The Austrian-African Research Network (Africa-UniNet) was initiated in 2019. Since then, alumni, especially from Kenya and Uganda, have played an important role in building cooperation between Austrian and African universities within Africa-UniNet. During the 3rd Africa-UniNet General Assembly from 13-15 September 2023 in Vienna, alumni also participated and represented their universities. Get to know some of them and learn about their experiences with Africa-UniNet and what they expect from future cooperation within the network.
Kyambogo University in Uganda, Mary Kaggwa's home institution, is one of the founding African institutions of Africa-UniNet. Our former scholar says that Africa-UniNet has provided her with a platform to build solid academic networks that have enabled her to write proposals together. It has been an exciting and fulfilling journey for her and her institution. Before joining Africa-UniNet, Kyambogo University was little known in Austrian cooperation. At the moment, there are collaborations that are being initiated and nurtured even with other research calls that have been initiated through Africa-UniNet. Africa-UniNet has also facilitated inter-institutional mobility for academic meetings and research activities. Some of these mobilities would not have been possible without the support of Africa-UniNet. For Kyambogo University, there have been 2 projects where staff have been the project investigators and 4 projects where staff have collaborated with other institutions and have been successfully completed.
Fredrick Nyongesa Kassilly is the official Africa-UniNet representative at Turkana University College in Kenya. It is involved in Africa-UniNet in a number of ways such as building capacity for teaching and research through sharing experiences and best practices from more established universities and developing research proposals and conducting research with Africa-UniNet member institutions for funding. In addition, Turkana University College researchers look forward to sharing research findings with colleagues from Africa-UniNet partner institutions through articles in peer-reviewed journals and at conferences. Fredrick says Africa-UniNet has provided an opportunity for collaboration among researchers in member institutions to enhance their research and teaching acumen. This opportunity for partnership between member institutions has broken down cultural, geographical, economic and technological barriers that would otherwise hinder such collaboration. By working together in preparing research proposals and applying for funding, researchers from member institutions have learnt to accept and appreciate multidisciplinary research as the way forward for universities. Finally, Africa-UniNet has provided an opportunity for member institutions to implement their internationalisation agenda, thereby promoting their global standing as global centres of learning and research.
Oscar Kambona Ouma is the Maseno University representative for Africa-UniNet and has been actively involved in the projects. His university, located in Kenya, has 6 projects, 3 of which are coordinated from Maseno and the other 3 are coordinated by other Africa-UniNet partners. He comments that his experience has been very good and that the projects have opened up Maseno University to other research partners in West, East and Southern African countries as well as in Austria. The research disciplines have also broadened, and PhD students are already benefiting from a broad base of research expertise from Africa and Europe. The Africa-UniNet has also given Maseno University the opportunity to further collaborate in research activities beyond the network. For the future, he expects that the results of already funded projects can be followed up and, where possible, scaled up to provide tangible, applied solutions to the challenges facing developing countries.
Felicia Yieke represents Laikipia University in Africa-UniNet. Through Africa-UniNet, her university, located in Kenya, has so far been able to participate in a joint project with Egerton University in Kenya, which was won in 2022, together with Gulu University in Uganda, Haramaya University in Ethiopia and BOKU in Austria. This project also gave the impetus to apply for an APPEAR project in 2023. Africa-UniNet has provided the much-needed networking space that allows Laikipia University to have discussions and engagements with Austrian universities in the Global North and also with African universities. This is very important for collaborative research in multidisciplinary areas. Being part of Africa-UniNet has also broadened horizons further into the kind of research that is currently the focus of the world, while looking at priority areas that should be able to transform the lives of the community. In the 4th call for proposals, Laikipia University submitted 1 proposal as the coordinating institution. At the same time, they are already engaged in other collaborations with other universities that are members of Africa-UniNet. This has been made possible by the strong networking opportunities, including the General Assembly, which has enabled Africa-UniNet members to identify potential partners in areas of interest.