ARES-CCD, the body that manages Belgian cooperation funds for university cooperation, is one of the largest supporters of ULiège's cooperation activities.
Six projects will start in January 2020
ARES (Academy for Research and Higher Education) will support six projects coordinated by ULiège, for a total amount of three million euros. These five-year projects aim to achieve the strategic targets formulated in the common strategic frameworks of the Belgian cooperation partner countries. They will start at the beginning of 2020.
First, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, a first project, coordinated with the Evangelical University of Africa, will analyse the holistic "One Stop Center" model, focusing on its challenges and its lasting impact on women and girls survivors of sexual violence. A second project, coordinated with the University of Lubumbashi, aims to improve the sustainability and efficiency of forest harvesting practices in order to reduce threats to the miombo forest.
Then, in Central Africa more broadly, a third project, coordinated with the Mission de Promotion des Matériaux Locaux, aims to promote local resources for the design and promotion of new high-performance, accessible and eco-responsible building materials in the Sudano-Sahelian Cameroonian zone. A fourth project, coordinated with the Ruhengeri Higher Education Institute, will study the effects of land use on floods and landslides in Rwanda.
Finally, the collaborations funded by ARES take ULiège beyond Africa. A fifth project, coordinated with San Simon University, aims to improve the economic, social, technical and environmental performance of cassava production in the humid tropical zone of Cochabamba, Bolivia. A sixth project, coordinated with the Cambodian Institute of Technology, will provide training to promote the mastery of skills to meet the challenges of the transformation of the built environment.
Thirty exceptional PhD scholarships renewed for one additional year
The exceptional PhD scholarships enable researchers from the Belgian cooperation partner countries to carry out one year of joint doctoral research with a Northern university. This scholarship involves both field research and a mobility stay at the North University. At the beginning of the academic year 2018-2019, thirty PhD students, representing no less than ten nationalities (Congolese, Cameroonian, Rwandan, Beninese, Burkinabe, Malagasy, Haitian, Ecuadorian, Bolivian, Vietnamese) benefited from this funding and were enrolled in a cotutelle at ULiège. At the beginning of academic year 2019-2020, the renewal of these 30 scholarships for an additional year shows the interest of Belgian cooperation in this high-quality research; coming from diverse scientific disciplines; they are all related to food security, health, governance, the environment and spatial planning - 5 priority sectors for addressing the challenges currently faced by the partner countries in Belgian cooperation.
