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Tanzania: UDSM Lands Sh1 Billion Research Grant
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The Citizen (Dar es Salaam)
30 July 2008
Posted to the web 30 July 2008
Tom Mosoba and Orton Kiishweko
The University of Dar es Salaam (UDSM) has won a Sh1bn research and training grant to build its human capacity for sciences and engineering.
The award was among only three released for a network of African institutions of higher learning through sponsorship of the Carnegie Corporation of New York.
The grant, to be extended over nearly three years, is meant to increase the population of skilled PhD and MSc scientists and engineers teaching in Africa's universities.
UDSM, along with the University of Witwatersrand in South Africa and University of Malawi, were awarded $800,000 (Sh1 billion) each for their respective programmes picked through a competitive process by the Regional Initiative in Science and Education (RISE).
The RISE grants will be co-administered by the African Academy of Sciences based in Nairobi. The organisation is committed to tackling socio-economic challenges in Africa using science and technological innovations.
UDSM's Institute of Marine Sciences in Zanzibar would be the Tanzanian flag-bearer in the project under the leadership of Mr Alfonse Dubi. Their programme will be called "The Western Indian Ocean Regional Initiative in Marine Science and Education (WIO-RISE)".
According to a press release announcing the initiative, the Tanzanian programme will use research and training to promote sustainable development, utilisation and protection of the coastal and marine environment. It will have some partner universities in Mozambique and South Africa.
The other two awardees include the Southern African Biochemistry and Informatics for Natural Products, based at the University of Malawi, under the direction of John Saka. There will be more Tanzanian universities collaborating as partners in this research but their identities were not immediately revealed.
The African Materials Science and Engineering Network, led by Lesley Cornish of the University of Witwatersrand in South Africa, is the other beneficiary and its programme will focus on improving education in materials science to make fuller use of Africa's vast mineral deposits. Other participating universities are in Botswana, Kenya, Namibia and Nigeria.
The three awardees were selected from among 48 proposals involving 29 countries by a blue ribbon panel of international scientists.
"Proposals were evaluated based on scientific merit, training capacity, research activities, evidence of institutional support, added value of the network structure and potential for sustainability, including strategies for retaining faculty," the statement said.
"The establishment of regional scientific research centres is in direct response to demands within Africa for more and better university-based instructors.
"It is these types of investments that will facilitate Africa's accelerated development and greater and more meaningful participation in global knowledge flows," said Mr Vartan Gregorian, president of Carnegie Corporation, in the statement.
Thomas Egwang, director of the African Academy of Sciences in Nairobi, described the RISE initiative as "a welcome shot in the arm for science and technology training in African universities".
The three award winners were selected from among 48 proposals involving 29 countries by a blue ribbon panel of international scientists.
Proposals were evaluated based on scientific merit, training capacity, research activities, evidence of institutional support, added value of the network structure and potential for sustainability.
"The establishment of regional scientific research centers is in direct response to demands within Africa for more and better university-based instructors," said Mr Gregorian. "It is these types of investments that will facilitate Africa's accelerated development and greater and more meaningful participation in global knowledge flows."
The Carnegie Corporation of New York was a philanthropy created by Andrew Carnegie in 1911 to promote the advancement and diffusion of knowledge and understanding.
For more than 95 years, the Corporation has carried out Carnegie's vision of philanthropy by building on his two major concerns: international peace and advancing education and knowledge.
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