8 April 2008
President McAleese will open the first four-day workshop of the Irish-African Partnership for Research Capacity Building (IAPRCB) at Dublin City University on 8 April 2008. This first workshop (of six) will be attended by 50-60 university and academic leaders from the nine participating Irish and Northern Irish universities and the four participating African universities, including presidents, vice-chancellors, vice-presidents for research and faculty heads.
Over the four days they will discuss the shape of the three year IAPRCB programme, which aims to build the capacity for development research in the Irish and Northern Irish universities, and the capacity for research in the African universities in health and education, plus the cross-cutting themes of ICT and gender. In particular, discussions will centre around a stakeholder consultation in the 13 participating universities, and a pilot foresight exercise to establish research needs in the African countries and the Irish universities’ capacities to work in partnership to meet those needs.
The IAPRCB is funded by the Programme for Strategic Cooperation between Irish Aid and Higher Education and Research Institutes. The Centre for Cross Border Studies is its administrative leader and it is organised under the umbrella of Universities Ireland, which also provides some matching funding.