The Technical University of Munich (TUM) is intensifying its collaboration with researchers from the Sub-Sahara region of Africa. Accordingly, the TUM.Africa Talent program has been launched together with partner university Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) in Kumasi, Ghana. The program will give doctoral candidates from Sub-Saharan Africa the opportunity to work at TUM together with doctoral candidates of the hosting institutes and research groups. In addition, a long-term network will be established.
The first TUM.Africa Talent cohort consists of six researchers from KNUST, the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences Ghana (AIMS) and the University of Nairobi as well as six researchers from TUM. The visiting scholars in the new program complete research residencies at TUM lasting three to four months, working with colleagues and professors from their respective fields of research. The focus topics are Land Management, Smart Grid Security, Statistics, Electric Vehicles and Solar Energy, Stochastic Disease Modeling, Global Health and Social Sciences.
The TUM Graduate School also offers a supplemental framework program with interdisciplinary qualification workshops, networking events and expert discussions on the program’s focal point "Sustainable Global Leadership". Participating TUM doctoral candidates can also receive mobility funding for research residencies at partner universities in Sub-Saharan Africa.
International partnership
Prof. Juliane Winkelmann, TUM Senior Vice President - International Alliances and Alumni, said: "I’m completely convinced that international education and international collaboration are the key to finding solutions for the urgent global challenges of today. In this context it is especially important to support and build networks among the next generation of scientists in Europe and Africa."
Prof. Daniel Duah, Dean of the International Programmes Office at KNUST, commented: "As scientists, we grow with the challenges of our work, but we grow more than anything when we work together with colleagues from other cultures, other scientific environments. The fact that TUM.Africa Talent focuses on both of these aspects makes this program a unique opportunity for all participants."