The University of the Witwatersrand’s African Centre for Migration & Society has been awarded the right to host the ARUA Centre of Excellence (CoE) for Migration and Mobility after competing with several other good universities for the hosting right.
There will be a range of research focusses, from fundamental to prototype devices, which should identify and develop new opportunities in an African context, e.g. minerals beneficiation, advanced manufacturing, off-grid energy technologies, housing and materials recycling.The ARUA CoE-MEN will become a hub for materials science and engineering in Africa, as well as the ideal environment in which to build research capacity and human capacity for Africa. The new ARUA CoE is positioning itself to be a centre for training African students and academics and to undertake relevant and innovative research, which will help to solve some of Africa’s problems. Taking the African response to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) into account (https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/), ARUA Nan-Mat will be contributing to Goal 3, Good Health and Well-being with projects that are aimed at improving medical implants, as well as to Goal 4, Quality Education, because one major focus of the CoE is to improve education, and to prepare better-equipped graduates. The Centre will also help with Goal 5, Gender Equality and Goal 10, Reduced Inequalities by closing gender and income gaps and being open to everyone interested in seeking a successful career in materials science.
It is supposed to act as a hub for small to medium size enterprises, which are so crucial in stabilizing the economy in many African countries. In the long run the project should then make major contributions to Goal 8, Decent Work and Economic Growth; Goal 7, Affordable and clean energy; Goal 9, Industry Innovation and Infrastructure, as well as and Goal 11, Sustainable Cities and Communities. The CoE will seek to develop technologies in a local African context, and aim at robust, sustainable and affordable technologies to promote Goal 12, Responsible Consumption and Production. Of course several different expertises are needed to run the various projects, and this is where Goal 17, Partnerships for the Goals comes into play. Once different products have been developed (e.g. alloys, processing routes…), then more partnerships (many already identified) will be needed for the production and testing, and this could help to build partnerships with small businesses and industrial partners.
DSI-NRF Centre of Excellence in Strong Materials, University of the Witwatersrand, Private Bag 3, WITS, South Africa, 2050
The Director of the ARUA CoE-MEN is Prof. Lesley Cornish, the Deputy Directors are Prof. Alex Quandt, Prof Claudia Polese, Prof Nosipho Moloto, and the Administrator is Mrs Marina Labuschagne. Contact:
Prof. Nosipho Moloto
Professor of Materials Science and Inorganic Chemistry
Nosipho.Moloto@wits.ac.za
+27 (0)11 717 6774
Prof. Lesley Cornish, director of the ARUA CoE MEN said, “We submitted one proposal on 30 April 30th and there is another to complete by the end of July. But we went to a N8-ARUA Workshop in Ghana in May,” says Prof. Lesley Cornish, director of the ARUA CoE MEN, who , and then next week, I will be going to an ACUNS [Academic Council on the United Nations System] Workshop in Stellenbosch in SDGs [Sustainable Development Goals].”
In conjunction with The African Materials Research Society, African Research Universities Alliance’ Centre of Excellence – Materials, Energy and Nanotechnology invites you to send an abstract of up to 300 words for their online Mini Conference taking place online Mini on Zoom at 09:00 am, on the 17th May 2023 (All times are in GMT +2 or South African Time Zone) under the Theme: “ENERGY SOLUTIONS FOR AFRICA”.
The conference is targeted at all scientists and researchers interested in materials, energy and nanotechnology, and will give you a chance to present your work online, and possibly help to obtain interest and some collaborations. The purpose of this virtual conference is to facilitate the exchange of ideas and advancements among researchers and students regarding the provision of sustainable energy to various regions in Africa.
For Abstract submissions, please click here. Upload your abstract on this link by 17 April 2023
To register for the Mini Conference proceedings, click here (FREE REGISTRATION)
To help early career researchers in the ARUA CoE-MEN (and other early career researchers anywhere), a series of videos have been made available on different research techniques and other skills necessary for researchers, such as improving writing skills, presentations, and writing research proposals. Here “early career researcher” is a wide definition, starting with students who are undertaking research and continuing to when they are employed as researchers, scientists and engineers. More videos will be added as they are made.
The ARUA CoE in Energy is a multidisciplinary, collaborative effort through the network of 15 African Universities to enhance the integrative links between Renewable Energy (RE), Water and Food, and thereby achieve sustainable agricultural development in Africa.
The ARUA CoE in Sustainable Food Systems (ARUA-SFS) is led by the University of Pretoria, in collaboration with the University of Ghana, Legon and the University of Nairobi. ARUA-SFS aims to connect Africa’s talented researchers with each other and the global academic community to collaboratively identify solutions to the food systems challenges of our time as articulated in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Agenda 2063: The Africa We Want.
Africa’s existing socioeconomic development challenges will be greatly compounded under climate change.
Next week, academics from ARUA and a number of British universities will meet to discuss closer research ties. Here, the University of Leeds describes one of the international collaborations it is involved with.
The ARUA VCs met between 24 and 26 April 2019 in Kigali, Rwanda. The meeting was hosted by Prof Phil Cotton on behalf of the University of Rwanda.
The biggest problems facing the world today will not be solved by researchers from a single discipline, a single university, or even a single continent.
The key is collaboration, where researchers can come together and share ideas about how to resolve those intractable issues that shorten lives, hold back economic development and impact on wellbeing: climate change, food security, disease and rebuilding communities ravaged by conflict.
If we as academics want to make a real change, we need to forge links with colleagues outside of our own disciplines and across borders.
That’s why I will be in Ghana in just under two weeks’ time – to meet academics from the African Research Universities Alliance (ARUA) to discuss future research partnerships.
In just under two weeks, academics from ARUA and eight British universities will meet in Ghana with the aim of forging a new chapter in research collaboration.
University of Glasgow played host to the Secretary-General of the African Research Universities Alliance, Professor Ernest Aryeetey, on 11th March 2019. The visit to University of Glasgow was at the invitation of the Dean for Global Engagement (Africa and Middle East), Professor Paul Garside. It was planned to facilitate follow-up discussions after the earlier meeting of ARUA Vice Chancellors and the Russell Group of Vice Chancellors in London last October. The Russell Group is currently chaired by Professor Anton Muscatelli, Principal and Vice Chancellor of University of Glasgow. In a tweet, Professor Muscatelli welcomed Professor Ernest Aryeetey to University of Glasgow.