Luc Duchateau, Ghent University

 Study in Flanders, Make a difference at home!  Are you able to make a difference?  Are you willing to make a difference?  Are you allowed to make a difference?

 Importance of science and technology  Type of knowledge and skills acquired  Type of research required

 Science changed the world  Science can solve problems, but not all Malaria drugs WHO study:save children when given Requires continued followup to improve health Green revolution Requires a just society to come out of poverty trap

 Type of knowledge  All disciplines needed  Phocus on agriculture, next health  Also technical knowledge badly needed  Type of skills  At the same time theoretical and application oriented Organize jointly in North and South

 (South) problem oriented  Sandwich scholarships should be the golden standard  Leads to creation of centers of excellence in the south

 Three cases  The ILRI case  The IUC-JU case  The cross-cutting initiative in statistics

 Objectives Develop vaccins against East Coast fever and trypanosomosis to solve disease problems for farmers and pastoralists

 Ways of action  A number of international scientists collaborates on these problems  Attachment of Kenyan MSc and PhD students

 Objectives: Institutional capacity building of Jimma University  Main research topic:

 The IUC-JU program consists of 7 projects:

 Phase I  32 PhDs with North supervision defended in Belgium  MSc programmes established, e.g., MSc Biostats  PhD schools established, e.g., Infectious diseases  Phase II  10 PhDs finished become South supervisors  Create postdoctoral framework  Joint PhD diplomes in Phase II, e.g., JU - UGent

 Started from TDR project  Assessing the dam effect on malaria incidence

 Extension in framework of IUC-JU  Startup PhD in the North  Look at insecticide resistance  Practical  Fundamental

 And after the PhD …  Establish PhD school in infectious diseases  New PhD student under joint supervisorship  Zoophylic nature of Anopheles mosquito

The interest of new IUCs in statistical support  MU-K, UCuenca, ADEKUS, UEM and JU  NSS initiative with Ecuador and Vietnam  Initiated discussion among Flemish academics  Different target group, different format

31 May 2007Cross Cutting Initiative Stats  Two debates held at UGent and UHasselt  Statistical expertise and consulting at African Universities: the current status and the missing links  Meeting at VLIR with stakeholders from North and South  Lack of human capacity wrt Statistics in all different disciplines (Exp. Design, Survival Analysis, Surveys)  Statistical expertise often theoretical, not practical

31 May 2007Cross Cutting Initiative Stats  Teaching basic statistical courses in a region (e.g. Eastern Africa) with participation of a statistician of the different IUCs of that region  University must then take responsability to add these courses to curriculum

31 May 2007Cross Cutting Initiative Stats  IUC-JU has project to develop Masters in Biostatistics  Each course given twice and then handed over to JU academic staff member  This could also be attended by statisticians from IUCs in Eastern Africa  Interuniversity website could be set up with course material, available to statisticians in IUC for their courses

Now available at nssbiostat.ugent.be, soon locally available

Survival analysis, one of the courses

The slides …

 Many ICP and PhD students don’t find the way back home after studies  ICP in nutrition: 2 IUC-JU students lost  ICP in biostatistics: 3 lost  PhDs: ???  Does the North organizes braindrain?  Why to return or not to return?  What are most important incentives to return?

 Signing contract to service university for 4 years after PhD  Function at university upon return  Young versus old  Incentives to return  Salary  Interesting tasks  Accessibility of international research network