On the sidelines of the One Health conference  in Abomey-Calavi, the Centre Suisse de Recherches Scientifiques en Côte d’Ivoire (CSRS) and the Université d’ Abomey-Calavi (UAC) of Benin signed a framework agreement on April 25th, 2019.

The agreement was signed by Prof. Bassirou Bonfoh, Director of Afrique One-ASPIRE, who was representing the DG of CSRS, and Prof. Maxime Da Cruz, Director of UAC.

At this occasion, the parties discussed the challenges of scientific research in public universities in Africa and specifically at UAC in Benin.

Prof. Bonfoh took the opportunity to share success stories from CSRS and the major challenges regularly faced by research entities in Africa, such as core funding, retention of researchers and supervision of students.

Prof. Maxime  Da Cruz and her leadership team were particularly interested in the development of trainers to build research capacity among researchers. Naturally they were also interested in ways to mobilize resources.

The agreement will lead to the organisation of a learning package for around 20 to 30 postdoctoral scientists at UAC. This will be a first step towards setting up partnerships for innovative scientific research projects that take into account present day challenges.

Following the signing of the agreement of cooperation, a delegation from UAC is expected to visit CSRS soon.