Although many people think of agriculture as low tech and innovation field, those involved in agricultural education or industry know that it’s actually quite the opposite – year on year new solutions and efforts are being made towards bridging the gap between the real life and classroom in agricultural field that change the life of students, farmers and entrepreneurs across the world. More and more farmers are turning to data science to make informed decisions using precision technologies. However, this kind of initiatives are much less (if any) observed in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) that severely lags behind in their development despite the fact that most people are engaged in small farming as primary economic activity. In addressing this imbalance, CHAIN steps up the agricultural innovation and collaboration potential in SSA targeting engagement of teaching and non-teaching university staff, agricultural students, farmers and industry representatives. It introduces a more holistic and human-centred approach to agricultural education, training and innovation in the region through: developing a master program in Food Value Chain (FVC) at beneficiary HEIs; building teacher capacity at beneficiary HEIs to use promote learning methods and use teaching methodology prone to entrepreneurial thinking and innovation, with emphasis on e-learning and digital tools; and establishing Collaborative Holistic Agriculture Innovation Nests offering support to innovation initiatives of students, farmers, and entrepreneurs. While on immediate impact level the project brings modernized curricula prone to innovation and increased employability of students, CHAIN in the long run fosters efforts around food safety and security in targeted African countries and communities, by developing and promoting “careers of the future,” in the agricultural sector. It thus provides impetus to tackling some of the core global developmental issues including production of more food with less inputs,

The UP-RISE EU-African Union (AU) project integrates food safety practices associated to mycotoxin contamination into all aspects of food production, distribution, marketing and consumption in the AU and provides tangible tools and strategies to enhance inclusive participation in the improved African Food Safety System (AFSS) at the local, national and regional level. UP-RISE activities are aligned with the current AU Food Safety Strategy for Africa, focusing on 3 regions of the AU with field work in 5 target member states (Benin, Côte d’Ivoire, Nigeria, Kenya, and South-Africa). UP-RISE assembles 5 building blocks for knowledge generation and implementation: 1) Roadmaps for a shared quality culture and possible integration of the informal sector in the AFSS; 2) Strengthening the food safety regulatory framework with focus on mycotoxins in both formal and informal sectors; 3) Early warning to prevent mycotoxin contamination and adapt to climate change; 4) Prevention of food losses and improving food safety by providing innovative microbiome-based solutions for mycotoxin reduction and nutritious food and 5) Co-creation, training and mentoring. UP-RISEs co-created solutions will be demonstrated on 5 representative fermented food product value chains based on maize, millet, sorghum or milk and will be implemented in 10 business cases of SMEs in the target AU member states. UP-RISE builds on strong synergies between all excelling consortium members combining social sciences with technological approaches and an outstanding network, which has been complemented with the Accelerator Platform comprising a.o. competent food safety authorities, farmers, consumers and trade organizations. UP-RISE guarantees sustainability through the creation of Training Hubs in each target member state, an AU-EU Microbial Biobank Network, early warning systems, a risk assessment toolkit and a food safety regulatory model.

The project, titled 'African Research Network for Urbanization and Habitable Cities' aims at providing a strategic platform for developing research capacities in African Institutions to address the Sustainable Development Goals. Using a hub and spoke model that will see increased collaboration amongst African teams from diverse disciplines, the Network aligns closely with the focus of the ARUA-UKRI GRCF Partnership Programme for creating and strengthening African-African teams and networks. As the host of the ARUA Centre of Excellence on urbanization and habitable cities, the University of Lagos is the Network hub, providing administrative and research leadership. The pioneer spoke universities are: Federal University of Technology, Minna, Obafemi Awolowo University both in Nigeria; University of Ghana, University of Cape Town, South Africa; American International University (West African Campus), The Gambia; Sierra Leone Urban Research Centre of the Njala University, Sierra Leone, University of Zambia and Uganda Martyrs University, Uganda. This reflects partnership between Sub-Saharan African countries, ranking predominantly as Least Developed and Lower Middle Income Countries on the DAC-list. Another common feature among these countries is the negative impact of rapid urbanization on city forms, limiting productivity of residents and city competitiveness. This is the development challenge that the Network seeks to impact. Taking advantage of the existing work of its host Centre of Excellence which has eight multidisciplinary research clusters that uses knowledge co-production frameworks in research, advocacy and capacity building programmes, the Network will work within several disciplines required to create sustainable cities, bringing in policy makers, city authorities, businesses, civil society and community residents for impact. In addition, the Network will draw on existing relationships with academic researchers, research groups and organizations in UK institutions who have committed to supporting it. Interactions between the Africa-UK partners will create long term linkages that will lead to expanded knowledge, policy action and transfer for improving productivity, city competitiveness and economic prosperity, and therefore, national economy. The development of newer and stronger partnerships that will endure beyond this grant period is a core impact factor for the Network. Network activities include themed capacity building workshops to build skills in research, community engagement, policy engaged and business case development, research management, ethics and grant writing amongst others. Some of these will be offered on-line. Other activities are: masterclasses in specific knowledge areas, mandatory PhD colloquial in annual conferences, researcher exchange programs within the hub, spoke and UK universities to ensure mentoring and scoping studies to enable researchers (especially post-graduate and early careers) take part in research activities. Research and knowledge outcomes arising from this activity will be disseminated through development of tool-kits, policy guide-lines and policy briefs, working papers, journal articles, conference proceedings, information pieces, blogs, monographs, book of readings, book of chapters and most importantly, short messages on social media outlets. Local language dissemination, stakeholder co-production and engagement workshops would be strongly prioritized for activities impacting local communities. The activities of the Network will be led by the Principal Investigator/Centre Director, Professor T.G Nubi, a seasoned practicing academia who has a strong track record in research, mentoring, private-sector, policy and community engagement. His team will report to an Advisory Board that will oversee the activities of the network and review progress. Network Activities will be spread over 36 months with commencement in September 2019

Under the theme of Energy, Materials Development and Nanotechnology, ARUA CoE-MEN will use materials and nanotechnology to develop energy solutions for Africa, as well as materials development for efficiency and sustainability, and also develop personnel. The main aim is to develop materials and new technologies to benefit Africa, in both infrastructure and human development, to enable global competition. There will be a range of projects around the technological use of materials, from fundamental to devices up to prototype level and application. The projects should help to identify, and later develop, new opportunities in an African context. This is necessary because often solutions from more temperate climates cannot withstand the harsher conditions in Africa (higher temperatures and humidity), and so are not suitable. This will facilitate the development of new opportunities in an African context (e.g. sustainable manufacturing, off-grid energy technologies, improved materials, and materials recycling - obtaining more useful materials, as well as removing waste), developing the people to do it, and to help Africa become more competitive. ARUA CoE-MEN will investigate barriers to upscaling and uptake of sustainable technologies in Africa. As well as improving materials, strategies for creating and encouraging new technological pathways to facilitate transitions to sustainability in emerging water and energy technologies will be explored. Improved energy security will help the economies develop, leading to more stability with jobs, facilite people to become entrepreneurs, and help to improve the welfare and the wealth of citizens in the different countries. Some of projects target efficiency of materials and hence safety, e.g. by improving buildings and infrastructure (recent flood damage in southern Africa has shown that houses need to be more robust). Improved materials could have even larger long-term benefits on the environment, and help to improve other living conditions, e.g. improving water storage efficiency and cleanliness by combatting corrosion. The potential benefit to the African countries is improved development, improved environments and better education, for researchers and more widely, for the public, by outreach. ARUA CoE-MEN will also try to support more part-time higher degree students, who struggle to balance work, family and their research. This is an untapped source of students, and is an opportunity to increase the skills and work more closely with industry, and possibly entrepreneurs. The benefit to the UK is the strengthening of ties with the different African countries involved, and the potential to enter into business relationships for manufacturing in the future. The hub will be at the University of the Witwatersrand, which has a long-term history of running very successful networks and groups in materials science, and also provides world-class equipment and infrastructure to be shared.