Prof Ereck Chakauya is the Manager for AUDA-NEPAD Agency/Southern Africa Network for Biosciences (NEPAD SANBio), a shared AU/NEPAD RD&I platform for collaboration to address some of Southern Africa’s key health and Nutrition issues. His responsibilities include including Stakeholder engagement and Agenda setting working with Continental bodies (AUDA-NEPAD, SADC) across 24 African countries. He has wide experience working with the USA (spend some time at Emory University Technology Transfer Office) and Europe (UK, Finland, Austria, Italy) and India. He has grown NEPAD SANBio to be a global network collaborating with different stakeholders including academia, industry, NGOs and Global networks (www.nepadsanbio.org). He is part in a number of continental initiatives as part of the AUDA-NEPAD team including the Health Research and Innovation Strategy for Africa (HRISA) Technical Working Group and the African Innovation Outlook III (2019) drafting team, and Science Granting Council Initiative (SGCI).  Prof Chakauya has a PhD in Plant Science from University of Cambridge, MSc Project Management from University of Pretoria and currently completing an LLB with UNISA. He is an accomplished Biotechnologist in the areas of Health and Agriculture with several peer-reviewed publications, several international presentations and media engagements. Before AUDA NEPAD SANBio, Ereck was a Senior Project Manager and then Business Area Leader in CSIR Biosciences. For the past 15 years Ereck has been involved in the regulation of genetically Modified Organisms. In his career journey, Prof Chakauya has worked on several projects in Human Health, Animal Health and Plant Sciences having gained training under the South Africa AIDS Vaccine Initiative (SAAVI) as a postdoc and CIMMYT- Zimbabwe as an intern. In 2008 he was attached at the Emory University Technology Transfer office as part of SA Bio Plan Competition (now Gap Biosciences) having been awarded the SA Bio Plan Competition 1st Prize winner (Innovation Fund-Emory University) with R15.1m Investment money for a Start-up Company. In addition, he has mobilised more than R200 million projects funding in the last 5 years including overseeing the implementation of BioFISA 2 Programme for approximately €8.5 million with R44 million was contributed by SANBio member states.