152 Luoyu Rd, Hongshan Qu

Wuhan Shi

Hubei Sheng

Two of the most intriguing unsolved questions of evolutionary biology are: why are there so many species generally, and why and how do closely related species coexist together (in sympatry) over the long term?

https://royalsociety.org/grants-schemes-awards/grants/international-exchanges/scott-armbruster/

Professor Scott Armbruster and Professor Shuang-Quan Huang

China

Central China Normal University

430072

International Exchanges

Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital

Blantyre

12.4 million pregnant women are exposed to malaria in Africa each year leading to 900,000 low birth weight deliveries and a high risk of neonatal death. Dr Okell and her team at Imperial College London are developing state of the art mathematical models to explore ways in which a new drug could be used to protect pregnant women against malaria and safeguard the drug against resistance.

https://royalsociety.org/grants-schemes-awards/grants/gcrf/lucy-okell/

Dr Lucy Okell

Malawi

Malawi-Liverpool-Wellcome Trust Clinical Research Programme

Challenge Grants

ILRI Kenya ·

Naivasha Rd

Nairobi

Over the next three decades, African researchers need to develop better-yielding and climate-resilient crop varieties to feed more than twice its current population using a limited land resource. However, new crop varieties are being developed at a painstakingly slow rate. To develop a new crop varieties, plant breeders cross-pollinate old varieties each selected for desired traits, such as high yield or disease resistance, to make new lines which are then cycled through several generations to ensure that the newly acquired traits are stable. This process can take up to 15 years in some crops. A new approach called Speed Breeding, which was inspired by NASA’s effort to grow plants in space, has now been introduced to drastically shorten the development time.

https://blog.aasopenresearch.org/2019/11/27/speed-breeding-to-fast-track-crop-improvement-in-africa/

Dr Oluwaseyi Shorinola

Kenya

International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI)

100

FLAIR Fellowship

University of the Witwatersrand

1 Jan Smuts Ave

Johannesburg

I am trained as an environmental scientist with undergraduate training in Chemistry and Biochemistry. My research focuses on the use of nanomaterials for water treatment. Nanomaterials are simply materials with a dimension in the nanometer scale. As such, they are too small to be seen with the naked eye, but possess valuable qualities not seen in larger materials, and this is what I try to exploit in my research. For example, nanomaterials have a larger surface area per size of material. This means that for adsorption of contaminants, smaller quantities are needed.

https://blog.aasopenresearch.org/2020/03/06/small-but-mighty-using-nanomaterials-to-provide-communities-with-clean-drinking-water/

Dr Anita Etale

South Africa

University of the Witwatersrand (WITS)

2000

FLAIR Fellowship

Joseph Tchooungui Akoa

Yaounde

The global threats of climate change, rising carbon dioxide levels and dwindling natural resources are possibly the most significant challenges facing mankind today.

https://royalsociety.org/grants-schemes-awards/grants/dfid-mokaya/

Dr Chrispin Kowenje, Dr Henrietta Langmi, Dr Justin Kemmegne, Professor Robert Mokaya

Cameroon

University of Yaoundé

Royal Society - DFID Africa Capacity Building Initiative

APHRC Campus

Manga Cl

Nairobi

My journey was motivated by personal experiences cooking using firewood over a three stones stove as a young girl, as well as through my observations during field work in the slums of Nairobi. It was here that it became apparent that the burden of nourishing the family lies heavily on women, and in times of financial distress when resources are limited, women had to find alternative fuels to cook for their families. These included plastics, cloth rags, as well as foam (the kind used in making mattresses), which all have serious implications for air quality in the home and for personal exposure and consequently their health.

https://blog.aasopenresearch.org/2020/03/23/transforming-cooking-in-rural-households/

Dr Kanyiva Muindi

Kenya

African Population and Health Research Center (APHRC)

FLAIR Fellowship

Adigrat University

Adigrat

Tigray

My project is geared towards preparing a cost-effective solar absorber material, which can be able to harness maximum solar radiation in the solar spectrum region while re-radiating low in the infrared region and should be thermally stable up to 100C. This will enable people to heat water, to cook and pasteurize milk in rural areas of Africa.

https://blog.aasopenresearch.org/2020/06/15/harnessing-solar-power-to-provide-clean-energy/

Dr Zebib Yenus Nuru

Ethiopia

Adigrat University

FLAIR Fellowship

Midlands State University

Senga Road

Gweru

I want to tackle global challenges, and the increase of carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere is a topical issue, which requires scientists like myself to provide solutions. Africa has been hit the hardest by climate change, so it is imperative that as African scientists we contribute towards developing technologies that can fight climate change and global warming.

https://blog.aasopenresearch.org/2020/09/25/repurposing-a-waste-gas-into-useful-energy-chemicals/

Dr Gift Mehlana

Zimbabwe

Midlands State University

FLAIR Fellowship

51/59 Nakiwogo Rd

Entebbe

Parasitic worms infect a third of all people and cause widespread, often subtle, illness. Control by mass drug administration is in progress, however humans co-evolved with worms which survive for decades in their hosts by altering host immune responses.  Elimination of parasitic worms from their hosts creates an abnormal immuno-endocrine environment which paradoxically may promote diabetes, affecting 14 million adults in Africa, and cardiovascular disease which is second only to HIV as cause of death in African adults.

https://royalsociety.org/grants-schemes-awards/grants/gcrf/richard-grencis/

Professor Richard Grencis and Professor Alison Elliott

Uganda

Uganda Virus Research Institute

International Collaboration Awards

CV Raman Rd

Bengaluru

Karnataka

Diarrhoeal disease is a major cause of illness around the world, but the worst affected are children in developing countries. In endemic Low and Middle Income Countries in Africa and Southeast Asia, strains of ETEC that produce the enterotoxin ST and LT cause 280-400 million cases of diarrhoea in children under 5 years of age and over 300,000 deaths.

https://royalsociety.org/grants-schemes-awards/grants/international-collaborations/gad-frankel/

Professor Gad Frankel and Professor Sandhya Visweswariah

India

Indian Institute of Science

560012

International Collaboration Awards

Jalan Raja Muda Abdul Aziz

Kuala Lumpur

Over one billion people currently do not have access to clean drinking water and 2.6 billion lack adequate sanitation. It is expected that the world's population will increase by up to 50% over the next 50 years. This has direct consequences on feeding the world's population in 2050 as it will take 50% more fresh water than what we use today. Water sustainability will be one of the global challenges that will affect everyone.

https://royalsociety.org/grants-schemes-awards/grants/gcrf/nidal-hilal/

Professor Nidal Hilal and Professor Abdul Wahab Mohammad

Malaysia

Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia

50300

International Collaboration Awards

Altenbergerstrasse 69

Linz

The incidence of brain tumours in the UK is higher than the world average and is rising over the last three decades. Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is the most aggressive brain tumour (survival time of 14.5 months from diagnosis to death). Despite wide surgical resection and improvements in radio- and chemotherapies, the prognosis remains extremely poor.

https://royalsociety.org/grants-schemes-awards/grants/international-exchanges/aikaterini-lalatsa/

Dr Aikaterini Lalatsa and Professor Peter Hinterdorfer

Austria

University of Linz

4040

International Exchanges

Humans depend on plants as sources of important chemicals, including many of the pharmaceuticals, antimicrobials, flavour and fragrance compounds, food and beverage additives, insecticides and agrochemicals in current use. However the vast majority of the chemical diversity represented within the Plant Kingdom remains as yet untapped. This is because there are significant challenges associated with accessing this chemical diversity.

https://royalsociety.org/grants-schemes-awards/grants/international-exchanges/anne-osbourn/

Professor Anne Osbourn and Dr Tu Duong Ngoc

Vietnam

Institute of Chemistry-Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology

International Exchanges

653 Beer-Sheva

Modern digital electronics has reached an important junction. The traditional way of delivering ever stronger computing power by simple miniaturisation is no longer possible. One potential avenue for future electronics lies in Quantum Computing which can potentially deliver enormous computational power for certain tasks.

https://royalsociety.org/grants-schemes-awards/grants/international-exchanges/eran-ginossar/

Dr Eran Ginossar and Dr Eytan Grosfeld

Israel

Ben-Gurion University of the Negev

8410501

International Exchanges

Av. Paulo Gama

110 - Farroupilha

Porto Alegre

The collaboration aims to improve predictions of flood inundation patterns of the annual flood wave in a 140,000km2 area of the Upper Paraguay River Basin (UPRB) in Brazil. This includes the Pantanal wetlands, a UNESCO world heritage site known for its extraordinary biodiversity which depends on the annual flood wave. Dam building is planned for this region before its effects on flooding and hence biodiversity are fully understood.

https://royalsociety.org/grants-schemes-awards/grants/international-exchanges/paul-bates/

Professor Paul Bates and Professer Walter Collischonn

Brazil

Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul

90040-060

International Exchanges

Drosty Rd

Grahamstown

The Congo River is the world's second largest river, and its seasonally navigable channels allow transport through its vast basin, which has few roads. Decades of war have left this region as one of the least studied in the world.

https://royalsociety.org/grants-schemes-awards/grants/dfid-bates/

Professor Paul Bates, Professor Denis Hughes, Professor Preksedis Ndomba, Dr Mark Trigg, Dr Raphael Tshimanga

South Africa

Rhodes University

6139

Royal Society - DFID Africa Capacity Building Initiative

E Stevens Way NE

Seattle, Washington

Jet streams are narrow fast-flowing currents of air about 9-16km up in the Earth's atmosphere. They exist due to the Earth's rotation combined with differential surface temperatures between the equator and the poles. In the northern hemisphere there is one jet at 30°N, known as the sub-tropical jet, and usually one or more at higher latitudes, known as mid-latitude or sub-polar jets. Jets, particularly mid-latitude and sub-polar, are incredibly important due to their influence on extra-tropical weather and climate, including in Europe and the UK.

https://royalsociety.org/grants-schemes-awards/grants/international-exchanges/rachel-white/

Dr Rachel White and Professor David Battisti

USA

University of Washington

98195

International Exchanges

San Jacinto Blvd

Austin, Texas

In 2011 it was revealed by a European Commission study that around 6-7% (around 800 billion Euro) of the European GDP is dependent on Global Navigation Satellite Systems such as GPS. However, we spend over 80% of our time indoors, where GPS does not currently penetrate. It is expected that indoor positioning will enable a range of new capabilities for a wide range of end users, including the Emergency Services and consumers.

https://royalsociety.org/grants-schemes-awards/grants/international-exchanges/ramsey-faragher/

Dr Ramsey Faragher and Professor Todd Humphreys

USA

University of Texas

78712

International Exchanges

King George VI St

Addis Ababa

Ironweed is a prolifically growing natural plant in Ethiopia and the broader sub-Saharan regions. Recent work, pioneered by Dr Yonas Chebude at the University of Addis has demonstrated that the weed contains a significant level of vernonia oil (X% by weight of the plant). Dr Chebude has demonstrated that this vernonia oil can be treated and turned into vernolic acid, a potentially very valuable natural resource that could be used to create a wide range of commercially viable bioplastics.

https://royalsociety.org/grants-schemes-awards/grants/international-exchanges/steven-howdle/

Professor Steven Howdle and Dr Yonas Chebude

Ethiopia

Addis Ababa University

International Exchanges

399 Royal Parade

Parkville

The challenge in making new drugs to treat different diseases lies in the fact that it is often extremely difficult to know what different chemical processes are occuring in people in need of the new drugs compared to in healthy people, i.e. what has gone wrong to cause the disease. For example, in diseases such as Alzheimer's and schizophrenia, both diseases which affect normal brain functions, scientists are still not clear as to what the drug target should be to take away the symptoms.

https://royalsociety.org/grants-schemes-awards/grants/international-exchanges/sophie-bradley/

Dr Sophie Bradley and Dr Chris Langmead

Australia

Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences

3052

International Exchanges