DANIDA gives Legon $1.4 million

The long-term goal of the initiative is to make the participating institutions stronger to play an increasing role in the economic, social and political development of the societies in which they are located as well as to function as nodes of innovation and knowledge production.The initiative is also aimed at providing solutions to local/domestic and global challenges; and produce skilled and motivated graduates that can contribute to the further development of their societies.

BSU I was overseen by the Office for Research Innovation and Development (ORID); and BSU II sits at the same office.

BSU II which commenced on November 1, 2014 will be operate till November 1, 2016.

The overall budget for the phase two is 15 million DKK ($1.4 million).

Under the initiative, University of Ghana will receive 9 million DKK (60% of the budget) while the Northern (Danish) partners receive 6 million DKK representing 40% of the total budget.

The benefits of the phase one of the BSU programme included the training of over a thousand students on varied PhD courses and the award of PhD scholarships to students registered across the University of Ghana to take part in their PhD coursework in Danish Universities like the University of Copenhagen and the University of Aarhus.

In the BSU phase one programme, Universities Denmark was actively involved in the design and implementation of the programme activities.

At the University of Ghana, the BSU II Coordination Team is led by the ORID Director of Research, Professor Andrew Adjei and supported by scholars from the Department of Geography and Resource Development, School of Public Health, Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research, School of Medicine and Dentistry and the Department of Marketing and Customer Management at the Business School.

ORID provides excellent support through a cohort of administrative and financial personnel.

The BSU II coordination team UG comprises Prof. Paul Yankson, Dr. Kwadwo Owusu, Dr. Mawuli Dzodzomenyo, Dr. Michael Ofori, Dr. Goerge Obeng Adjei and Prof. Robert Hinson.

On the Danish side the BSU Team is headed by Dr Finn Plauborg of the Department of Agroecology at Aarhus University in Denmark.

The processes leading to the acceptance of the inception report and award of the 9 million DKK grant in November 2014 entailed a series of meetings at the University of Ghana and also at Danish Universities that are part of the BSU II programme.

These Danish institutions are Aalborg University, AAU (Department of Business and Management); Aarhus University, AU (Department of Bioscience, Department of Clinical Medicine, Department of Agroecology, Department of Public Health); Copenhagen University, KU (Department of Geosciences and Natural Resource Management, Department of Nutrition, Exercise and Sports, Department of Science Education, Department of International Health, Immunology and Microbiology); Technical University of Denmark, DTU (National Food Institute) and CG Consulting, CGC.

The overall objective of BSU II will be to enhance the capacity of the University of Ghana to achieve its objective of transformation into a first-class research University.

The overall objective of BSU II is to assist in the University of Ghana’s drive to become a first class research University.

-UG