Event Details

As part of Participate with RECIRCULATE's Partnerships` month, this webinar will explore challenges & opportunities for research & business partnerships in Africa. and highlight the progress of the RECIRCULATE project.

As Sub-Saharan Africa witnesses an increase in private sector investment, technological development and industrialization across a wide range of sectors, there is need for national policy level discussions on sustainable strategic partnership models that consider equity, fairness and sustainability. Currently, global models show that African universities and research organisations can be ‘anchors’ for co-designing and supporting research-driven eco-innovation partnerships with the businesses which ultimately deliver “sustainable solutions”. Universities can also play the key role in delivering the high level (graduate/post-graduate) training that is essential to drive forward eco-innovative policies, products and services. However, exploiting the power of universities to drive African eco-innovation will require significant collaboration for it to be sustainable.

In order to support in the mitigation of some of these funding challenges, Lancaster University has won two projects with African partners from Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, Malawi, Zambia and Botswana: (i) RECIRCULATE (7 Million Pound Capacity Building Project) and (ii) ACTUATE (700,000 Pound Waste to Energy Demonstrator Plant Development Project). Key components of these projects focus on the circular economy and waste-energy-food nexus, involving capacity building for research, knowledge transfer, entrepreneurship and innovation with over 200 young African professionals trained from over ten African countries.

The objectives of this International Partnership webinar therefore include:

1. Highlighting the objectives and progress of the UK Government funded Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) 7 Million Pounds RECIRCULATE and the 800,000 Pounds ACTUATE Project and the projects progress so far in Africa.

2. Exploring the challenges and opportunities for ‘effective, equitable and sustainable research partnerships’ in Africa and internationally.

3. Highlighting case studies of successful strategic research partnerships and lessons learnt from them.

4. Providing an opportunity for further engagement with current and new stakeholders in different African countries for future collaborations, investments and development work.