Thomas Mboa just received his PhD at the Université Laval in Québec City. His PhD explored makerspaces in francophone Africa. His thesis fieldwork was partially funded by Open AIR, resulting a comparison with previous results by Open AIR concerning makerspaces across Africa. Thomas Mboa is an Open AIR Queen Elizabeth Scholar – Advanced Scholars Fellow and is part of our Francophone Engagement team. Thomas is fully engaged in action research, as the co-founder of the Mboalab, a science-society mediation space located in Yaoundé, Cameroon. Mboalab practices are embedded in the maker movement and social innovation. He has a number of publications and is frequently a guest speaker at international conferences.