The General Objective of QADoc is to build capacity for high quality university-based research, so that African countries may be better equipped to drive their own research agendas to address societal challenges. National quality assurance systems are developing across the African continent, deemed highly relevant for regulating the sector, but also to support results-based, quality improvement in African universities. In Francophone Africa, most national QA agencies are very new, and do not yet have the standards, procedures or resources to assess the quality of research and doctoral education, despite high need. In this context, QA Doc will -Build capacity in education ministries and national QA agencies to create and apply evaluation standards for doctoral education and research -Build capacity in universities to assess the quality of research and doctoral studies, based on standards that have been developed from other national, regional and international systems and procedures -Reinforce research collaboration and collaborative doctoral degrees between Europe and Africa, by promoting common standards for quality assurance and evaluation The project targets three countries – Senegal, Guinea and the DRC – bringing together ministries for higher education, national QA agencies and two universities per country. Good practices, training and evaluation expertise will be provided by agencies from Portugal and Spain, and additional universities from France. This partnership dynamic will ensure that the standards developped are co-created by government and institutions, drawing from expertse of EU agencies and universities. Pilot evaluations of research and doctoral schools will be conducted in the six partners universities, to test the standards and make recommendations for how they can be upscaled in Africa (Mozambique is associated to the project to this effect).