Training Scientists in Crop Improvement for Food Security in Africa (SCIFSA)

SCIFSA is a partnership of five African Universities in Eastern, Western and North Africa lead by Makerere University in Uganda. The members of this partnership are Makerere University (Uganda), University of Ghana, Legon (Ghana), University of Eldoret (Kenya), University of Cairo (Egypt) and Universite Cheikh Anta Diop de Dakar (Senegal).  The partnership also has Politechnika Slaska (Poland) as a technical partner and Regional University forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture – RUFORUM as an Associate partner. Through funding from EU under Intra-Africa Academic Mobility Scheme, the partnership will collaborate in the training of professionals in crop improvement and horticulture to achieve sustainable food security in Africa.  A total of 24 Masters (6 credit seeking, 18 degree-seeking) and 12 Doctorates (4 credit seeking, 8 degree-seeking) will be trained in the thematic areas of Plant breeding and seed systems, Biotechnology, seed science and technology, Agronomy and Vegetable crop production, Pesticides and plant protection and Plant and microbial technology.  The project is expected to contribute to a) improved skills and competences of academic staff in, research, training and supervision, b) enhanced quality of graduate training that will lead to innovative and fit-for-purpose professionals in Crop production improvement c) improved skills and competences of administrative staff in implementing international mobility. Subsequently, a procedure/platform to support the harmonisation and internationalisation of Crop production programmes among African Universities shall be achieved.

Overall objective:
To enhance the quality and relevance of Masters and PhD level training in crop breeding in Africa:
By establishing and nurturing an effective symbiotic partnership between selected Higher Education Institutions to jointly improve the relevance and quality of their training programmes in the broad area of Crop Improvement

The specific objectives:

1. The SCIFSA proposes to improve the quality of education through achievement of the following results;
  • Strengthened collaboration and knowledge exchange among the HEIs and with European University;
  • Increased access to quality higher education for students from fragile
  • Increased pool of Scientists to champion crop improvement in Africa
  • Train at least 24 Masters and 12 PhD students in crop breeding.
2. The SCIFSA proposes to improve the quality of education through achievement of the following results;
  • Strengthen staff and research capacity of existing plant breeding programs at the selected institutions
  • Review and revise curriculum of the selected programs to respond to the demands of industry in Africa
  • Increase knowledge generation on priority crops in relevant African countries;

 

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Project Coordinators

Contact the project coordinators by clicking Here