USA Africa Dialogue Series - Fw: DFID, ACU and AAS Launch Climate Impacts Research Capacity Building Programme in Africa

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Subject: DFID, ACU and AAS Launch Climate Impacts Research Capacity Building Programme in Africa

DFID, ACU and AAS Launch Climate Impacts Research Capacity Building Programme in Africa

The Department for International Development (DFID) has approved a 5-year climate impact research capacity building programme for sub-Saharan Africa called "Climate Impacts Research Capacity and Leadership Enhancement (CIRCLE)". CIRCLE will cost £4.85 million and will strengthen institutional research in addition to providing 100 research fellowships from 2013 - 2018. The African Academy of Sciences (AAS) and the Association of Commonwealth Universities (ACU) will be implementing this project.

  DFID notes that research capability in Africa in the areas of climate science and climate change impacts, in the generation and utilization of technologies and information systems are seen as generally weak. African institutions and communities are, therefore, challenged to respond to climate change threats. Between 1981– 2009, scientists in Africa contributed less than 2% of global climate publications. DFID funding is aimed at developing Africa-based research capacity in order to enhance understanding of local impacts of climate change and ultimately inform and influence national and regional policy responses as well as international debate. CIRCLE will competitively identify 60 post-PhD and 40 post-MSc candidates from selected "home institutions" in sub-Saharan Africa to undertake structured research skills development through supervised placement in Africa-based "host research institutions".

The main research themes will be energy, water, agriculture, health and livelihoods as well as the political economy of dealing with climate change impacts. The focus will be to enhance the research skills of African scientists through experiential learning by doing research that offer solutions to the impacts of climate change at local, national and regional levels. Successful candidates will be supported and mentored by a combination of African and international researchers to define researchable climate impact research questions in consultation with relevant public interest groups.
Participating African research institutions will strengthen their research training programmes, mentoring, networking and quality assurance systems. Both home and host institutions will have their research training systems and programmes reviewed with a view to strengthening the rigour and quality of pedagogy. The strengthening of high quality research skills will enable these institutions and researchers to undertake cutting-edge research with the guidance of African and international researchers and publishers/editors that can be published in international peer-reviewed journals. DFID sees this project also as a way of building the capacity of the pan-African scientific institution (AAS).

The programme is expected to deliver the following:

• A gender sensitive increase in the number of high quality African researchers on Climate Change that can successfully design, deliver and communicate peer reviewed research.

• An improvement in the quality and performance of a number of Africa based Research Institutions' research-training management and support systems.

• An increase in annual streams of high quality, relevant and internationally peer-reviewed
research products from African researchers.

• A robust assessment of the impact of research capacity building published in an internationally recognised journal.

 A call for Expression of Interest (EOI) from potential Home Institutions, Host Institutions and Prospective Candidates will be issued on 30 September 2013.

 ENDS
Contact Person:

AAS: Dr. Benjamin Gyampoh b.gyampoh@aasciences.org