The IDBio project - Sustainable Engineering for Bio-based Products - associates 4 French higher education institutions (INSAT - project’s holder), IMT Albi, Toulouse INP, Institut Agro Montpellier) and 3 research agencies (CNRS, INRAe, CIRAD), with 6 African universities (Univ Gaston Berger (UGB) Senegal - co-leader ; Univ of Abomey-Calavi, Benin; Univ of Lomé, Togo; University J. Ki Zerbo, Burkina Faso; University of Antananarivo, Madagascar; INP-Houphouët-Boigny, Ivory coast). The objective of this collaborative project is to strengthen skills through initial training (Bachelor-Master), life-long learning (African teachers and professionals), and research activities (thesis and researcher grants), to promote the emergence of new sectors for renewable resources and wastes valorization to support sustainable development and local bioeconomy. This project aims to create a sustainable strategic partnership by implementing actions within the UGB, which will be the regional pilot. By addressing doctoral training, it supports French and African higher education partners in international public and public/private research collaborations. French and African industries will be associated to guarantee the relevance of the training, the students’ employability and the project sustainability. The expected economic benefits are innovation and job creation for Africans in emerging and sustainable sectors of activity, for a better efficiency in the use of resources and wastes, in favor of environmental protection, reducing poverty and food insecurity. Finally, by defining as a priority the access of African women to education, the project is a real vector of the gender equality policy. This 4-year project is one of the financial building blocks of a new UNESCO Chair starting in January 2023.