Sweden will continue to fund university research – AIM report

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Sweden will continue to fund university research – AIM report

8:56 CAT | 21 Feb 2018

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The Mozambican and Swedish governments have signed an agreement under which Sweden will finance the research activities of the country’s oldest university, the Eduardo Mondlane University (UEM), for the next five years to the tune of 335 million Swedish crowns (about 44 million US dollars).

A joint press statement issued on Wednesday by the Swedish Embassy and the UEM said that the agreement, signed on 6 February, is intended to develop new masters’ and doctoral programmes at the university, and strengthen those that already exist.

The programme will be implemented in collaboration with Swedish and South African universities, and will contribute to training 233 students on masters’ courses, 100 Ph.Ds, and 16 on post-doctoral courses.

“The objective”, the release said, “is to train and develop research and supervision skills of workers at the UEM and other high education institutions”.

UEM students and researchers, it adds, “will work in research teams to provide knowledge and solutions to multi-faceted development problems identified by the UEM in five areas”. These are population and health; agriculture, nutrition and food security; natural resources, environment and climate change; technology and innovation; and education, culture, good governance, ethics and human rights.

Sweden has supported the UEM since 1978, and the university’s Vice-Chancellor, Orlando Quilambo, cited by the release, said the Swedish support “has contributed considerably to training teachers and researchers, equipping laboratories, and improving the research environment”.

“With the institutional capacity created, thanks to the support of partners and donors, including the Mozambican government, the UEM is striving to embrace new challenges, and scale new heights”, he added.

Swedish ambassador Marie Andersson de Frutos said that Sweden’s own development and competitiveness “are based on scientific research and innovations. Based on this, Sweden has a long and successful partnership with the UEM going back 40 years”.

Swedish support, she added, “will continue contributing towards building the research capacity of the university and of the country in general. Collaboration with the UEM seeks to build institutional capacity so as to ensure that research of a high standard is undertaken at the university, and that Mozambican scientists can produce knowledge that covers the country’s essential needs”.

Source: AIM