There are 7 other projects funded under the first and second round (2007-2008) of the HEA's Programme of Strategic Cooperation between Irish Aid and Higher Education and research Institutes (2007 - 2013).

Connecting health Research in Africa and Ireland Consortium (ChRAIC)

Researchers from RCSI, TCD, NUIG with partners in Mozambique, Lesotho, Malawi, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Uganda and the UK Malaria Consortium propose a Five Year Programme of capacity building for pro‐poor research across these countries. The focus is on strengthening Irish and African research capacity to inform health systems strengthening to deliver health and HIV/AIDS interventions. The Programme will summarise existing knowledge and knowledge gaps, develop an Irish cross‐HEI PhD training programme and produce five PhDs, assess and strengthen research capacity across the partners, conduct research in support of Irish Aid goals; and strengthen links between research outputs and policy in Irish Aid and African countries.

UCD’s International Development Studies Initiative: Consolidating and Expanding Capacity with Strategic Partnerships

Under the coordination of the UCD CIDS (Development Studies Library) the Human Development Initiative 1) coordinates a multi-disciplinary team of researchers working on poverty reduction in the Conway Institute (Medical Science), Geary Institute (Social Science), Urban Institute (Environmental and Agricultural Science) and Global Irish Institute (Arts and Humanities). Our research on important thematic priorities of Irish Aid. Pro‐Poor Industrialization Growth; Good Governance; Health/HIV‐AIDS; Education and Water. 2) use UCD’s investment in ‘Horizons’ and the ‘fourth level’ to expand development modules available to students in UCD and partner universities 3) We are in partnership the University of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania and University of Malawi and wish to develop a deep partnership with them and allow access to other African universities via partnerships with other Irish universities. 4) We will support Irish Aid and use diverse dissemination mechanisms.

Global Development through Education: Enhancing Teacher Education and Educational Research through International Cooperation

This programme will establish a Centre for Global Development through Education based at Mary Immaculate College in Limerick with 18 partner institutions. The Centre will be the first of its kind in Ireland. The institutional members of the Centre represent teacher educators, associated researchers and NGOs from the island of Ireland. The Centre will contribute to poverty reduction by enhancing the quality of basic education through capacity‐building in teacher education. The Centre will work with teacher educators and Ministries of Education in the South (in Lesotho and Uganda initially) to enhance the quality of teaching, learning and educational research in teacher education.

The Combat Diseases of Poverty Consortium: Building Education and Research Capacity to address Infectious Diseases in East Africa

The Combat Diseases of Poverty Consortium led by the Department of Anthropology and the Institute of Immunology of NUIM represents a cluster of scientific, academic and NGO professional expertise, along with partners in the private sector, working together to build educational capacities for combating diseases of poverty, with the initial focus on east Africa. The programme consists of three strands covering (1) training of trainers and professionals with exchanges between Ireland and East Africa, (2) dissemination of information on global health and development to the broader public, focusing on secondary school teachers and transition year students and (3) a Speakers Series and Master Class Seminars directed at Third and Fourth Level Institutes in Ireland featuring world‐class researchers with expertise in global health and development. Throughout the four year funding period the consortium will undertake the training of 42 professionals, 28 from east Africa and 14 from Ireland, in skill sets that will contribute to their research and teaching. The longer term goal of the programme is to establish a training programme in east Africa that will contribute to improving skill sets in the region for undertaking research towards alleviating the burden of diseases of poverty.

Mozambique Cooperative Optometric Training Scheme: Sustainable solutions to community health and poverty using existing Irish expertise in optometry programme delivery

This unique collaboration initiates a programme for development, implementation and evaluation of a regional optometry initiative for Lusophone Africa. This programme has been tailored to produce a high volume of graduate optometric technicians, optometrists and vision researchers. Projected outcomes will include an integrated programme of optometric education and eyecare services delivery, a focussed (needs driven) research infrastructure that feeds into national development policies, and crucially, the establishment of a successful, energetic and dedicated mutual learning network equipped with the specialist knowledge envisaged to provide sustainable solutions to health and poverty complexes using eyecare strategies across developing nations.

Water is Life

The aim of this programme is to support sustainable water resource management as a catalyst for sustainable economic and social development. The economic, social and technical pillars of sustainability are cross‐cut by the issue of safe water provision. This programme, aims to research and learn from activities in each of these areas and measure their impact through health and development in Uganda, with the overall aim of sustainable poverty reduction. This programme is designed to develop collaborative research through a partnership comprising DkIT, DCU, NUIM, UCD, TCD, DIT, RCSI, QUB, Makerere University and NGOs.

Doctoral Training for Development in Africa - Contactable through Trinity International Development Initiative

Through collaborative delivery, with African partners, of doctoral training, this programme will help strengthen higher education in and for Africa. Structured learning from this experience will lay the foundations for further expansion of collaborative research and advanced training to additional disciplines and especially to involve more partners, Irish and African. Resources are being applied to fostering these partnerships, and to energizing and facilitating a further shift of research and education activity towards addressing Irish Aid’s priorities.

Download a detailed pdf of all 8 of these projects [206 KB]