Building capacity in the basic sciences is critical to the future success of Africa, says Phillip Griffiths, TWAS Associate Fellow 2000. Article here.

As more African nations emerge from post-colonial turmoil, most of their leaders have agreed on the importance of strengthening their own science, technology and innovation capacity. As in other societies around the world, such capacity is rooted in the knowledge embodied in universities and their students, faculty and graduates who use and disseminate this knowledge to develop food security and innovate ways of increasing food production, as well as energy resources, public health skills, and economic growth. Article here.

The African Materials Science and Engineering Network (AMSEN) held its first workshop towards the end of January in Windhoek. Article here (scroll down to access it).

A new study by Joseph Nguta, whose work toward his PhD is funded through the Carnegie Corporation of New York-supported Regional Initiative in Science and Education (RISE), documents medicinal plants that are traditionally used to treat malaria by Kenya’s Msambweni community on the country’s south coast, where the disease is endemic.

The paper, in the March issue of Journal of Ethnopharmacology, discusses work conducted by Nguta at the University of Nairobi, a research center within the African Natural Products Network (RISE-AFNNET), one of five RISE networks. The paper, titled "Antimalarial herbal remedies of Msambweni, Kenya" was co-authored with four other reseachers from University of Nairobi. Article here.

A 2009 paper by a team of researchers, including three from an MSI Nucleus, the Montessus de Ballore International Earthquake Research Center, has been cited in the Chilean press in the wake of the magnitude 8.8 earthquake in Chile in February 2010.

The authors wrote in a paper published last year that “the region from 35◦S to 37◦S is a likely spot for a major subduction earthquake in the coming decades,” and “in a worst case scenario, the area already has a potential for an earthquake of magnitude as large as 8–8.5, should it happen in the near future.”

The epicenter of the February 27 quake was 35.8 degrees south latitude.

Science and education development can only flourish in Africa through support for home grown institutions. The Regional Initiative in Science and Education, RISE, has been striving to achieve this for the past 18 months through university-based networks that train science and engineering academics for African universities.

African university leaders wanted qualified science faculty and agreed on a research and training programme for scientists and engineers. In June 2007 the African Academy of Sciences and the Princeton-based Science Initiative Group, sponsored by the Carnegie Corporation of New York, met to plan the establishment of RISE. Article here.

Collaborations and exchange programs have been identified as measures that can improve research works and tackle human capital challenges in African universities.

A professor of building engineering and material research from the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa, Yunus Ballim and his counterpart, Professor Lesley Cornish of the Centre of Excellence in Strong Materials, penultimate week, were at the Federal University of Technology, Akure (FUTA) to discuss research strategies on material science. Article here.

From Chapter 3: Under-resourced and poorly targeted higher education systems bring dissatisfaction amongst both students and trained scientists. For this reason, bright students and researchers leave to study and pursue careers in developed countries. This “brain drain” denies national science innovation systems some of their most skilled and motivated individuals. One way of addressing the “brain drain” is through new programmes, such as those coordinated by the Science Innovation [sic] Group, which supports MSc and PhD training for scientists and engineers in Africa. The group, through the Regional Initiative in Science and Education (RISE) programme, has set-up networks across a number of African universities, so that resources can be pooled in key subject areas, such as biochemistry and marine science. This support, along with links to experts abroad, helps encourage students to stay, and to prepare new, highly qualified teachers for the region. Book available here.
 

With 2010 and the five-year countdown to the MDGs about to get underway, policymakers are keenly aware that few countries can hope to achieve their development goals without the scientific, engineering, and technical/vocational capacity to handle pressing development issues such as food security, cleaner energy, adaptation to climate change, improving health systems, providing water and sanitation services, generating wealth and jobs, and reducing absolute poverty. There can be no sustainable solutions to any of these problems if countries do not build the capacity to find and develop appropriate technologies, and modify them for local use.

“Developing countries cannot hope to prosper in an increasingly competitive global economy and open trading system if they don’t build the appropriate science, technology, innovation-entrepreneurial, engineering, and technical/vocational capacity to produce more value-added goods and services,” says the Bank’s Human Development Network (HDN) STI Coordinator Al Watkins who organized the Global Forum on STI to help better leverage science and technology partnerships in North and South for sustainable development. Article here.

Ban Ki-moon, Secretary-General of the United Nations, will chair the fourth meeting of the Global Colloquium of University Presidents on January 14-15. The meeting will take place on the campus of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, USA. This year’s meeting, which will be hosted by Yale President Richard C. Levin, is dedicated to the theme of “The Roles of Science in Meeting Global Challenges.” The goal is to provide useful guidance to the Secretary-General as he seeks to ensure that the benefits of technology and science are broadly distributed and mobilized to address pressing world problems.

Keynote speakers at the meeting will include Dr. Bruce Alberts, head of the InterAcademy Council and former president of the National Academy of Sciences; Professor Phillip Griffiths, former director of the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton; and Chris Field, Co-Chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Working Group II. The speakers will discuss their experiences with organizations designed to promote international collaboration on technical and scientific matters. The presidents and vice chancellors will explore opportunities for cooperation and ways to build research capacity in developing countries. Announcement here.

Following on a 10-year more than $100 million investment to strengthen higher education in Africa, Carnegie Corporation of New York's President, Vartan Gregorian, announced today that the foundation expects to make an initial investment of approximately $30 million over the next three years in a new strategy that will strengthen sub-Saharan Africa's next generation of educators and university leaders.

Grants will focus on three countries, South Africa, Ghana and Uganda, while a series of complementary discipline-based regional networks will offer competitive training fellowships to draw academics and researchers throughout sub-Saharan Africa. Press release here.

Representatives from the ACGT associate network, SABINA (Southern African Biochemistry and Informatics for Natural Products) recently gave progress feedback at the second annual The Carnegie-IAS Regional Initiative in Science and Education (RISE) Meeting in Nairobi Kenya from 28 - 29 September.

The five RISE networks were all represented at the meeting where issues relating to students and mentoring, communication, institutional buy-in and equipment were among the topics of discussion. In attendance on behalf of SABINA were Jane Morris of the ACGT, Martha Kandawa-Schulz from the University of Namibia, as well as John Saka and Frank Ngonda of the University of Malawi. Article here and here.

Prof Lesley Cornish and Dr Tanya Capecchi attended the second Regional Initiative in Science and Education (RISE) from 28 – 29 September 2009, in Nairobi, Kenya.

The meeting was most useful from interactions with the sponsors of the program, as well as discussions with other members of the African materials Science and Engineering Network, AMSEN. Prof. L.A. Cornish also took this opportunity to meet with the students at the University of Nairobi who she is co-supervising. Newsletter here.

USA Embassy in Botswana Charge d'Affaires, Mr. Scott Hamilton officially launched UB Node of African Materials Science and Engineering Network (AMSEN) on October 13, 2009 at the Old UB Staff Lounge. The other member universities are University of Namibia, University of Nairobi, Witwatersrand University, South Africa and Federal University of Technology Akure, Nigeria.

The objectives of AMSEN are to build research and training (R&T) capacity in materials science and engineering, and to train manpower for staff positions in the participating universities. Article here.

The government of Uganda in the year 2007 received funding support from the World Bank for implementation of the Uganda Millennium Science Initiative (MSI) Project.

The project is being implemented by the Uganda National Council for Science and Technology (UNCST), which is the national institution responsible for development and promotion of S&T policies and strategies and their integration in national development processes.

The UNCST will therefore, in October 2009, conduct the Millennium Science Initiative Project Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) Surveys 2009, focusing on: ‘Researchers in Science, Technology and Engineering Institutions’, ‘Secondary School Students’ Attitudes towards Science and Technology’, and ‘Client Attitudes towards UNCST and UIRI Service Delivery in MSI project execution’. The M&E data will guide implementation of the activities associated with these outcomes and provide benchmarks for the measurement of progression of their execution and their overall impact. Article here.

A year ago, the Science Initiative Group reported on the establishment of the Regional Initiative in Science and Education (RISE), which provides Ph.D. and M.S. training in science and engineering at networks of universities in sub-Saharan Africa. Read SIG annual report here.

CSIR Biosciences in March welcomed two doctoral students from Tanzania and Malawi as part of a human capital development initiative to boost the science, engineering and technology base on the continent and indirectly assist African countries to progress towards a knowledge-based economy.

The initiative emanates from the CSIR's affiliation to the Southern African Network for Biosciences (SANBio) and SABINA network, a body of six southern African research institutions seeking to exploit biodiversity in the region and increase capacity in natural products research with the view of increasing food security, public health and value-added exports. Article here.

Recruitment of students has begun in various African universities under a new initiative known as the Regional Initiative in Science and Education (RISE). Fifty-one students have been admitted in universities in five networks. Of the recruited students, thirty-five will pursue their doctorate degree, fifteen will pursue their masters degrees while one will be a post-doctoral fellow. Press release here.

Article here.

Article here.

The University of Botswana, together with a group of four other universities in sub-Saharan Africa, has been awarded US$800,000 collectively as funding for the African Materials Science and Engineering Network (AMSEN) project. AMSEN members include the University of Botswana, University of Namibia, Federal University of Technology, Akure, University of Nairobi and the University of Witwatersrand. These institutions will use the funds to assist each other in research and training in order to enhance manpower and facilities development in material science and engineering. The University of Botswana prides itself on participating in this project since it will contribute to the growth of the Faculty of Science at the university. Article here.

Sadly, many of the people best placed to address Africa's urgent problems — biologists, chemists, physicians, engineers — go abroad in search of better opportunities. They leave behind under-staffed, under-resourced universities and an upcoming generation of would-be scientists with too few mentors. Donors have been working for decades to mitigate the problem through programmes to support African universities and individual researchers, and there has been some progress. But unless African governments provide adequate resources to train scientists and engineers in their own universities, improvement will be unacceptably slow and Africa will continue to lose some of its most capable citizens. Article here.