Research News

African science has received a boost with the announcement of a £3.3 million partnership between the Leverhulme Trust and the Royal Society to fund collaborations between scientists in the UK, and Ghana and Tanzania; after this phase it is already hoped that the programme can be rolled out in other African countries. The funding will be allocated through new 'Leverhulme Royal Society Africa Awards' - which will provide up to £150,000 over three years for 18 research projects.

Professor Lorna Casselton, Foreign Secretary of the Royal Society, said: "The Royal Society has been a strong advocate for science in Africa for many years. This generous funding from the Leverhulme Trust will allow larger collaborative research grants for African and British research teams to work together on pressing challenges."

To ensure the scheme is tailored to the needs of Africa, researchers in Tanzania and Ghana met with the Royal Society to identify what they would like a partnership scheme to offer. The scheme’s five research priority areas - agriculture, water, sanitation, basic human health research, and biodiversity and energy - were selected by African scientists.

Prof. Ohene Adjei, Deputy Director of the Kumasi Centre for Collaborative Research in Tropical Medicine in Ghana, said: "I am convinced that with this collaboration we will perform research which will contribute immensely to our scientific advancement and enable us to survive, adapt and thrive in this fast changing world…I find this scheme to be very important as it focuses on training as well as scientific research into areas needed for our national development."

The awards will be officially launched at the Royal Society in October 2008.

More information

Mrs Stoy Drinicm, Scheme Manager, International Grants (stoy.drinic@royalsociety.org)

See also the article on SciDev.Net: Ghana, Tanzania to benefit from new UK funding scheme