Author: Admin

Of the many developmental challenges facing Africa, scientific research doesn’t often rise to the top of the discussion agenda, though thankfully that has been changing with high profile initiatives like the Next Einstein Forum. And yet research and development will be key to the kinds of improvements that African citizens need and expect. The priorities, or […]

Read More… from Africa’s future needs a better research culture and not just for scientists

Artificial intelligence (AI) is changing society as profoundly as the steam engine and electricity have done. But unlike past technological revolutions, the AI revolution offers a unique chance to improve lives without opening up and exacerbating global inequalities. That will require widening of the locations where AI is done. The vast majority of experts are in […]

Read More… from Look to Africa to advance artificial intelligence

Government has pledged a minimum of one per cent of GDP towards the promotion of research and development expenditure of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education in the country. Minister of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation, Prof. Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng, has said in many advanced countries, conservative estimates have it that the direct and indirect contribution of […]

Read More… from Gov’t pledges 1% GDP to support STEM education

Nairobi, Kenya, 1 September 2018 – Today, the Government of Kenya signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Next Einstein Forum (NEF) to host the NEF Global Gathering 2020 in Nairobi in March 2020. The NEF is an initiative of the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS) in partnership with the Robert Bosch Stiftung. “The […]

Read More… from Kenya signs MOU to host the Next Einstein Forum Global Gathering 2020 in Nairobi

There is growing recognition of the quality of research in developing countries and its importance for policy and practice. One area where this applies is education. African research is often “overlooked and undervalued”, with knowledge and expertise from the continent neglected in favour of research and researchers from elsewhere. Yet the insights of researchers with firsthand experience […]

Read More… from New database puts African education research at the heart of policy and practice

Genetic technologies are poised to change the world. Want to eradicate a human disease such as cystic fibrosis or improve a person’s ability to run impossible distances or lift unimaginable weights? This may be possible in the future by using something called CRISPR to edit an organism’s genetic makeup. How about rapidly sequencing a newborn’s genome, similar […]

Read More… from How an app is helping to collect genetic data in Ethiopia and Ghana

Young African scientists face persistent barriers which cause them to leave their own countries, and even academia. This means the continent’s work force loses highly trained people who are crucial for scientific and technological advancement, and for economic development. It’s estimated that 20,000 highly educated professionals leave the continent annually, with up to 30% of Africa’s scientists among them. To identify all […]

Read More… from What’s stopping young African scientists from achieving their potential

African scientists are about to get unprecedented access to enormous amounts of satellite data. This is thanks to a deal signed by the African Union with the European Commission’s Copernicus programme, which describes itself as the world’s third largest data provider. Scientists say that data generated by Copernicus’s satellites includes digital imagery of vegetation, soil and water cover, sea and land […]

Read More… from African agriculture has a lot to gain from increased access to big data

A new telescope was unveiled that will be built at the SKA South Africa site in the Karoo. The Hydrogen Intensity and Real-time Analysis eXperiment (HIRAX) project is an international collaboration being led by scientists from the University of KwaZulu-Natal. It’s an interferometer array that will be made up of 1024 6-metre dishes. Interferometer arrays are really cool because they […]

Read More… from New telescope chases the mysteries of radio flashes and dark energy