GEODES - Geosciences, Development and Sustainability: Africa and Europe together – is an European Union funded project through Program ERASMUS-EDU-2022-CBHE-STRAND-1 — Capacity Building in the field of Higher Education: Strand 1.
The African Union Agenda 2063 (AU 2063) recognizes Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) as multi-functional tools and an enabler for achieving continental development goals. The agenda, further, emphasizes that Africa’s sustained growth, competitiveness and economic transformation requires sustained investment in new technologies and continuous innovation.
Realising the full potential of Science, Technology and Innovation to support sustainable socioeconomic growth and development, and improving African competitiveness in global research and innovation, require that Countries continue to expand the availability of quality post-graduate education, including doctoral qualifications.
The need becomes more evident with escalating energy and raw material demands, resulting in renewed global interest in minerals and natural resources accentuating the lack of qualified African Specialists. The governments are advancing initiatives such as the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM), Africa Mining Vision (AMV), and NEPAD's Capacity Development Strategic Framework (CDSF).
The seminal idea behind GEODES is the integration of four new comers to the ERASMUS programme from less favoured institutions: (i) Polytechnic Institute of the University Katiavala Bwila (UKB, Benguela, Angola), (ii) Polytechnic Institute of the University Mandume ya Ndemufayo (UMN, Lubango, Angola), (iii) Faculty of Engineering of the University of Lurio (ULurio, Pemba, Mozambique) and (iv) Faculty of Geosciences and Environment of the University of Pungue (UPungue, Chimoio, Mozambique), with an emphasis on the upgrading/helping to implement degrees in the area of Geosciences and to train students and teachers in practical aspects. From that it has evolved to a much broader initiative (explained throughout the proposal). Geosciences gained an unfair label of “Grey Science” due to old and inappropriate mining exploitation practices so this project will also emphasize that: “GEO constitutes the support for everything including life”.
This project follows a previous one (Erasmus+ SUGERE) that had a focus on curriculum development.
GEODES is a STRAND1 initiative (welcoming new-comers from Angola and Mozambique) and it benefits from the accumulated expertise of t wo institutions that participated in that project (University Agostinho Neto-UAN, Angola and University Eduardo Mondlane-UEM, Mozambique). These institutions are now going to act as local training institutions in tandem with the Europeans Partners.
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