the main conference theme. Each parallel session will run for two hours and will feature up to three presentations, followed by comments from discussants. On day three of the Conference, workshops will hosted by the ARUA Centres of Excellence (CoEs). The workshops will provide an avenue for Early Career Researchers (ECRs) to reflect and develop a strategy towards properly understanding the role of research, innovation and artificial intelligence (AI) in addressing various social and economic challenges.

The conference is expected to produce policy- and practice-oriented papers addressing its key themes. These outputs will provoke further discussions around reforms, best practices, and strategies for Africa’s Transformation through Research, Innovation and Artificial Intelligence. Also, based on the interests of ARUA CoEs, various edited volumes related to the conference’s main theme may be produced.

Key Dates

• 28 February 2025 - Deadline for abstract and special session submissions.

• 31 March 2025 - Feedback on submissions.

• 30 September 2025 - Deadline for the submission of full papers.

• 29 - 31 October 2025 - Conference takes place.