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icipe enters into Partnership with TWAS, boosts Efforts in South-South Scientific Capacity Building
icipe has entered into a partnership with TWAS, the Academy of Sciences for the Developing World, which is the world's pre-eminent academy of sciences dedicated to the promotion of science in the South. This alliance boosts the role of icipe, the only institute in Africa working primarily on arthropods, in promoting insect science for food security and health in Africa, and in other developing regions.
As part of the agreement, icipe joins the TWAS-UNESCO Associateship Scheme, a network of over 100 scientific centres of excellence from developing countries. Started in 1994, the scheme aims to counteract braindrain by alleviating the isolation of scientists in the South, and to strengthen the research programmes of the collaborating centres. Under the initiative, icipe will host associates – talented and promising researchers from developing countries, appointed through a highly competitive and merit-based process, for a fixed period of three years – at its facilities. The associates are entitled to visit the Centre twice during their appointment, for durations of two to three months each time, to pursue their own research interests and/or collaborate with the researchers at icipe in programmes of common interest.
In addition, icipe becomes the first partner in Africa of the TWAS South-South Fellowship Programme, which enables young scientists from developing countries to carry out postgraduate or postdoctoral research in developing countries other than their own, and allows more experienced scientists from developing countries to visit participating research centres as 'visiting scholars'.
icipe Director General, Prof. Christian Borgemeister noted: “By collaborating with TWAS, we are building on the vision of Prof. Thomas Odhiambo, the founding director of icipe, who was also a founding fellow of TWAS. Prof. Odhiambo envisioned the harnessing of an indigenous scientific capacity, in Africa, and in the South as a whole, critical to the mission of icipe. Through the associates and young researchers that we will host at icipe, we will be able to share our wide-ranging expertise on food security and health with other developing countries. At the same time, we will be able to tap into some of the finest resources that the South has to offer.”
The Academy’s Executive Director, Prof. Mohamed Hassan added: "TWAS is particularly pleased to be partnering with icipe to help train the next generation of scientists in Africa. TWAS and icipe share a long-standing scientific commitment to building scientific capacity in Africa. This effort represents another step in the ongoing journey to ensure that all countries have the requisite scientific know-how to meet the daunting challenges that they face. "
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Notes for Editors:
About icipe…The primary mandate of icipe is research in integrated control methodologies for crop and livestock insect pests and other related arthropods, and insect vectors of tropical diseases. icipe’s work is organized through the 4-H paradigm (H for health). This is based on the understanding that improvements in Human, Animal, Plant and Environment Health are the most holistic, and cost effective ways to meaningfully engage with the complex development requirements of African communities. Cutting across the 4-Hs are icipe’s Capacity Building and Institutional Development activities, which are aimed towards developing well-trained and highly motivated human resource capacity. For additional information, see www.icipe.org. Follow us on twitter @icipeinsectscie.
About TWAS…TWAS, the Academy of Sciences for the Developing World, is the world's pre-eminent academy of sciences dedicated to the promotion of science in the South. Launched in 1983 by Nobel Laureate Abdus Salam (physics 1979), TWAS now has more than 900 members from 90 countries and a broad range of capacity building programmes. TWAS operates as a field office under the administrative umbrella of UNESCO in accordance with an agreement signed by UNESCO, the Italian government and TWAS. The Academy's secretariat is located in Trieste, Italy, on the campus of the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP). TWAS has regional offices in Brazil, China, Egypt, Kenya and India. For additional information, see www.twas.org.
