In culminating years of existence, the Building Stronger Universities (BSU) Partnership has marked over a decade of impactful collaboration with a completion seminar themed 'Over a decade of strengthening research capacity at KNUST: the What’s, the How’s, The Impact, and the Way Forward.' The seminar provided a comprehensive overview of the partnership's evolution and achievements.
The Coordinator for the BSU Partnership, Professor R. C. Abaidoo, traced the origin of the BSU Partnership back to 2011 when it commenced as a joint effort between Danish universities and higher education institutions in Ghana, Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, and Nepal. He noted that the primary objective was to bolster research and education capacities in developing countries, focusing on thematic platforms such as Growth and Employment, Human Health, Environment and Climate, Stability, Democracy, and Rights.
He highlighted that the first phase (BSUI), spanning from 2011 to 2014, proved successful in enhancing institutional capacity and fostering joint research cooperation between Danish and partner universities. The BSUI was supported with a substantial amount of Sixty million Danish Krone (60,000,000DKK) (11.5 million USD) grant. Also, BSU II, spanning from 2014 to 2017, sustained the partnership with organised Work Packages (WP), addressing crucial areas like Climate-Smart Agriculture, Entrepreneurship and Job Creation, and Health Care Delivery Systems. Although an independent evaluation highlighted the project's effectiveness, he stated the challenges in disseminating interventions and missed collaboration opportunities.
On BSUIII Work Package One (WP1), Professor Patrick Addo Fordjour of the Department of Theoretical and Applied Biology, joining the seminar online, intimated that the project formed three research groups to address the Climate Smart Agriculture Research, Bioresources, and Environmental Monitoring. These groups engaged in capacity-building workshops covering stakeholder engagement, research innovation, commercialisation, team building, scientific writing, grant proposal development, and research communication. Additionally, group members undertook a two-week study visit to Aarhus University, Denmark, collaborating closely with Danish partners on various research activities. The project played a pivotal role in crafting a five-year Climate Change Policy and strategy for KNUST, with BSU providing funding for five KNUST staff pursuing local PhDs.
Under WP2, Professor William Oduro of the Department of Wildlife and Range Management highlighted the establishment of an Academia-Industry collaborative platform and an Academia-Industry Office for KNUST. The partnership fostered a lasting relationship between academia and industry stakeholders, leading to funding and technical support for business innovations at the KNUST Business Incubator. State-of-the-art equipment was provided to support research innovations and prototype development.
According to Miss Ofeibea Asare, Career Development Manager of the College of Health Sciences, WP3 saw the establishment of a multidisciplinary research group to investigate health delivery challenges in the Ashanti Region. They organised a series of capacity-building workshops for the members of the Research Groups on topics including stakeholder engagement, research innovation and commercialisation, team building, scientific writing, grant proposal development, and research communication.
In Work Package Four (WP4), Professor R. C. Abaidoo, explained that to comprehensively address KNUST’s research capacity, BSUIII, through the WP4, collaborated with four strategic units/offices in the University to implement a series of activities per their mandate. BSUIII support for these units included equipment, software and hardware resources, training and capacity-building workshops, exchange programmes, curriculum development, and automated systems for service provision.