Experiences in an African-European-cooperation project: strengthening research capacity in cement and concrete in Africa
- This report is based on a three-year experience as coordinator of the ACP-EU funded SPIN project. The project involved eight African and three European partners. Practical and unforeseeable problems are addressed that occurred during the project implementation and ways how they were successfully solved are reported. The major problems in many African institutions were administrations that are not used to work in multi-national consortia and a lack of institutional support for the African researchers. In Europe a misjudgement of the African boundary conditions as well as inflexible administrations caused problems. Finally the funding scheme did not always allow to easily overcome the high number of unexpected practical problems. A major deficit identified during the project was a general trend in Africa to underestimate the role of research for the development of the continent. Most universities focus on teaching applied sciences, which is without doubt important to cover the marketThis report is based on a three-year experience as coordinator of the ACP-EU funded SPIN project. The project involved eight African and three European partners. Practical and unforeseeable problems are addressed that occurred during the project implementation and ways how they were successfully solved are reported. The major problems in many African institutions were administrations that are not used to work in multi-national consortia and a lack of institutional support for the African researchers. In Europe a misjudgement of the African boundary conditions as well as inflexible administrations caused problems. Finally the funding scheme did not always allow to easily overcome the high number of unexpected practical problems. A major deficit identified during the project was a general trend in Africa to underestimate the role of research for the development of the continent. Most universities focus on teaching applied sciences, which is without doubt important to cover the market need for qualified staff in the rapidly growing African industries. However, this makes it unattractive for highly qualified performers to conduct research on the continent. Furthermore this leads to the situation that the curricula can only contain second hand knowledge. In order to attract international high level researchers, it is suggested to install multi-national regional excellence research centres that only promote PhD and post-doc research on a level that can cope with highest international excellence. High level research is often perceived as not capable of focusing on immediate actual problems that many African economies have to cope with.. However, it is considered to be very sustainable in terms of autonomy and mastering future challenges.…
Autor*innen: | Wolfram SchmidtORCiD, H.C. Uzoegbo, Nsesheye Susan PriebeORCiD, Hans-Carsten KühneORCiD, Andreas Rogge |
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Persönliche Herausgeber*innen: | H.C. Uzoegbo, Wolfram SchmidtORCiD |
Dokumenttyp: | Beitrag zu einem Tagungsband |
Veröffentlichungsform: | Eigenverlag BAM |
Sprache: | Englisch |
Titel des übergeordneten Werkes (Englisch): | ACCTA - International conference on advances in cement and concrete technology in Africa 2013 (Proceedings) |
Jahr der Erstveröffentlichung: | 2013 |
Herausgeber (Institution): | Bundesanstalt für Materialforschung und -prüfung (BAM) |
Erste Seite: | 1177 |
Letzte Seite: | 1184 |
Veranstaltung: | ACCTA - International conference on advances in cement and concrete technology in Africa 2013 |
Veranstaltungsort: | Johannesburg, South Africa |
Beginndatum der Veranstaltung: | 28.01.2013 |
Enddatum der Veranstaltung: | 30.01.2013 |
ISBN: | 978-3-9815360-3-4 |
Bemerkung: | Geburtsname von Priebe, Nsesheye Susan: Msinjili, N. S. - Birth name of Priebe, Nsesheye Susan: Msinjili, N. S. |
Verfügbarkeit des Dokuments: | Datei im Netzwerk der BAM verfügbar ("Closed Access") |
Datum der Freischaltung: | 20.02.2016 |
Referierte Publikation: | Nein |