Research Projects and Business Ideas
UMbalabala
UMbalabala Education Toolkit is a collection of novel methods and apparatuses for making learning, teaching and assessment easy. Especially for Foundation Phase of education. The educational toolkit uses pedagogical methods to enhance the learning of…
Ileemore
Ileemore, a start-up company from Nigeria, is an AI-powered e-learning platform that helps Anglophone West Africa secondary school students prepare for matriculation examination through a dynamic pedagogy and learning analytics. The Co-founder and CE…
Smart Class
The start-up company Smart Class from Rwanda offers an online learning platform which aims to connect all Rwandan high school students learning similar academic subjects and provide them with access to valuable learning materials and high-quality tea…
Mutware Educate
Mutware Educate is an Edtech start-up company from Rwanda that aims to boost education from traditional to digital learning. They provide an education platform with curriculum-based engaging content for nursery students and adults’ self-paced learnin…
Ambani Africa
Ambani Africa is an award-winning South African EdTech company that specializes in educational products and services. They are a culture-centric and future-facing technology company that offers engaging solutions for the benefit of learners, parents,…
Vambo Academy
Vambo Academy, a South African startup company, provides tools and spaces for learners to explore, experience, and learn about African languages, cultures, traditions, people, and more at their own pace. Vambo Academy offers language learning and tra…
Zaio
Zaio, a South African startup company, offers an Online Learning Management System (LMS) with various learning journeys in coding education. Zaio also creates and delivers customized learning programs for companies to upskill their employees or aid t…
Rwanda Green Lighting
Rwanda Green Lighting, a startup from Rwanda, harnesses airborne electrical energy to power street lights and areas still off the grid in Rwanda. The Chief Executive Officer is Ms Diane Mumararungu. Winner of the AIT-SASBI Spring Conference 2023 and…
NG Trail
Trail NG is a Nigeria-based ed-tech startup company that has created a platform enabling companies to identify skills gaps in their employees. The owner is Mr Mubarak Lawal of the University of Ibadan. Winner of the AIT-SASBI Spring Conference 2023 a…
LolaGreen
Cape Town based startup Lola Green converts waste products into sustainable construction materials. The founder is Mr Matimba Mabonda. Winner of the AIT-SASBI Spring Conference 2023 and participant of the Swiss Residency Week in Basel (Switzerland)….
Igugu Clean Tech
Igugu Clean Tech is a South African startup company that aims to produce biodiesel from nicotine-free tobacco plants for a cleaner, more environmentally friendly option than traditional diesel. The founder is Ms Zinhle Ngidi. Winner of the AIT-SASBI…
Derma2Go
Problem Research indicates that currently 69% of dermatologists are over 50 years old in Germany (Kis et al., 2017). It can be assumed that in 15 years there will be an undersupply of practicing dermatologists which implies inadequate medical care. T…
School-Community-Science Triangle Initiative
This project aims at innovating education for sustainable development in that it reorients teaching content towards what is defined as relevant and current by the community in which the project schools operate. Schools are linked to community needs,…
Modes of production, solidarity networks and fertility in Burkina Faso
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 outl…
Traditional Medicine in Transition. Herbal Medicine as endangered living cultural heritage
Dr. 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 K…
Incertitudes et capacités d’agir
Prof. 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’Uni…
Developing an Online Teaching Course on Urban Food Systems
Dr. 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 th…
Internet-based teaching to improve patient & health-care provider interaction in chronic diseases
International 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 Daetwy…
IcanFarm – Kilimo ni Mali
The Problem: Access to affordable credit Over 90% of the sub-Saharan Africa’s 48 million smallholder farmers lack access to formal credit. Less than 6% of commercial loan recipients are smallholder farmers. Source: FAQ In Kenya, only about 10% of sma…
TyphGen – A rapid test for typhoid fever
Why a test for typhoid fever • 20 million cases of typhoid fever are registered annually. Majority of the cases involve children from low-income countries. • Contributes 36% of all fever-related illnesses in Uganda. • Diagnosis is difficult, with the…
Tyncbest Biotechnology:
About Us: Tyncbest Biotechnology is established primarily for the research and product developments of medical devices. At the heart of this company, the product development of devices is accomplished by invention and simplified by innovation. Proble…
Soso Care: My Healthcare and I
About Soso Care: is a social enterprise that aims to use garbage as a financial resource to enable millions of uninsured slum dwellers especially pregnant women and kids to access micro health insurance as well as micro capital for petty trade. Our P…
Pennysmart – Next generation bank for African millennials.
One Line Pitch: Next generation bank for African millennials. Business Summary: Pennysmart is the next generation digital bank that helps Ghanaians save anytime, anywhere with no cost. We are a Tier-4 Operator under Bank of Ghana rules and regulation…
Inocul8 – Inoculated, Protected, Safe.
Problem In Africa over half a million people including adults and children die from vaccine preventable diseases: such as pneumonia, rota virus, hepatitis B, cervical cancer, typhoid fever, amongst others, due to limited access to vaccination service…
HerHealthUganda
We imagine a world where every woman has a means to test for preventable infections instead of suffering long term illness. Our Mission Empowering women around the world to take their health into their own hands and to increase awareness about the ad…
ETrash2Cash
About Us eTrash2Cash (eT2C Company Nigeria) is the first of its kind social enterprise in northern Nigeria, which embodies the use of technology to solve environmental problems in the low-income communities. Its web, mobile app and SMS platform helps…
DIY Solar Lamps
Problem Currently, 44% of the over 100 million Ethiopian people have access to electricity while 56% of them risk their health by using traditional energy sources. Studies conducted by the World Bank shows that electrification is directly related to…
MPOWER VENTURES – eMPowering local entrepreneurs as the major driving force of solar energy in emerging markets
MPower is a tech4impact venture tackling the challenges of energy access and financial inclusion in emerging markets. As local SMEs are key to the socioeconomical development of these countries, MPower creates a B2B platform to empower the next gener…
Enable | Digital
Problem Enable has identified a significant problem in a highly underserved market: IT solutions for impact ventures in emerging markets. In order to access the market, Enable has developed both a set of innovative technologies as well as a solid pr…
CosKin-Reveals the nature of your skin
CosKin is a Swiss company developing an ultra-fast skin analysis device, thanks to multi-spectral technology. This technology is active in the field of cosmetics, especially for the treatment of skin. PROBLEM Consumers of cosmetics product are desert…
CommoChain
CommoChain is a web-based solution that allows Coffee Exporters to better track their samples and manage exporting documents. It delivers efficiency & traceability benefits to ultimately provide best coffee to clients. Pains for Coffee Exporters…
chiweto – Enhancing farmers farm production efficiency & livelihood through MobileTech solutions
Business Description We provide cow performance status diagnostic mobile phone app., information and insurance services to livestock farmers. Our services help farmers increase efficiency in detecting animals a high risk of nutrition and health probl…
Global Enterprise Monitor: Exploratory Kick-off in Western Africa
The 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 scie…
DASH Study (Disease, Activity and Schoolchildren’s Health)
The DASH study, or in full the Disease, Activity and Schoolchildren’s Health in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, is a joint research project between the University of Basel, Switzerland, the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute in Basel, Switzerla…
South African Cropland Dust Emission Risks: Physical Thresholds, Environmental and Socio-Economic Patterns
Dust emission is a growing issue affecting soil mass losses, ecosystem services, public health, and climate change. Understanding dust emission dynamics originating from farming in drylands is crucial not only to prepare and respond to the aforementi…
Information for international PhD Candidates
Doctoral Studies Before you begin the online application, please note the following: Degree programs An overview of the doctoral studies offered by the various faculties can be found in the information sheet: Doctoral studies issued by the specific f…
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 onl…
Valueworks: Effects of Financialization along the Copper Value Chain
Over the last 15 years, Switzerland has emerged as a major global commodity-trading hub. Swiss traders take an intermediary position in commodity chains; they connect markets, influence the pricing process and, unintentionally, change the life-worlds…
Solar drying technology for lumber and food items in Ghana
The 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 material…
Clinical features and differential diagnosis of Clostridium difficile-associated diarrhoea in Mali
Clostridium 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…
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…
Re-Imagining African Cities. The Arts and Urban Politics
The 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…
Assessment of food system resilience: the case of cocoa in Ghana
This 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…
Cocoaagroforestry in Ghana
Even 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 b…
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 cooperati…
Drinking Deeply from Museum Work-Milk in Switzerland & Uganda: An international coop between museums in Uganda & Ethnographic Museum at University of Zurich
For 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…
bioinformatics@makerere
Here 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 particip…
Strengthening Research Laboratory Capacity of Clinical Research on Endemic Diseases in Accra, Ghana
Capacity 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 strengthenin…
Strengthening collaboration in the investigation of heterogeneity in malaria dynamics
This 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 to…
Capacity building on sustainability, transparency and reporting according to the GRI Guidelines
The 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 sust…
Virtual doctoral school for the field of interpreting/multilingual communication in Africa
This 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 th…
Decolonising Artistic Education Art
The 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 tw…
Movement analysis of cervical and lumbar spine
The 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 (investig…
Rapid identification & detection of antibiotic resistance profiles in blood culture bacterial isolates
We 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…
Missionary Scholarship & Development of Africanist Knowledge: Forging Cohabitation of Religious and Secular
The 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-st…
Transition to e-only policies
The 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…
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 h…
Strengthening Civil Registration & Vital Statistics (CRVS) Mozambique-Intro of New Approaches for Community-based Death Registration
ln 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 multidisciplin…
Urban food systems and rural relations
The 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…
Women’s football clubs as specific “societal universe” to girls soccer players in Senegal
The 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 a…
Disability and Technology
The 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…
Récit national et conception de la diversité dans les discours politiques au Sénégal et en Suisse. Vers des pratiques novatrices de gestion
Il 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…
Drug Resistant Tuberculosis in Kampala, Uganda: Complementing Susceptibility Testing With Whole Genome Sequencing
Proposed 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…
Re-Imagining African Cities. The Arts and Urban Politics
The 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…
SkyIsland Biodiversity Network: Biodiversity discovery through data capture and processing
Implementation 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 a…
The Use of ICTs in Projects for Sustainable Povery Reduction in Ghana and Mauritius
How 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 contribu…
CASB/ZASB – Centre for African Studies Basel
The Centre for African Studies Basel (CASB) coordinates Africa-related teaching and events at the University of Basel in cooperation with institutions outside the university. The CASB is the only institution in Switzerland offering a Masters and a Ph…
Edge Effects of Anthropogenic Barriers on Protected Mammal Ecosystems
Comparative 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…
(Re)searching the Middle Class in Subsaharan Africa: A mulitdisciplinary Kick-off Workshop
Objectives 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-docu…
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 exceptio…
Cocoa agroforestry in Ghana
Ghana 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 be…
Scientific Drilling at Lake Tanganyika, Africa: A Transformative Record for Understanding Evolution in Isolation and the Historical Biology of the African Continent
In 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 h…
SwissTPH Teaching and Training Courses
All departments of the Swiss TPH take part, in Teaching and Training in various forms. As an associated institute of the University of Basel, numerous Swiss TPH staff have teaching obligations at the University. The Institute is involved in the BSc s…
Ageing, Agency and Health in Urbanizing Tanzania
Project Management: Brigit Obrist; Obrist van Eeuwijk Persons involved Sandra Staudacher; Andrea Patricia Grolimund; Piet Van Eeuwijk Period Start: 01. Apr 2012 End 31. Jan 2016 Description The project Ageing, Agency and Health in Urbanizing Tanzani…