Six scientists from Africa and their German cooperation partners receive the award for their excellent research results with high exploitation potential, as a result of the second GAIIA call published in September 2018. The projects contribute to implementing the sustainable development goals with their broadly diversified and application-oriented research work. They strengthen innovation capacities in African partner countries and create the basis for developing sustainable innovation structures. This helps to create start-up companies and new qualified jobs in Africa.
Three of the funded projects deal with the sustainable use of resources (projects WHy@Volta, InnoVa, VaReeWa). The other three projects address in the areas of health research (ECGF-IS project), communication technologies (AfricaSign project) and renewable energies (SoDeCo project).
The six African awardees, their German cooperation partners and summaries of the funded projects:
AfricaSign
A Crowdsourcing Platform for Early Grade and STEM Vocabulary in African Sign Languages
Prof. Dr. Abdelhadi Soudi, Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Mines de Rabat, Morocco
Prof. Dr. Kristof Van Laerhoven, University of Siegen
Project description: English | French | German
ECGF-IS
Improving the Safety of Infusion Therapy in Low Resource Countries: Electronically Controlled Gravity Feed Infusion Set
Philippa Ngaju Makobore, Uganda Industrial Research Institute, Kampala, Uganda
Tobias Behr, Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation IPA
Project description: English | German
InnoVa
Innovative Valorization of Olive Mill Effluents
Prof. Dr. Sami Sayadi, Center of Biotechnology of Sfax, Tunesien
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Sven-Uwe Geißen, Technical University Berlin
Project description: English | French | German
SoDeCo
Soiling Detection for PV Application and Cleaning Optimization in Arid and Semi-arid Areas of North Africa
Prof. Dr. Ahmed Alami Merrouni, Mohammed First University, Oujda / IRESEN (Research Institute for Solar Energy and New Energies), Rabat, Morocco
Prof. Dr. Ralph Gottschalg, Anhalt University of Applied Sciences
Project description: English | French | German
VaReeWa
Development of a Combined Thermal Pre-treatment and Hydrometallurgical Process Route for Value Recovery from e-Waste through Small-scale Recyclers in Africa
Prof. Dr. Jochen Petersen, University of Cape Town, South Africa
Prof. Dr.Ing. Dr.h.c. Bernd Friedrich, Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule Aachen
Project description: English | German
WHy@Volta
Localisation, Quantification, and Utilisation of Water Hyacinth in the Volta River Based on Satellite Remote Sensing Data
Dr.-Ing. Richard Arthur, Koforidua Technical University, Koforidua, Ghana
Prof. Dr. Dieter Bryniok, Hamm-Lippstadt University of Applied Sciences
Project description: English | German
