̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge - David Dunne

Innovative and internationally competitive African research celebrated as part of the 10th anniversary of the Cambridge-Africa Programme

pbh25 — Tue, 01 May 2018 12:41:58 +0000

̽��ֱ�� ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge celebrated the tenth anniversary of its flagship Cambridge-Africa Programme at an event held at the Fisher Building in St John’s College.

Recognising the need to support world-class research in Africa to identify African solutions to the continent’s challenges, the Programme provides fellowships to PhD or postdoctoral researchers, and matches them with Cambridge research leaders for mentorship and collaborative support.

In one of the day’s first presentations, Professor Gordon Awandare spoke of how the Programme played a crucial role in the establishment of the West African Centre for Cell Biology of Infectious Pathogens (WACCBIP), which has evolved into a centre of excellence and major hub for biomedical research and training in West Africa.

He told the audience that the importance of a centre which could attract African talent back to Africa could not be overstated: “We are engaging African scientists in the diaspora – we want to address the brain-drain and make this about brain-circulation.”

He spoke of how investment from collaborators and from the World Bank meant the centre, based at the ̽��ֱ�� of Ghana, was an attractive place to work. African scientists could be confident that their facilities were as good as those in other institutions around the world, and that they could conduct the kind of globally excellent research they wanted to.

Further presentations throughout the day addressed a wide variety of research, including a study on gender-based violence in Uganda and research into the solar energy applications of graphene.

Professor Eilís Ferran, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for International and Institutional Affairs, said: “We know we cannot simply parachute in with fixed solutions to what we see as uniquely African problems. Nor can we be complicit in a model of education and learning that takes some of the brightest minds away from their home countries.

“This is why the Cambridge-Africa Programme is so valuable – and why it has thrived over the past ten years: Because it relies on real partnership; because it addresses, and helps to reverse, the continent’s brain drain. Indeed it is about brain mobility.”

Professor David Dunne, Professor of Parasitology at the Department of Pathology at Cambridge and the Director of the Cambridge-Africa Programme, welcomed all those present:

“Today we will hear from young academics who will share with us their research and their vision for the future,” he told the audience.

He added that the Cambridge-Africa programme was initiated 10 years ago to help bridge the mentorship gap in Africa, which meant that new research leaders struggled to find the mentors they needed to develop in their home countries.

“Building these relationships with Africa over the last 10 years has very significantly enriched Cambridge’s own academic environment, benefiting both our students and academic researchers. It is our hope that mutually beneficial engagement between African and Cambridge researchers will further deepen and flourish over the next 10 years, with African universities taking their place among the leading academic research institutions in the world.”

̽��ֱ�� ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge programme supports research in Africa with 50 partner institutions across 18 countries.

It is our hope that mutually beneficial engagement between African and Cambridge researchers will further deepen and flourish over the next 10 years, with African universities taking their place among the leading academic research institutions in the world.

Professor David Dunne, Director of Cambridge Africa

By OER Africa

Balme Library, ̽��ֱ�� of Ghana, Legon

Current Cambridge-Africa Initiatives & Partnerships

Cambridge-Africa Scholarship Scheme: 25 Cambridge Africa PhD Scholarships, funded by the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and the Cambridge Trust; 2015-20 (five students a year, for five years).
Makerere-UVRI Infection & Immunity Training Programme (MUII); Wellcome Trust and DELTAS Africa funding to Uganda; 2008-20. Building a Centre of Excellence for infection and immunity research and training in Uganda. Five PhD and four postdoctoral fellows are being mentored.
Training Health Researchers into Vocational Excellence (THRiVE); Wellcome Trust and DELTAS Africa funding to East Africa; 2009-21. THRiVE is establishing a Network of Excellence for supporting health research in a broad sense, in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. Fourteen PhD and eight postdoctoral fellows have/are being mentored by Cambridge academics.
Cambridge-Africa Partnership for Research Excellence (CAPREx), funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York and the Isaac Newton Trust; 2012-18. Focuses on strengthening capacity for sustainable excellence in research in the humanities, social and physical sciences, as well as technology subject areas. CAPREx is also supporting knowledge exchange partnerships and training in research management and administration in specific universities in Ghana and Uganda. Sixty-two postdoctoral researchers have been matched to Cambridge colleagues for on-going collaborations.
Cambridge-Africa ALBORADA Research Fund, sponsored by ̽��ֱ��ALBORADA Trust; 2012-26. ̽��ֱ��Fund enables researchers from Cambridge and sub-Saharan Africa, across all disciplines, to apply jointly for grants to initiate collaborations. Funds are awarded for research reagents, fieldwork, travel between Cambridge and Africa, and the purchase of equipment. As at 2017, >150 awards have been made to joint applicants from Cambridge and their colleagues, in 18 African countries.
Wellcome Trust-Cambridge Centre for Global Health Research (WT-CCGHR), funded by Wellcome Trust; 2013-18. WT-CCGHR is helping to combat African and global health challenges. It capitalises on the extensive biomedical and health-related research capacity across many departments and research institutes at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, as well as the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute.

Other Key Activities/Achievements of the Cambridge-Africa Programme Include:

Enabling the development of Africa-related initiatives and cross-School funding applications.
Supporting Cambridge researchers to teach and organise relevant courses and workshops in Africa.
Providing video-linked, live, interactive lectures by Cambridge academics to students in Africa.
Creating a platform for networking and debate between African and non-African students and staff in Cambridge, and mentoring African applicants who aim to study at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge.

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

Yes

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

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

“Africa needs a million new PhD researchers over the next decade.” It’s 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’s challenges.

“There are world-class academics in Africa,” he explains, “but 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.”

Dunne is Director of the Cambridge-Africa Programme, a ̽��ֱ�� initiative that for the past eight years has been building collaborative links between Cambridge and Africa. ̽��ֱ��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 – 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 – five per year, every year for five years. “It’s at least a beginning,” says Dunne. “We want this programme to grow in Cambridge, and other universities.”

One criterion is that the prospective student must be studying issues that are priorities for Africa. ̽��ֱ��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’d worked as an electrical engineer for two years when she decided that she wanted to use her skills to bring about social change. “What 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.”

In 2012, the United Nations General Assembly declared access to the internet as a basic human right. But figures from 2014 gathered for Taskeen’s 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’s keen to develop an online educational framework adapted for, and relevant to, communities in developing countries.

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

̽��ֱ��pilot project won Taskeen accolades. She was listed among South Africa’s Mail & Guardian’s 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’s 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.

“My trip demonstrated the mismatch between the deliverables and the outcomes of the scheme. ̽��ֱ��focus was on technology deployment, rather than on improving educational attainment,” she says. “Many 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.”

Richmond Juvenile 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’s Department of Land Economy. After his first degree at Ghana’s Kwame Nkrumah ̽��ֱ�� of Science and Technology, he worked as a research consultant and estate manager.

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

As Western lifestyles become increasingly popular, the older-style family compounds associated with traditional Ghanaian culture are declining, even in rural areas. “With literacy rates and standards of living rising, households are demanding greater privacy and better sanitation which, in most traditional compound houses, are greatly compromised,” 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. “In Ghana, the new gated communities tend to be multiracial rather than segregated according to race or nationality. ̽��ֱ��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,” he says.

Entire neighbourhoods can benefit from the expectations of the owners of the new properties, he explains: “It’s 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 – and help to raise incomes and opportunities.”

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.

̽��ֱ��multiplier effect

Dunne points to such plans as an indicator of the promise of the Cambridge-Africa PhD studentship scheme. “We are training 25 Cambridge-Africa scholars. It’s 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.”

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

̽��ֱ��Cambridge-Africa PhD studentship scheme is funded by the ̽��ֱ�� and the Cambridge Trust.

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

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

̽��ֱ��world needs African researchers. We can’t have a situation where 14% of the world’s population – living on a continent with unique culture, diversity and environment – contributes less than 1% of published research output.

David Dunne

Nick Saffell

Taskeen Adam and Richmond Juvenile Ehwi

̽��ֱ��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 favour of those who are better resourced and in favour of those who receive, and give, 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’t 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’s been working in Africa with African colleagues on neglected tropical diseases: “I realised that they were brilliant but they didn’t have the opportunities they deserved to make their unique contribution both to solving Africa’s challenges and to adding to the sum of global knowledge.

“Even 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,” he explains. “There just aren’t enough of them.”

“In 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,” says Dunne. “Both are absolutely essential.”

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 “while avoiding the loss of indigenous talent that so often occurs when better opportunities are available outside of Africa.”

Cambridge-Africa is the result. This ̽��ֱ��-wide institutional structure is designed to make expertise and resources available to support African researchers working in Africa on 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 ‘matchmaking’ model of partnership, as Dr Pauline Essah explains: “We 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.”

She adds: “Being an African myself, and having studied in an African university before studying and working in Cambridge, I know that it wouldn’t 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.”

Dunne and Essah began with targeting research in health: “We saw this as an easy win on both sides – it meets one of Africa’s greatest challenges, and it gives wider geographic scope to Cambridge researchers.”

They were surprised however by the scale of the response: “We were pushing against an open door,” 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 ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge’s official international strategy to support African academia across all subject areas.

“And of course this is good for Cambridge too,” says Dunne. “It 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 ̽��ֱ��.”

Speaking at the annual Cambridge-Africa Day symposium, Cambridge’s Vice-Chancellor Professor Sir Leszek Borysiewicz said: “ ̽��ֱ��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’s success. Today, it is no longer something done by a handful of enthusiasts. It is now something embedded in the ̽��ֱ��’s DNA.”

Adds Dunne: “ ̽��ֱ��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.” 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.

“Universities are not just luxury items for wealthy societies,” he says. “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.”

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’s engagement with Africa, follow #CamAfrica on Twitter.

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

We ask how a 'matchmaking' programme that teams up Cambridge and African researchers is making expertise and resources 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 ̽��ֱ��/Uganda Virus Research Institute Infection and Immunity Research (MUII)

Training Health Researchers into Vocational Excellence (THRiVE)

Wellcome Trust-Cambridge Centre for Global Health Research

̽��ֱ��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 has waived application fees for graduate students from most African countries

ag236 — Wed, 26 Oct 2016 09:54:52 +0000

Applause greeted the statement by Professor David Dunne, Director of the Cambridge-Africa Programme, as he confirmed that Cambridge has waived the usual application fee for nationals of many of the world’s least developed countries.

Welcoming participants to the third edition of the Cambridge-Africa Day, he expressed his aspiration that this policy will allow Cambridge to attract increasing numbers of talented graduate students to the various scholarship schemes available for Sub-Saharan students.

“ ̽��ֱ��purpose of the Cambridge-Africa Programme is to make Cambridge’s support available to African researchers working on African problems, allowing them to build capacity in their home universities.” ̽��ֱ��fee waiver, he added, is a “major contribution” to that effort.

In his opening remarks, Professor Sir Leszek Borysiewicz, Vice-Chancellor of the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, asked: “Why should academic institutions get involved in tackling some of the world’s most insoluble problems?”

“Because we have to decide what our values are, and how they allow us to succeed in our mission. Cambridge’s mission is to contribute to society through education, learning and research. ̽��ֱ��definition of society has changed over the past 800 years –but today that society is global.”

He added: “Being high on league tables does not make a university global. ̽��ֱ��real challenge is: what are you giving up? How are you sharing your influence to support other institutions? It’s not about aggrandising oneself, but about aggrandising others.”

̽��ֱ��Vice-Chancellor described the capacity building Cambridge-Africa Programme, set up in 2008, as an ambitious, long-term project with sustainability at its heart. “Cambridge-Africa is about planting seeds that allow partner institutions to thrive.”

Addressing a packed auditorium in Emmanuel College’s Queen’s Building, the Vice-Chancellor mentioned the Programme’s partnerships with over 50 African institutions across 23 countries, including its two regional hubs at the ̽��ֱ�� of Ghana, Legon, and at Makerere ̽��ֱ��, in Uganda.

̽��ֱ��Programme has enlisted the expertise and mentorship of a network of over 200 Cambridge collaborators, and to date has supported 70 African post-doctoral researchers and 35 African PhD students.

“ ̽��ֱ�� ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge has invested £4 million pounds in the Cambridge-Africa Programme, and has leveraged that to attract £6.9 million to the ̽��ֱ�� for its mentorship and collaboration initiatives”, he said. “Crucially, this has led to almost £21.9 million in external funding being allocated to our African partners”.

In the day’s first keynote address, Kenyan palaeontologist Professor Richard Leakey said that internationally renowned universities like Cambridge should do more to educate civil servants and policymakers in Africa about the importance of research and education:

“A ̽��ֱ�� like Cambridge can play a much bigger role in Africa by interacting with African government at the highest level.”

He assured the audience of students, academics, administrators, NGO representatives and philanthropists that the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge is likely to be identified with the next major breakthrough in our understanding of African history.

“ ̽��ֱ��story of Africa is important for Africa, and Africans. There is a gap of self awareness in terms of who we are. We have an opportunity to see some real cooperation between Cambridge and Kenya.”

̽��ֱ��afternoon’s keynote speaker, Her Excellency Mrs Toyin Saraki, made an eloquent plea for closer collaboration between universities and Africa’s maternal and neo-natal health specialists.

Mrs Saraki, founder of the Wellbeing Foundation Africa, a non-profit organisation working with governments and NGOs across Africa to ensure better maternal, new-born and child health, remarked on the difficulties faced by women in her own country, Nigeria –where 14% of women are likely to die from maternal mortality complications.

“I started the Wellbeing Foundation out of personal suffering. We’ve moved beyond the suffering to providing the solutions.”

She challenged the audience to consider how academic research can cascade down to impact individuals at a community level: “What we need from our partnership with universities is the evidence that will allow us to advocate for the necessary support to improve maternal health and those providing it.”

̽��ֱ��day’s final keynote speaker, Professor Ebenezer Owusu, Vice-Chancellor of the ̽��ֱ�� of Ghana, recalled the collaborative links between his institution and the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge going back to 1948, when Cambridge academics helped to found what was then called the ̽��ֱ�� of the Gold Coast.

“Cambridge has long offered opportunities to train Ghana’s human capital and help meet Ghana’s developmental needs,” he said, reflecting on how the Cambridge-Africa Partnership for Research Excellence (CAPREx) has helped build capacity in research management at the ̽��ֱ�� of Ghana.

“There is a shift in the place of Africa in the world today,” he said. “It is amplified by the ‘Africa Rising’ narrative, and by the resoluteness of African growth in the face of an economic downturn. Yet the continent’s higher education institutions have not changed. There is a need for more inclusive partnerships with universities like Cambridge.”

He added: “Africa must lead research initiatives in solving African problems.There is a need for a new type of partnership: equal partnership in the generation of knowledge and creative solutions, not just for Africa abut for the world.”

At the end of a day that included discussions on collaborations in African archaeology, conservation, maternal health, plant science, pharmacology, social enterprise and student-led Africa-focussed initiatives, Professor Eilís Ferran, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for International Affairs summed up the key ideas:

“We’ve learned about the need to study a problem in the population most affected by it. We’ve heard about the multiplying effect of training the key people in any discipline. We’ve considered the challenges of mentoring, and raised the question of whether we are doing enough to equip people to operate in challenging environments. And we are clear about the challenges of new partnerships, and the role of African universities in leading those partnerships.”

Regarding the sustainability of the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge’s engagement with Africa, she concluded: “Frankly, it’s here to stay”.

Details of the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge's Graduate Admissions policy for applicants from Least Developed and Low-Income Countries can be found here.

̽��ֱ�� ̽��ֱ��’s policy on graduate admissions was reiterated at the opening of the third Cambridge-Africa Day

̽��ֱ��Cambridge-Africa Programme is about planting seeds that allow partner institutions to thrive.

Professor Sir Leszek Borysewicz

Nic Marchant

Prof Sir Leszek Borysiewicz

̽��ֱ��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 confirms its leading role in engagement with Africa

pbh25 — Tue, 20 Oct 2015 15:24:32 +0000

̽��ֱ��start of the 2015-2016 academic year has brought good news for the team of researchers and coordinators involved in the university-wide Cambridge-Africa Programme.

Over the past few weeks, funders of some of the Programme’s flagship initiatives to enhance African research capacity through mentorship and collaboration have pledged their continuing support, ensuring the continuity of efforts to develop capacity and leadership in African research.

̽��ֱ��Carnegie Corporation of New York recently approved a renewal grant of US$1M for the Cambridge-Africa Partnership for Research Excellence (CAPREx). Over the next three years, the grant will fund 24 fellowships for early and mid-career scholars from the ̽��ֱ�� of Ghana, Legon and Makerere ̽��ֱ��, Kampala. ̽��ֱ��fellowships will allow researchers, in all fields, to spend time at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and contribute to the promotion of research excellence in their home institutions.

̽��ֱ��CAPREx initiative was originally set up in 2012 with a US$1.2M gift from the Carnegie Corporation, and has since supported 30 postdoctoral fellowships with another 10 funded by the Newton Trust. An addiotional 12 fellowships for research administrators have also been supported.

Earlier this year, the Wellcome Trust and the Department for International Development (DfID) announced that, as part of the Developing Excellence in Leadership, Training and Science (DELTAS) Initiative, which will award £46M to encourage the creation of world-class research environments at African universities, they are renewing their support for MUII (now called MUII+), [P1] a capacity-building collaboration between Makerere ̽��ֱ��, the Uganda Virus Research Institute, LSHTM and Cambridge. As part of the DELTAS initiative, MUII+ will receive £4.6M over five years.

̽��ֱ��DELTAS initiative also awarded £5.1M to the ̽��ֱ�� of Ghana’s West African Centre for Cell Biology of Infectious Pathogens (WACCBIP), in support of research projects involving the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge’s Prof Mark Carrington.

This news comes in the wake of the announcement, over the summer, of a major gift of £4M over 10 years, by the ALBORADA Trust, to support Cambridge researchers who wish to initiate or enhance research projects in all disciplines involving partners at sub-Saharan African universities or research institutions.

“These announcements reaffirm what we’ve known for some time,” said Professor David Dunne, Director of the Cambridge-Africa Programme: “That Cambridge is the go-to institution to help build capacity for African researchers working in Africa, on African priorities. Our funders and sponsors have acknowledged this, and we are very grateful to them for that.”

Funding for capacity-building initiatives is renewed ahead of the ̽��ֱ��'s second annual Cambridge-Africa Day.

Cambridge is the go-to institution to help build capacity for African researchers working in Africa.

Professor David Dunne

Eelke

Earth

Cambridge-Africa Day 2015

Keynote Speakers: Professor Sir Leszek Borysiewicz (Vice Chancellor of the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge) and Dr Monique Nsanzabaganwa (Vice Governor of the National Bank of Rwanda)
Date: 23rd October 2015
Venue: St John's College (Palmerston Room, Fisher Building) in Cambridge
There will be a wide range of short presentations about Cambridge's involvement in research capacity building in African institutions, and the numerous mutually-beneficial collaborative research and development projects that Cambridge and African researchers and students are involved in.

̽��ֱ��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 engagement with Africa will expand following major gift

th288 — Fri, 04 Sep 2015 13:59:40 +0000

̽��ֱ��ALBORADA Trust, a UK charity that supports the global advancement of education, health, poverty relief and animal welfare, has confirmed that it will donate £4 million to the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge’s flagship Cambridge-Africa Programme.

This donation signals the ALBORADA Trust’s growing commitment to the Cambridge-Africa Programme, which it has been supporting for the past three years.

̽��ֱ��funds will help researchers at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge to initiate or enhance research projects in all disciplines involving partners at sub-Saharan African universities or research institutions. Support from the Cambridge-Africa ALBORADA Research Fund can cover research costs, including equipment, fieldwork, travel and research training costs in Africa.

Since its creation in 2012, the Cambridge-Africa ALBORADA Research Fund has supported 78 research projects in 11 African countries in more than 30 areas of knowledge. ̽��ֱ��projects have involved 28 African institutions, with 78 African researchers and 86 Cambridge researchers participating.

Projects that have received awards from the ALBORADA Research Fund in the past year include Ha-Joon Chang and Julius Kiiza’s investigation of the links between development and incipient state institutions in Rwanda; Devon Curtis and Paul Omach’s research into local communities and peacebuilding in Northern Uganda; and Andrew Grant and Maitshwarelo Ignatious Matsheka’s study of Campylobacter bacteria from diarrhoeal patients and chickens in Botswana.

Travel awards have facilitated research into enteric infections (Ian Goodfellow and Allison Elliott), and into capacity-building in computational linguistics (Paula Battery and Fridah Katushemererwe) –both in Uganda. They have also allowed researchers to examine the challenges to the sustainability of heritage sites in Kenya, Ghana, Sierra Leone and Botswana (Marie Louise Stig Sorensen and Chris Boonzaaier).

Professor David Dunne, Director of the Cambridge-Africa Programme, remarked: “ ̽��ֱ��first donation by the ALBORADA Trust in 2012, to match funding provided by the Carnegie Corporation of New York, for our Cambridge-Africa Partnership for Research Excellence (CAPREx) initiative, was essential to strengthening the ̽��ֱ��’s engagement with African partners. It enabled the establishment of research collaborations between Cambridge and Africa, and in many cases allowed the collaborators to obtain further external national and international funding.

“ ̽��ֱ��new gift will more than double the value of the awards we can make over the next 10 years. It consolidates the Cambridge-Africa Programme’s activities as one of the ̽��ֱ��’s major international initiatives, and sends a strong signal to other potential funders about the Programme’s strengths.”

Commenting on the gift, Professor James Wood, Head of the Department of Veterinary Medicine and ALBORADA Professor of Equine and Farm Animal Science, said: “We know that across the African continent there are large numbers of talented people we can support through the Cambridge-Africa ALBORADA Research Fund.

“This gift will allow us to engage with many of them on a much wider scale, and to make sure they are performing at their best—not just while in Cambridge but also while delivering the results of their research in their own communities, countries and regions.”

̽��ֱ��Vice-Chancellor of the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, Professor Sir Leszek Borysiewicz, added: “ ̽��ֱ��generous support of the ALBORADA Trust played a pivotal role in establishing the Cambridge-Africa Programme. This extension will be transformative, offering us the unique opportunity to enhance the programme’s impact across the continent.”

Pictures: Jenneke van der Wal, ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, and Saudah Namyalo, Makerere ̽��ֱ��, received ALBORADA funding for their study of the Luganda language.

̽��ֱ�� ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge’s determination to enhance research capacity across Africa, and to engage in collaborative research with African partners, has been given a significant boost following the announcement of a major gift.

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

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Harnessing the power of research to benefit developing countries

gm349 — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 15:36:33 +0000

On Thursday 2 May, the CEO of the GAVI Alliance, Dr Seth Berkley, will discuss how to harness the power of research to expedite the development of vaccines appropriate for developing countries and improve access to them.

Dr Berkley’s talk will set out how the GAVI Alliance’s public-private partnership model brings together donors, developing countries, industry, civil society and academia to solve the challenges of reaching every child with vaccines no matter where they are born.

GAVI leverages expertise across a variety of sectors, including innovative financing for development, supply chain management, the development of mobile phone platforms for the collection of epidemiological data, mathematical modelling of infectious disease and health economics and policy.

Prior to joining GAVI in 2011, Dr Berkley was the founder, president and CEO of the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI) for over a decade. His talk, ‘Harnessing the power of science research and the public and private sector: a 21st century model for international development’, is the Wellcome Trust-Cambridge Centre for Global Health Research’s inaugural lecture.

Dr Berkley’s talk will be followed with a presentation by the world-leading flu expert, Professor Derek Smith, Director of the WHO Collaborating Centre for Modelling, Evolution and Control of Emerging Infectious Diseases at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge. There will be an opportunity for questions and answers after the talks.

̽��ֱ��evening begins at 5.30pm at the Howard Lecture Theatre, Downing College, Cambridge (map). If you would like to attend, please RSVP: http://wt-cghr-cambridge-gavi-lecture.eventbrite.com/

Professor David Dunne, Director of the Wellcome Trust-Cambridge Centre for Global Health Research and host of the lecture, said: “By partnering with globally important organisations such as the GAVI Alliance, Cambridge’s multi-disciplinary research and technology communities can have a more profound effect on international development, public health, and the lives of people in the developing world.”

“As an innovative public-private partnership, the GAVI Alliance works to harness the expertise and experience from a range of sectors to help us to improve access to lifesaving vaccines for children in developing countries,” said Dr Seth Berkley, CEO of the GAVI Alliance. “Our partners range from WHO and UNICEF to donors – including the UK government – implementing countries, vaccine manufacturers, civil society organisations, and academia.

“We have made great progress in the past decade, but the stark reality is that 22 million children born every year around the world don’t receive the immunisation they need against potentially fatal childhood illnesses. Supply chain management, improving the quality of vaccine coverage data and developing vaccines that remain highly effective outside of cold storage systems are just some of the challenges which, if they can be overcome, would have a huge positive impact on GAVI’s ability to reach more children.

“Cambridge ̽��ֱ�� has an outstanding reputation for academic research, coupled with its commitment to Africa, which makes it an ideal forum to set out the challenges and opportunities in improving access to immunisation in developing countries.”

̽��ֱ��GAVI Alliance is a public-private partnership which aims to immunise a quarter of a billion additional children in the developing world with life-saving vaccines by 2015. With GAVI support, countries are now introducing new vaccines against the primary causes of two of the biggest childhood killers in the world: pneumonia and severe diarrhoea. Together these diseases account for 30% of child deaths in low-income countries. It was established in 2000 by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the UK government and others to improve access to immunisation.

̽��ֱ��Wellcome Trust-Cambridge Centre for Global Health Research status was awarded to the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge in February of this year. ̽��ֱ��Centre plans to capture and capitalise on the extensive basic biomedical and health-related research capacity across many departments and research institutes in Cambridge. It will make this fully available for research capacity building and knowledge exchange partnerships with African universities and institutes, as a means of improving the health and welfare of those in low- and middle-income countries.

CEO of GAVI Alliance to give Wellcome Trust-Cambridge Centre for Global Health Research inaugural lecture

We have made great progress in the past decade, but the stark reality is that 22 million children born every year around the world don’t receive the immunisation they need.

Dr Seth Berkley, CEO of the GAVI Alliance

Harnessing the power of science research and the public and private sector

gavi_2012_olivier_asselin

Vaccinations in Ghana

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Cambridge named one of Wellcome Trust’s Centres for Global Health Research

admin — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 16:25:15 +0000

̽��ֱ��Wellcome Trust has named the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge as the site of one of its five Centres for Global Health Research.

̽��ֱ��Centres will be located at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine for the Bloomsbury Universities, ̽��ֱ�� of Liverpool in partnership with ̽��ֱ�� of Glasgow, Imperial College London and ̽��ֱ�� of Sussex. ̽��ֱ��Wellcome Trust has committed more than £3m to these Centres over the next five years.

Centres for Global Health Research are intended to support researchers working in public health and tropical medicine to develop their careers, and foster interchange between institutions in the UK and those based in low- and middle-income countries.

Scientific infrastructure, research training and mentorship are weak and under-resourced in many parts of Africa, contributing to a failure to apply modern technologies and medical advances to the health challenges still facing much of the continent. Because of these many difficulties, the Centre in Cambridge will be working with researchers in parts of Africa.

̽��ֱ��Cambridge Centre plans to capture and capitalise on the extensive basic biomedical and health-related research capacity across many departments and research institutes in Cambridge. They will make this fully available for research capacity building and knowledge exchange partnerships with African universities and institutes, as a means of improving the health and welfare of those in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC).

Support for the Centre does not include research money but gives some core funds to allow them to mentor and guide African researchers interested in building an academic career in these fields to compete for high-quality fellowships applications to such schemes as the Wellcome Trust programme.

Professor David Dunne, Director of the Cambridge Centre, said: “ ̽��ֱ��strengthening of Africa’s indigenous scientific research base is crucial to the identification of its disease control and public health priorities, to the discovery and successful application of appropriate solutions, as well as to overall development.

“Our aim is to use Cambridge’s outstanding research capabilities and influence to support the development of African biomedical science and global health research through co-coordinated, cross-faculty research strengthening and scientific training activities, and collaborative research partnerships.”

Professor Sharon Peacock, Deputy Director of the Cambridge Centre and Chair of the Cambridge Infectious Diseases Initiative, said: “This award is indicative of the gains already made through THRiVE and other initiatives in Cambridge in creating effective exchange partnerships with African universities and institutes, and provides important strengthening to the infrastructure in Cambridge that will be required to support further development of this programme.”

̽��ֱ��‘Training Health Researchers into Vocational Excellence in East Africa’ (THRiVE) partnership is a collaboration between the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and seven East African universities and institutions. Makerere ̽��ֱ�� in Uganda is the lead university for the THRiVE Consortium, and Professor Nelson Sewankambo (Co-PI for the Cambridge Centre for Global Health Research) is the Director.

THRiVE aims to strengthen institutional research capacity in East Africa, and to support the next generation of East African researchers to become internationally competitive and self-sustaining scientific leaders, seeding a regional research community with the critical mass to address African health priorities. More information about THRiVE (and other capacity building programmes) in Cambridge is available at https://www.cambridge-africa.cam.ac.uk/initiatives/thrive/.

Centre will support researchers working in public health and tropical medicine.

̽��ֱ��strengthening of Africa's indigenous scientific research base is crucial to the identification of its disease control and public health priorities, to the discovery and successful application of appropriate solutions, as well as to overall development

Professor David Dunne, Director of the Cambridge Centre

Dr Sabina Wachira

Dr Sabina Wachira, a THRiVE postdoctoral fellow from icipe in Kenya, who visited her Cambridge mentor (Dr David Spring of the Department of Chemistry)'s lab in 2012

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