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Perhaps the greatest impact of the UG-NGAA has been its
contribution to:
i) the creation of a cohort of students with a desire to
remain academics;
ii) the fostering of a strong desire among young faculty to
succeed as university academics;
iii) an increasing number of a new breed of next generation
academics with a new mindset of self-reliance to
engender sustainability, demonstrating renewed
enthusiasm and energy to strive for internationally
acclaimed standards in their academic career.
Going forward, the project will continue to keep a strong
focus on faculty development and enhancement of UG
faculty research output. Some of the key activities in the
coming years will include supporting the establishment of
the UG Writing Centre to be run by the English Department,
supporting the publication of the UG Readers and
harnessing efforts to ensure the development and delivery
of PhD. programmes in Biomedical Engineering, Computer
Engineering as well as in Material Science and Engineering.
The UG-NGAA is clearly fully behind the University’s agenda
to become a research University of World Class status. We
are most grateful for the financial support from the Carnegie
Corporation of New York that has made all the above
possible.
The Cambridge Africa Partnership for
Research Excellence (CAPREx) Project
The
Cambridge Africa
Partnership for Research
Excellence (CAPREx)
project is a partnership
program between the University of Cambridge UK, University
of Ghana, Legon and Makerere University, Uganda with
funding from Carnegie Corporation of New York.
The project will support the development of African academic
research excellence through the three-way partnership
aimed at promoting the recruitment and retention of the
brightest academic staff at these regional hubs. The project
goals are being implemented through the strengthening
of faculty research capacity; strengthening of research
management and administration; and the development of
joint research projects.
One of the major focus areas of the project is the
strengthening faculty research capacity through the provision
of post-doctoral research fellowships for early and mid-
career researchers at both UG and Makerere. Selected
Fellows spend up to 6 months at the University of Cambridge
to work with their Cambridge collaborators on a research
topic which is relevant to building the research capacity
of their Departments at the University of Ghana. The first
cohort of the awards was made in May 2012 to eight (8) UG
Faculty members from Biological Sciences and Engineering
disciplines.
Profiles of Award Winners
Dr. David Dodoo-Arhin
of the Department of Material
Science and Engineering is working with Dr. Tawfique Hassan
of the Department of
Engineering at Cambridge
University on the project
“Graphene Based Natural
Dye Sensitized Solar Cells”.
The project will investigate
novel techniques in
fabricating graphene-based
counter electrode natural
DSSC with improved characteristics. Various tropical natural
dyes (photosensitizers) from Ghana will be investigated and
correlated with the solar cell parameters to improve on solar
cell performance.
Dr. Eureka Emefa Ahadjie Adomako
of the Department
of Botany is collaborating with Mr. Steven Bentley of the
National Independent Crop
Research and Information
Centre (NIAB) at Cambridge
to conduct research on
the “Characterization of
wild and domesticated
rice species in Ghana for
subsequent investigations
into drought tolerance”.
The project will seek to
promote the conservation of wild and domesticated rice
varieties in Ghana.
Rice accessions collected during field surveys will be
genetically analysed alongside geographical data to elucidate
variations in population structure of Ghanaian rice vis-à-vis
variations in ecology, soils and climate. The information
Dr. David Dodoo-Arhin
Dr. Eureka Emefa Ahadjie Adomako
