Swiss-African Kick-Start Funding
The funding line to finance kick-start activities with partners in Africa intends to incentivize and further collaboration between Swiss and African researchers by focusing on the following kick-starting instruments: Click here for more information
1) Exchange visits
2) Joint seminars
3) Joint Workshops
Financial volume: For the period of 2013 – 16, a total of CHF 480’000 is available for kick-start projects. Individual applications shall not exceed the amount of CHF 10’000. Swiss researchers can apply for travel grants (flight costs up to CHF 1’500) as well as for daily allowances for incoming researchers on the basis of current SNSF rates. The Swiss – African kick-start funding is complimentary to all other funding sources in Switzerland.
Database Details
Prof. Clémentine Rossier, Institut de démographie et de socioéconomie (IDESO), Université de Genève (UNIGE) African Partner Dr Moussa Bougma, Institut supérieur des sciences de la population (ISSP), University Joseph Ki Zerbo Ouagadougou Project outlin …
Traditional Medicine in Transition. Herbal Medicine as endangered living cultural heritageDr. phil. Jacqueline Grigo Religionswissenschaftliches Seminar Universität Zürich (ehemals Völkerkundemuseum Zürich) Dr. habil. Alexander Kocyan Institut für Pflanzen- und Mikorobiologie Botanisches Museum, Universität Zürich James Tumusiime, Moses Kas …
Incertitudes et capacités d’agirProf. Dr. Till Förster, Universität Basel Prof. Dr. Edouard Abé, Université Catholique de l’Afrique de l’Ouest, Burkina Faso Depuis janvier 2019, l’Université Catholique de l’Afrique de l’Ouest, campus de Bobo Dioulasso, Burkina Faso, et l’Unive …
Developing an Online Teaching Course on Urban Food SystemsDr. Lena Bloemertz, Physical Geography and Environmental Change, University of Basel, Switzerland Dr. Alex Awiti, Vice Provost East Africa and Interim Dean of The Graduate School of Media and Communications, Aga Khan University, Nairobi The aim of this …
Internet-based teaching to improve patient & health-care provider interaction in chronic diseasesInternational education project: Establishment of an internet-based teaching instrument using annotated videos and web-based supervision to improve patient & health-care provider interaction in chronic diseases Wolf Langewitza MD, Christof Daetwyle …
Developing joint research proposals in media & communication in various topics, e.g. “effectiveness of farmer communication”“The Sabbatical of Christoph Spurk is used to develop various research proposals jointly with Kenyan researchers (Prof. Wambui Kiai and Dr. George Nyabuga) and make them ready for submission to donors. The idea is also to establish research cooperation …
Cocoaagroforestry in GhanaEven though world-wide demand for cocoa is increasing, cocoa producing regions are suffering from declining yields because of declining soil fertility, climate change, and disease, which significantly threatens cocoa supply chains. Agroforestry has bee …
The Use of ICTs in Projects for Sustainable Povery Reduction in Ghana and MauritiusHow does the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), especially mobile phones and internet, increase access to economic, educational and health resources in Ghana and in Mauritius? How can the use of ICTs reduce poverty and contribute …
Transdisciplinary systems research to reduce cocoa swollen shoot virus disease in Ghana (TransdisCSSVD)Ghana is among the world’s top producers of cocoa (The obroma cacao), with livelihoods of 800’000 farm families’ depending on the crop. The Cocoa Swollen Shoot Virus Disease (CSSVD) is one of the major factors limiting cocoa productivity, and the only …
SkyIsland Biodiversity Network: Biodiversity discovery through data capture and processingImplementation of data management system for collecting, processing, analysing and promoting biodiversity data for the poorly known Mozambican region. This complements established projects in Ethiopia, Rwanda, Democratic Republic of Congo, Tanzania and …
Re-Imagining African Cities. The Arts and Urban PoliticsThe workshop ‘Re-Imagining the African City: The Arts and Urban Politics’ invites established and junior scholars from Africa, the USA, the Middle East and Europe to spend two days of intense research exchange about their individual research and with r …
Re-Imagining African Cities. The Arts and Urban PoliticsThe workshop ‘Re-Imagining the African City: The Arts and Urban Politics’ invites established and junior scholars from Africa, the USA, the Middle East and Europe to spend two days of intense research exchange about their individual research and with r …
Drug Resistant Tuberculosis in Kampala, Uganda: Complementing Susceptibility Testing With Whole Genome SequencingProposed activities to be funded by this grant: a) Workshop at the Makerere University on bioinformatic and phylogenetic tools (2 weeks). We propose a workshop on the usage of next generation sequencing technologies and population genomics to tackle bi …
Récit national et conception de la diversité dans les discours politiques au Sénégal et en Suisse. Vers des pratiques novatrices de gestionIl nous paraît pertinent de choisir l’instrument « Exchange Visit », suite à une proposition du DrKalidou Seydou SY de l’Université Gaston Berger à St-Louis. Il souhaite mettre en place unecoopération inter-universitaire et une réflexion scientifique s …
Global Enterprise Monitor: Exploratory Kick-off in Western AfricaThe grant request helped to support a Swiss-Western African scientific workshop at the University of Ouagadougou 2, Burkina Faso, in spring 2015 for 3 full days. The scientific workshop was intended to gather Swiss scientists and Western African scient …
bioinformatics@makerereHere we propose bioinformatics@makerere, a hands-on bioinformatics course at Makerere University of Kampala, Uganda. The course comprises lectures in the morning and computer practicals in the afternoon. It’s a four-day course targeted at 16 participan …
Strengthening Research Laboratory Capacity of Clinical Research on Endemic Diseases in Accra, GhanaCapacity strengthening encompasses both the infrastructure and the related technical capacity building ín order to ensure clinical research to be performed at the University of Ghana Medical School Korlebu teaching Hospital. The need for strengthening …
Disability and TechnologyThe research group currently engages in the SNF and SDC funded three years research project r4d (research for development) in which one Swiss and three Ugandan PhD candidates started individual research projects in March 2014. Additionally, two Swiss P …
Women’s football clubs as specific “societal universe” to girls soccer players in SenegalThe invisibility of women’ sport in Senegalese society bears enormous harm to many women’ sports clubs seeking to grow since its emergence in 1975 and later, the creation of the Women’ National Team in 2001-2002. The reasons of this marginalization are …
Urban food systems and rural relationsThe aim of the proposed activities is to build up strong research links through the development of an innovative multi-disciplinary research approach on urban-rural/regional food systems in Kenya. Furthermore, through the development of common field cl …
Drinking Deeply from Museum Work-Milk in Switzerland & Uganda: An international coop between museums in Uganda & Ethnographic Museum at University of ZurichFor around three decades, museum experts, curators and researchers have increasingly started to develop innovative strategies to challenge the violent historical burden and ideologies of colonial legacies inherent in museum collections. Against this ba …
Assessment of food system resilience: the case of cocoa in GhanaThis research has the objective to assess the resilience of the cocoa value chain in Ghana. The cocoa value chain (production, processing, retailing and consumption) in Ghana is susceptible to various types of shocks (natural hazards, socio-political c …
Solar drying technology for lumber and food items in GhanaThe overall project is a contribution to the development of Cleaner Production Technologies in developing countries. The main aim is to create access to environmentally friendly, simple to handle, solar powered technology for drying food and materials …
Strengthening Civil Registration & Vital Statistics (CRVS) Mozambique-Intro of New Approaches for Community-based Death Registrationln low-income settings, such as in many Sub-Saharan African countries, CRVS systems are often weak. In fact, it is estimated that only 1% of the deaths in low-income countries are reported with information on causes of death. Given its multidisciplinar …
Correlating anti-TB drug pharmacokinetics with clinical outcomes in TB/HIV co-infected patients“SOUTH” is an ongoing study on the evaluation of the pharmacokinetics of anti-tuberculosis (TB) drugs and TB treatment outcomes in HIV/TB co-infected Ugandan adults. Worldwide this is one of the largest prospective trial looking into this topic. It has …
Virological treatment failure in HIV-infected adults in Uganda: Risk factors: poor adherence, resistance patterns & intervention strategies.From May 1st 2014 to June 30th 2015 we had conducted an observational trial at the Infectious Diseases Institute (IDI) of Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda. Our study focused on the core challenges of ART (Antiretroviral Therapy) in HIV-infected a …
Transition to e-only policiesThe project aims at establishing links to African libraries in order to support common projects between the University of Basel and African universities. The supply with information is perceived as being a precondition for a fruitful collaboration in r …
Missionary Scholarship & Development of Africanist Knowledge: Forging Cohabitation of Religious and SecularThe project focuses on missionary erudition in connection with the development of African studies embodied by the archives of Christian missionary societies that worked in Cameroon. While the entire project covers a period of three years, the kick-star …
Rapid identification & detection of antibiotic resistance profiles in blood culture bacterial isolatesWe propose here to kick-start a multi-site study analyzing the prevalence, causative pathogens and their antibiotic resistance patterns, outcomes, and cofactors of BSI among febrile patients consecutively presenting to hospitals in Kenya. This study is …
Movement analysis of cervical and lumbar spineThe overall objective of the proposed kick-start exchange visit is establishing a research network between University of Ghana and Zurich University of Applied Sciences but more specifically in the area of neck and low back pain. Both teams (investigat …
Decolonising Artistic Education ArtThe Institute of Art Education at the Zurich University of the Arts seeks to develop a research collaboration with the Nagenda International Academy of Art & Design (NIAAD) in Uganda. Our plan is to kick-start our collaboration with a 24-month two- …
Clinical features and differential diagnosis of Clostridium difficile-associated diarrhoea in MaliClostridium difficile is an enteric pathogen that may cause a wide range of diarrhoeal diseases. While C. difficile is the main causative agent of antibiotic-associated diarrhoea and one of the most important diarrhoeal pathogens in the Western world, …
Virtual doctoral school for the field of interpreting/multilingual communication in AfricaThis project aims to develop a proof-of-concept for a Virtual doctoral school in the field of interpreting/multilingual communication between the Universities of Ghana (Accra), Nairobi and Geneva. Building on two pedagogical innovation projects in the …
Capacity building on sustainability, transparency and reporting according to the GRI GuidelinesThe plan is to set-up a research and training program in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania for representatives of local organizations to learn about sustainability, sustainable development, CSR, stakeholder engagement, transparency, good governance and sustai …
Strengthening collaboration in the investigation of heterogeneity in malaria dynamicsThis project aims to facilitates potential exchange between Swiss TPH and KWTRP on a number of topics in malaria epidemiology and specifically on an ongoing joint PhD project: “A joint PhD project between Swiss TPH and KWTRP has been agreed on the topi …
(Re)searching the Middle Class in Subsaharan Africa: A mulitdisciplinary Kick-off WorkshopObjectives 1: stimulate a local debate and knowledge exchange by bringing together a varied set of voices to the exploration of Kenya‘s middle class. 2: collecting data on the Kenyan middle-class, which includes personal stories, pictures, video-docume …
Genomic tools to study the diversity of African cichlid fishes“I propose to organize a joint kick-starting workshop in Basel, aiming at bringing together our African partners with local scientists and students. The research of my group focuses on two enigmatic species assemblages of cichlid fishes, the exceptiona …
Cocoa agroforestry in GhanaGhana is the second largest producer of cocoa (Theobroma cacao) in the world, with livelihoods of approximately 800’000 farmer families partly depending on the crop. However, the sustainability of the cocoa production systems is challenged, mainly beca …
Scientific Drilling at Lake Tanganyika, Africa: A Transformative Record for Understanding Evolution in Isolation and the Historical Biology of the African ContinentIn collaboration with a large interdisciplinary team of international scientists including African collaborators, we propose to tap this unique historical record to understand how the ecosystems of both Lake Tanganyika and its surrounding watershed hav …
Edge Effects of Anthropogenic Barriers on Protected Mammal EcosystemsComparative Risk Assessment of Physical and Metaphorical Fences to Mitigate Human-Wildlife Conflict PhD Project, Zoology Dep. Environmental Sciences at University of Basel in Cooperation with the Animal Demography Unit at University of Cape Town UCT Th …