The Environment & Climate Platform (BSUPEC) is one of four platforms in the initiative “Building Stronger Universities in Developing Countries” (BSU). BSU is a partnership between research and higher education institutions in developing countries and Danish universities seeking to strengthen universities in developing countries to increasingly play a role in the economic, social and political development of the societies in which they are located.

The Growth and Employment Platform initially involves partner institutions from Ghana, Tanzania and Denmark. The development objective of the platform is to enhance the capacity of partner institutions in Ghana and Tanzania to promote sustainable growth and employment through research, education and dissemination of research findings.

Download the Application form for Growth & Employment Platform

Download the Application form for Environment and Climate Platform

Available Scholarships

BSU PhD scholarships

Application for S.T. Nankani Bursary 2013

BSU MSc scholarships at universities in Denmark

Roberto Rocca Education Program (Tenaris Scholarship)

It is announced for the information of the University community, including staff, alumni students, friends of the University, and the general public that the 60th Anniversary cloth and car stickers (bumper and inner) are available on sale.

Management of the University is proud to announce that the Department of Mechanical Engineering in the College of Engineering has been selected by the Tuning Educational Structures in Europe to participate in a pilot project for Africa.

Following a large number of competitive applications from the globe, the Department emerged successful to represent KNUST in the EU-Africa Project. The international project is aimed at contributing towards the goals of African Strategy for Harmonisation in Higher Education.

Professor Dr. Samuel Mensah Sackey, the contact person of KNUST, would attend the first project meeting scheduled for 23rd to 25th January, 2012, in Cameroun; and the second in May in Cape Town.

The University is proud of the Department of Mechanical Engineering, and wish to congratulate the leadership and faculty staff on this enviable feat.

AYEEKOO!

EXPRESSION OF INTEREST

WP3: Strengthening research and research collaboration between GEP partner universities in Africa and universities in Denmark

Work package 3 aims at strengthening research and research collaboration between GEP partners in Ghana, Tanzania and Denmark.

The three types of funding opportunities are as follows:

1. Joint development of research proposals for external funding

2. Joint explorative research activities

3.  A blend of A. and B.

a)      For activities aiming at joint development of research proposals the specific funding source(s) must be clearly indicated in the application, including deadline for application and homepage address. Each funded activity must result in submission of at least one proposal.

b)      For activities aiming at joint explorative research, the collaboration must result in submission of at least one manuscript with joint authorship to a peer reviewed journal or a report with joint authorship published in a relevant outlet, e.g. a university publication series.

Conditions for applying for a project are as follows:

-          Proposals must be within Growth and Employments subject areas:

• Management and Leadership

• Development Economics

• Agriculture and Agribusiness

-          Only proposals that include a least one GEP partner university in Ghana and Tanzania and one in Denmark are eligible for funding. Other institutions, i.e. not GEP partner universities, may be involved in the proposals.

-          Proposals are allowed to include more than one GEP partner university in Africa to promote South – South collaboration

-          Only proposals jointly developed by South and North are eligible for funding

-          The application must be maximum 3,000 words (excluding list of references and annexes)

-          CVs from involved researchers must be attached as Annex A (maximum two CVs from each institution)

-          Each project can apply for a minimum of 75,000 DKK and a maximum of 150,000 DKK per South university with 2/3 to the African side and 1/3 to the Danish side.

-          A budget must be attached as Annex B clearly showing the distribution of the applied budget across partners and to expenditure types. The 6 expenditure types/budget lines listed in Appendix A must be used.

-          Eligible costs: Travel, workshops, surveys, research assistance, conferences* and similar activities.

-          Non eligible cost: Salary and salary compensation to Faculty Staff.

-          Project must be financially concluded by July 31^st 2013

* Conferences: One relevant national/international conference can be attended by the senior researchers. The conference has to be stipulated in the proposal and attendance is subject to oral presentation of a scientific paper at the conference.

Criteria for evaluation:

Success in this GEP supported activity is measured as the ability to strengthen the involved research communities’ ability to conduct high quality research and/or attract external funding for research of relevance to Growth and Employment. The research collaboration itself and its outputs, in terms of publications and submitted research proposals, is a mean to achieve the outcome.

Proposals will be evaluated according to the following criteria (relative weight of criteria in brackets):

1. Scientific quality (50 %)

2. Relevance of the proposal to GEP’s mandate and subject areas (25 %)

3. Quality of the Consortium (25 %)

1. Scientific quality

Scientific quality will be assessed based on the following criteria:

• The innovative nature of the proposal in terms of the topic of the research and/or methods applied

• The scientific argumentation and logic of the proposal (theory and  methodology,  research questions  and  context analysis)

• The degree to which the proposal demonstrates clearly defined management and coordination.

1. Relevance of the proposal to GEP’s mandate and subject areas

GEP has three subject areas:

• Agriculture and Agribusiness

• Development Economics

• Management and Leadership

Relevance will be assessed based on the following criteria:

• The link to one or more of GEP’s subject areas

• The justification vis-à-vis  economic growth and job creation in Africa

• The extent that the proposal will strengthen the ability of the involved institutions to  enhance research competences and quality, as well as  the ability to attract external funding

1. Quality of the Consortium

Quality of Consortium will be assessed based on the following criteria:

• The competence of the consortium in regard to the subject area chosen, i.e. to what extend the team complement each other and support each other’s competences

• The researchers’ publication record

• Experience with international research network collaboration

• The researchers’ track record on attracting external funding

• The researchers’ track record in research management and international cooperation

Submission of proposals

Deadline for submission is December 15 2012.

Proposals must be submitted electronically as one pdf file including all attachments to the GEP secretariat (kesl@life.ku.dk) before the deadline. Please write ‘GEP proposal WP3’ in the subject field. You submission will be confirmed by an email from the secretariat, within 48 hours. Please notify the secretariat if you do not get a confirmation mail within 48 hours. Proposals must use the outline in Annex A and not exceed 3,000 words (excluding list of references and annexes). 

If the proposal fulfils above requirements it will be send for external assessment. If not it will be rejected.

Assessment will be done by external peer review. External reviews form the basis for a decision on funding, made by the respective GEP Platform Working Group.

Applicants will receive the feedback on their proposal by the review team. Successful proposals can start right after approval.

Appendix A

Outline of application

Title

Applicants

Involved institutions

Subject area

Type of proposal:

1. Joint development of research proposal for external funding

2. Joint explorative research activity

3. Combination of A. and B.

Background

Objective(s)

Relevance

Expected outputs

Methodology, project description and work plan

Project management

Annex A: CVs of involved researchers (max 2 per involved university)

Annex B: Budget, subdivided to:

1. Salaries and emoluments

2. Taxameter/educational grants

3. Expenses for trips abroad and fieldwork

4. Project and research equipment

5. Project and research materials

6. Publication, dissemination and communication 

Name of the partner university.