TUM and KNUST plan Cooperation Center in Ghana

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The Technical University of Munich (TUM) and Kwame Nkrumah University of Science & Technology (KNUST) in Ghana are further expanding their partnership with plans to establish a joint TUM-KNUST Cooperation Center on the Kumasi campus. TUM star architect and Pritzker Architecture Prize winner Prof. Francis Kéré has produced a draft design for the Center. A Memorandum of Understanding on the Cooperation Center was signed on Thursday in Munich.

Led by Vice-Chancellor Prof. Rita A. Dickson, a delegation from KNUST visited TUM on Wednesday and Thursday. President Prof. Thomas F. Hofmann said: "Our bond with KNUST is based on a permanent, strategic partnership in Africa, the continent of the future. The focus will be on the TUM-KNUST Cooperation Center, a structure hosting joint research and teaching, uniting traditional construction materials and sustainability with the modern art of engineering and the innovation potentials of the African continent."

Prof. Dickson stated: "We greatly cherish our partnership with TUM. It is a privilege to train young people to become the next generation of leaders in the world. And we are delighted to be able to walk this path not alone, but together with our friends at TUM. We’ve been working together for ten years now, and I look forward to seeing this collaboration continue to thrive."

The KNUST is one of the African continent’s leading universities. In October 2018 a strategic partnership with TUM was launched in Kumasi for innovation and sustainable development. Researchers from both universities now work on topics of the future such as water and energy research, environment, mobility and global health.

For example, in the ADLAND consortium scientists work to design and practically implement responsible and intelligent land management. In addition, the two university hospitals, TUM Klinikum rechts der Isar and Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital, are bound by a partnership for improvement of procedures and education of local expert staff.

Since 2016 the joint activities have been supported by ongoing student and staff exchange between KNUST and TUM as part of the Erasmus+ program.