探花直播 of Cambridge - capacity strengthening

探花直播microbiologist tackling humanity鈥檚 next biggest killer

cg605 — Wed, 17 Nov 2021 12:43:31 +0000

Since childhood Stephen Baker says he had a grim fascination with poo. He caught the bug for microbiology and spent 12 years in Vietnam researching bacteria that cause diarrhoea. Stephen thinks that antibiotic-resistant bacteria is likely to be humanity鈥檚 biggest killer in the future. But says that if we keep doing the science, we have hope.

Multiplier effect: the African PhD students who will grow African research

amb206 — Tue, 21 Feb 2017 11:15:37 +0000

鈥淎frica needs a million new PhD researchers over the next decade.鈥� It鈥檚 a huge figure. Professor David Dunne uses it to explain the scale of need in Africa for a new generation of scholars who will pioneer sustainable solutions to many of the continent鈥檚 challenges.

鈥淭here are world-class academics in Africa,鈥� he explains, 鈥渂ut not enough to train and mentor all the young researchers that Africa needs to maintain and accelerate its progress. This is where Cambridge and other leading international universities can help, by making expertise and facilities available to help bridge this mentorship gap.鈥�

Dunne is Director of the Cambridge-Africa Programme, a 探花直播 initiative that for the past eight years has been building collaborative links between Cambridge and Africa. 探花直播model is centred on Cambridge researchers helping to mentor young African researchers in their African universities and research Institutions. This contributes to research capacity building in Africa but also benefits Cambridge by widening the experience and opportunities for its researchers and students.

However, that stark fact remains 鈥� a great many more new researchers are needed. With this in mind, a new Cambridge-Africa PhD studentship scheme began to enrol PhD students last year from all over Africa 鈥� five per year, every year for five years. 鈥淚t鈥檚 at least a beginning,鈥� says Dunne. 鈥淲e want this programme to grow in Cambridge, and other universities.鈥�

One criterion is that the prospective student must be studying issues that are priorities for Africa. 探花直播research interests of the current students are broad: from urban growth to poverty, business associations to sustainable industries, infectious disease to post-conflict citizenship.

Taskeen Adam

Taskeen Adam is one of the PhD students. She鈥檇 worked as an electrical engineer for two years when she decided that she wanted to use her skills to bring about social change. 鈥淲hat attracted me to engineering was the challenge of solving technical problems. But my real passion is for humanitarian issues and the need to create quality education for all.鈥�

In 2012, the United Nations General Assembly declared access to the internet as a basic human right. But figures from 2014 gathered for Taskeen鈥檚 home country of South Africa showed that more than 4,000 schools had no access to electricity and 77% of schools had no computers. Many thousands of children were missing out on the chance to learn the skills needed to make a better life.

Her research is enabling her to look at the educational opportunities afforded by the internet, in particular the potential of decolonised African MOOCs (Massive Online Open Courses) as a means for delivering inclusive educational programmes to the most marginalised learners in South Africa. She鈥檚 keen to develop an online educational framework adapted for, and relevant to, communities in developing countries.

Taskeen completed her first degree at the 探花直播 of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. On graduating, and while working full time, she pioneered an initiative called 鈥楽olar Powered Learning鈥� to give students in rural areas access to technology that was both low cost and environmentally friendly.

探花直播pilot project won Taskeen accolades. She was listed among South Africa鈥檚 Mail & Guardian鈥檚 top 200 Young South Africans for 2014. This gave her the confidence to embark on a career that would use her engineering skills in ways that could help to bridge inequalities.

As part of her Master鈥檚 research, she spent two weeks in Kigali, capital of Rwanda, where she visited schools benefiting from a national scheme to equip every child with a laptop. It was clear that this commendable programme was failing to enhance learning. Although resources were being provided, there was a lack of focus on maintenance skills, curriculum integration and teacher professional development. In many cases, the children were more comfortable using the laptops than were their teachers.聽

鈥淢y trip demonstrated the mismatch between the deliverables and the outcomes of the scheme. 探花直播focus was on technology deployment, rather than on improving educational attainment,鈥� she says. 鈥淢any African governments seem to be following a similar path, and I hope that, by using the resources, networks and expertise here in Cambridge, I might eventually be able to influence policy changes at the intersection of education and technology back in Africa.鈥�

Richmond Juvenile聽Ehwi

Richmond Juvenile Ehwi also hopes to take his skills and expertise back to his home country, Ghana. He has just arrived in Cambridge to start his PhD in Cambridge鈥檚 Department of Land Economy. After his first degree at Ghana鈥檚 Kwame Nkrumah 探花直播 of Science and Technology, he worked as a research consultant and estate manager.

Moving to Ghana鈥檚 capital city, he became interested in the changes he saw in the property market. 鈥淧lush Western-designed detached houses, apartments and gated communities are springing up and I wondered what the future would be like for Ghana鈥檚 urban landscape. While this development mirrors Accra鈥檚 integration into the globalised city concept, accompanying this trend are social, economic, environmental and cultural costs.鈥�

As Western lifestyles become increasingly popular, the older-style family compounds associated with traditional Ghanaian culture are declining, even in rural areas. 鈥淲ith literacy rates and standards of living rising, households are demanding greater privacy and better sanitation which, in most traditional compound houses, are greatly compromised,鈥� he explains.

In the West, gated communities are often seen in a negative light: they are associated with segregation, racial polarisation and social exclusion. While accepting the realities of this criticism, Richmond seeks to facilitate a balanced discussion and inspire evidence-based planning policies.

He suggests that, as new gated residences develop in the suburbs, there can be both material and social benefits for surrounding areas. 鈥淚n Ghana, the new gated communities tend to be multiracial rather than segregated according to race or nationality. 探花直播ability to pay for your house is what counts, not what you do or what your ethnicity is. Gated developments offer the security and services that most people aspire to,鈥� he says.

Entire neighbourhoods can benefit from the expectations of the owners of the new properties, he explains: 鈥淚t鈥檚 misleading to think of gated communities as isolated enclaves. People who live in them are not completely cut off from society. They travel to work, to malls and markets, to church services. These public spaces facilitate social interaction. Also, better-off households offer employment for gardeners, drivers and care givers 鈥� and help to raise incomes and opportunities.鈥�

His long-term plan is to create an Urban Study Research Centre back in Accra, and to take back a deeper understanding of the interplay of economic factors with social and cultural issues in urban development.

探花直播multiplier effect

Dunne points to such plans as an indicator of the promise of the Cambridge-Africa PhD studentship scheme. 鈥淲e are training 25 Cambridge-Africa scholars. It鈥檚 a small number compared with the overall need. But these researchers are a starting point. They will train other researchers and the expertise will multiply back in Africa.鈥�

He adds: 鈥淚t鈥檚 not just that Africa needs research and researchers for its own use. 探花直播world needs African researchers. We can鈥檛 have a situation where 14% of the world鈥檚 population 鈥� living on a continent with unique culture, diversity and environment 鈥� contributes less than 1% of published research output. 探花直播world needs the unique knowledge and perspective that African researchers can provide to solve our shared global challenges.鈥�

探花直播Cambridge-Africa PhD studentship scheme is funded by the 探花直播 and the Cambridge Trust.

To keep up to date with the latest stories about Cambridge鈥檚 engagement with Africa, follow #CamAfrica on Twitter.

聽

Taskeen Adam and Richmond Juvenile Ehwi are part of a PhD programme that鈥檚 enrolling five African students per year for five years, to help train world-class researchers for Africa.聽

探花直播world needs African researchers. We can鈥檛 have a situation where 14% of the world鈥檚 population 鈥� living on a continent with unique culture, diversity and environment 鈥� contributes less than 1% of published research output.

David Dunne

Nick Saffell

Taskeen Adam and Richmond Juvenile Ehwi

探花直播text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. For image use please see separate credits above.

Yes

Cambridge-Africa Programme: 58 institutions, 26 countries, and growing

lw355 — Mon, 06 Feb 2017 11:31:08 +0000

Having the chance to contribute to the pool of human knowledge depends a great deal on where you live in the world. Opportunities are skewed in聽favour聽of聽those who are better resourced聽and in favour of those who receive, and give,聽world-class training.

Knowledge lies at the heart of social and economic development, so countries with a thriving knowledge economy and good research infrastructure develop quicker; and the gap between those that don鈥檛 have these advantages grows ever wider. Among those lagging behind are many of the African countries.

And yet, explains Professor David Dunne, Africa has excellent researchers. He knows because for 30 years he鈥檚 been working in Africa with African colleagues on neglected tropical diseases: 鈥淚 realised that they were brilliant but they didn鈥檛 have the opportunities they deserved to make their unique contribution both to solving Africa鈥檚 challenges and to adding to the sum of global knowledge.

鈥淓ven in the best African universities, there is a chronic shortage of researchers with access to the resources they need to be internationally competitive and to mentor future researchers,鈥� he explains. 鈥淭here just aren鈥檛 enough of them.鈥�

鈥淚n parts of Africa, sometimes the choice seems to be between prioritising universal access to a basic education or investing in tertiary education and research scholarship. In reality, there is no choice,鈥� says Dunne. 鈥淏oth are absolutely essential.鈥�

Eight years ago, he realised that universities like Cambridge could help bridge this resource and mentorship gap in Africa in ways that would build research capacity 鈥渨hile avoiding the loss of indigenous talent that so often occurs when better opportunities are available outside of Africa.鈥�

Cambridge-Africa is the result. This聽探花直播-wide institutional聽structure is designed to make expertise and resources available to support African researchers working in Africa on聽African priorities.

Today, the Programme supports African researchers in 58 different institutions in 26 countries across the continent. Its various schemes link PhD, postdoctoral and group leaders with a network of over 200 Cambridge-based researchers.

Key to its success is a 鈥榤atchmaking鈥� model of partnership, as Dr Pauline Essah explains: 鈥淲e carefully match the research interests of African and Cambridge researchers. It means there are benefits for both parties, and the potential for equitable and sustainable long-term collaboration after the mentorship has finished.鈥�

She adds: 鈥淏eing an African myself, and having studied in an African university before studying and working in Cambridge, I know that it wouldn鈥檛 work if we were just trying to take what Cambridge has and plant it in Africa. Instead we are modifying and adapting it in response to the needs identified by our African colleagues.鈥�

Dunne and Essah began with targeting research in health: 鈥淲e saw this as an easy win on both sides 鈥� it meets one of Africa鈥檚 greatest challenges, and it gives wider geographic scope to Cambridge researchers.鈥�

They were surprised however by the scale of the response: 鈥淲e were pushing against an open door,鈥� says Dunne. Soon, scholars from archaeology to zoology, engineering to English, politics to plant sciences were joining the scheme. In 2015, the Programme was adopted as the 探花直播 of Cambridge鈥檚 official international strategy to support African academia across all subject areas.

鈥淎nd of course this is good for Cambridge too,鈥� says Dunne. 鈥淚t means our researchers have greater opportunities to collaborate globally and our students can experience working in Africa. It has helped make Cambridge a truly international 探花直播.鈥�

Speaking at the annual Cambridge-Africa Day symposium, Cambridge鈥檚 Vice-Chancellor Professor Sir Leszek Borysiewicz said: 鈥� 探花直播speed with which the Cambridge-Africa Programme has developed is phenomenal. We are trusted by our partners, and the Programme has buy-in from our academic community. This has been essential to the programme鈥檚 success. Today, it is no longer something done by a handful of enthusiasts. It is now something embedded in the 探花直播鈥檚 DNA.鈥�

Adds Dunne: 鈥� 探花直播first of the Cambridge-Africa fellows are now starting to fulfil their outstanding potential as researchers and leaders, providing mentorship to the next generation of young African researchers.鈥� To date, all 54 of the African PhD and postdoctoral researchers who have completed their fellowships are still working in sub-Saharan universities or research institutions.

鈥淯niversities are not just luxury items for wealthy societies,鈥� he says. 鈥淭hey are equally vital to the futures of low- and middle-income countries if those countries are to share in the advantages of knowledge creation.鈥�

Cambridge-Africa fellowship schemes are funded by the Wellcome Trust, the ALBORADA Trust, the Isaac Newton Trust and the Carnegie Corporation of New York.

To keep up to date with the latest stories about Cambridge鈥檚 engagement with Africa, follow #CamAfrica on Twitter.

Inset picture: Professor David Dunne and Dr Pauline聽Essah. Credit: Mark聽Miniszko.

We ask how a 'matchmaking' programme that teams up Cambridge and African researchers is making expertise and聽resources聽available to support Africans working in Africa.

Universities are not just luxury items for wealthy societies. They are equally vital to the futures of low- and middle-income countries if those countries are to share in the advantages of knowledge creation

David Dunne

Mark Miniszko

Dr Vincent Owino, now conducting research in Kenya, was awarded a seed grant from the Cambridge-Africa ALBORADA Research Fund

Fellowship schemes

ALBORADA Research Fund

Cambridge-Africa Partnership for Research Excellence (CAPREx)

Cambridge-Africa PhD Scholarship Scheme

Makerere 探花直播/Uganda Virus Research Institute Infection and Immunity Research (MUII)

Training Health Researchers into Vocational Excellence (THRiVE)

Wellcome Trust-Cambridge Centre for Global Health Research

探花直播text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. For image use please see separate credits above.

Yes

Conversations across continents

lw355 — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 14:04:57 +0000

A programme of academic exchange at the Centre of African Studies is providing African scholars with a much-needed opportunity to step away from their overwhelming teaching and administrative burdens and develop their research during a six-month sabbatical in Cambridge. In so doing, the Cambridge/Africa Collaborative Research Programme is also stimulating the richness of Africa-centric research in Cambridge.

鈥業t has become increasingly difficult to pursue academic research in African universities,鈥� explains Professor Megan Vaughan, Director of the Centre. 鈥楢side from teaching commitments, which can hinder researchers from having the time to complete their PhDs, there is a severe lack of funding to maintain their research. As a result, many African scholars feel increasingly isolated from academia at an international level in the social sciences and humanities.鈥�

Over the past seven years, a total of 43 academics from 14 African nations have taken part in the Cambridge/Africa Research Collaborative Programme. Funded by the Leverhulme Trust and the Isaac Newton Trust, the Programme provides the visiting scholars with an opportunity to renew their access to international scholarship and to develop collaborations in Cambridge and beyond that will continue to vitalise their research after they return to their home universities.

Myth and modernity

探花直播research of the five scholars currently visiting takes its cue from this year鈥檚 theme 鈥� Myth and Modernity in African Literature 鈥� and is providing a fascinating glimpse of how African nations place themselves in a global context.

Dr Chris Warnes, a specialist in postcolonial literature in the Faculty of English and a member of the Centre, leads the research programme: 鈥楾his is a very exciting topic,鈥� he explains. 鈥� 探花直播talented scholars we have with us are using mythology as a key to unlock important questions about Africa both past and present, exemplifying the contributions that such research can make to societal concerns of today.'

For instance, mythology can tell us about national identity, explains Dr James Tsaaior, one of the visiting scholars: 鈥楬ow African novelists have dealt with mythology reveals the struggle to construct nationhood and a sense of an African identity.鈥�

鈥楤y studying authors such as Naguib Mahfouz from Egypt, Ngugi wa Thiong鈥檕 from Kenya, Ayi Kwei Armah from Ghana and Ben Okri from Nigeria,鈥� he continues, 鈥榠t is clear that there is a confluence of certain strong and recurrent themes, including slavery, the slave trade and (neo-)colonialism, which have shaped the way that Africans think about Africa and perceive the world.鈥�

Understanding relations between identity and myth is an issue that is particularly salient in the Sudan where religious tensions have increasingly divided the country. In her research, Dr Eiman El-Nour is hoping to document and record some of these myths, which frequently take the form of verbal storytelling. 鈥楳ythology is tremendously strong and influential in Sudan, providing the codes by which ordinary people live their lives,鈥� she explains. 鈥業鈥檓 interested in looking at how myth influences the recreation of Sudanese identity, whether Islamic, African or both.鈥�

Likewise, in the west of Africa, mythology has had a major influence on the identity, culture, philosophy and beliefs of the Yoruba people, one of the largest ethnic groups in Africa. Dr Oyeniyi Okunoye is interested in how a genre of Yoruba poetry (Ewi) is being shaped by modernity.

鈥楳y task,鈥� he maintains, 鈥榠s to clarify why Ewi, despite being rooted in the past, dynamically responds to the various experiences that Yoruba people have witnessed within the global environment.鈥� He will be looking at how the poetry, which is both written and chanted, is actively involved in inventing a pan-Yoruba identity today.

Mythology also has the potential to sustain and preserve the literature of African modernity, says Dr Tunde Awosanmi: 鈥楢 challenge set by novelist Ayi Kwei Armah has been to encourage African writers not just to use ancestral myth and history as a cultural resource, but also to engage in the creative modernisation of primitive mythology. I am interested in how this is being played out in modern African drama, through identifying contrasting attitudes in terms of orthodox

and unorthodox users of myth.鈥�

鈥楳yth and modernity are concepts that have increasingly come to mark our world,鈥� adds Dr Kenneth Simala. 鈥楩rom African mythology we can make deductions that tell us not just about times that have passed but also about issues that are relevant today. 探花直播legend of Fumo Liyongo [see below] is a wonderful example of this modern-day resonance for what it has to say about civilisations in conflict and the need for civilisations to engage in dialogue.鈥�

Unlocking research potential

As the African scholars come to the close of their sabbatical, they will have attended a seminar series that brings international speakers to Cambridge, presented their findings at a workshop at the Centre in March and a conference in Nigeria in August 2011, as well as published their research as a book.

Professor Vaughan and her colleagues are immensely proud of the Programme: 鈥榃ithout an initiative such as this, there is a real danger that African countries will fall further behind in a global economy that is ever more dependent on expert knowledge. This Programme provides our hard-pressed colleagues in African universities with a break during which they can carry out research and create new research networks based on collaborations that are just as valuable for the 探花直播 of Cambridge鈥檚 Africanists.鈥�

Each year, academic dialogue is enriched at the Centre of African Studies by the arrival of a group of African scholars who spend up to six months researching and working together.

This Programme provides our hard-pressed colleagues in African universities with a break during which they can carry out research and create new research networks based on collaborations that are just as valuable for the 探花直播 of Cambridge鈥檚 Africanists.

Professor Megan Vaughan

Mark Mniszko

From left: O. Okunoye, T. Awosanmi, K. Simala and E. El-Nour

Swahili Odyssey: a tale of civilisations, conquests and resolving conflict

A centuries-old epic poem describing the travels of a Swahili hero could provide valuable lessons for modern society on avoiding conflict between civilisations.

Among the abundant myths, legends and stories of the Swahili people of eastern Africa, perhaps the most celebrated are those attributed to the Swahili Chieftain Fumo Liyongo and his epic poem of almost 232 stanzas.

Passed down for centuries as an oral tradition, the poem includes a narrative of how he interacted with the other civilisations that came to explore, trade with, proselytise or conquer the African territories he ruled over. Although the poem is shrouded in mystery 鈥� it鈥檚 unclear how much of the poem is accurate and even when Liyongo lived (variously given as the 13th鈥�17th centuries) 鈥� it is generally agreed that it has a strong historical basis.

African scholar Dr Kenneth Simala is attempting to resolve some of the questions surrounding the poem. But, as he explains, it is the relevance of the poem鈥檚 content to modern times that especially fascinates him: 鈥楩umo Liyongo observed how different civilisations interacted at a time when East Africa was at the crossroads of meeting cultures. As a result, he provides lessons of experience on disputes, tensions, conflicts, power, globalisation and the need for peaceful coexistence.鈥�

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Licence. If you use this content on your site please link back to this page.

Yes

Stopping superbugs in their tracks

bjb42 — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 14:10:52 +0000

Hundreds of millions of patients around the world are affected by healthcare-associated infections each year, although the true scale of their global burden and impact on health remains unknown because of the difficulty in gathering reliable data. In developing countries, the problem of such infections is compounded by the fact that the pathogens involved are frequently resistant to the antibiotics available.

Reducing mortality and morbidity from healthcare-associated infections depends on effective prescribing policies based on information provided by diagnostic microbiology, as well as prevention through improved hygiene such as frequent hand washing. 鈥極ne of the major difficulties in resource-poor countries,鈥� says Professor Sharon Peacock, from the Departments of Medicine and Pathology, 鈥榠s the lack of even simple diagnostic microbiology in many hospitals. As a result, many pathogens go unrecognised.鈥�

Having spent most of the past decade working in resource-restricted areas of south-east Asia, Professor Peacock believes that researchers can help tackle this problem using technology at two ends of the spectrum. 鈥楤y supporting the development of low-cost, sustainable diagnostic microbiology laboratories to identify pathogens, information is generated to guide prescribing and highlight the need for infection control. This also provides bacterial strain collections that can then be examined using cutting-edge tools to define transmission pathways of important pathogens at local, national and global levels.鈥�

Detective work

探花直播antibiotic-resistant MRSA 鈥榮uperbug鈥� has a deservedly high profile across the developed world but is barely on the radar in developing countries. For example, until recently, there had been no documented report of MRSA in Cambodia. This isn鈥檛 because the country has remained completely free of the pathogen but simply because there were no facilities to detect its presence. Now, the Angkor Hospital for Children in Western Cambodia has such a laboratory, the development of which was supported by a team led by Professor Peacock while working at the Wellcome Trust-Mahidol 探花直播-Oxford Tropical Medicine Research Unit in Thailand, where she continues to support research following her move to Cambridge in 2009.

Within a month of opening, the first child with MRSA infection was identified. And, with continued support from Cambridge- and Thailand-based researchers, the laboratory has recently reported that MRSA causes infection in both the hospital and the community, and is being carried by a proportion of the population.

探花直播impact of detecting these and other multi-resistant pathogens is potentially huge, explains Professor Peacock: 鈥楽uch information alerts healthcarers and policy makers of the possibility of infection with these organisms and the risk of treatment failure using the readily available antimicrobial drugs, as well as supporting the need for hand washing to reduce spread among hospital patients鈥�.

Tracking the global spread of multi-resistant pathogens

As highlighted by a study published this year in Science magazine, cutting-edge technology also has an important role to play. In this study, Professor Peacock was part of a team led by the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute at Hinxton, Cambridge, which developed high-throughput genome sequencing to study the transmission of a single clone of MRSA that has become disseminated across much of the world.

Existing techniques were unable to discriminate between individual strains, but genome sequencing showed that no two strains were genetically identical. 探花直播beauty of the technique is that it allows healthcare officials to see how MRSA, or any other pathogen, can evolve and spread 鈥� from person to person, from hospital to hospital, and from country to country.

Professor Peacock鈥檚 research is continuing to use this sophisticated technology to inform better infection control of MRSA, and other pathogens, in hospital settings. 鈥楤eing able to feed this information back to hospitals,鈥� she explains, 鈥榠s key for interventions to be targeted with precision and according to need.鈥�

For more information, please contact Professor Sharon Peacock (sjp97@cam.ac.uk) at the Departments of Medicine and Pathology. Professor Peacock chairs the Cambridge Infectious Disease Initiative, one aim of which is the development and translation of research in developing countries.

Work in resource-restricted healthcare settings in south-east Asia is defining the transmission of hospital 鈥榮uperbugs鈥� using low-tech diagnostics and high-tech tools.

One of the major difficulties in resource-poor countries is the lack of even simple diagnostic microbiology in many hospitals. As a result, many pathogens go unrecognised.

Professor Sharon Peacock

Matt Holden, WT Sanger Institute

MRSA

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Licence. If you use this content on your site please link back to this page.

Yes