This was an education workshop bringing women from all the SADC countries together to innovate food products from indigenous foods. Some of the food innovations were then piloted further and scaled.

Team

Professor Kati Lindroos, UEF; Professor David Katerere Tshwane University of Technology

The study on science, technology and innovation (STI) collaboration between Finland and Africa was compiled with three aims: (i)To explore the different strategies that exist in the Finnish-African STI landscape (ii)To review the current context and landscape of Finnish-Africa STI cooperation (iii) To explore if the drive for private sector engagement has affected Finnish-African STI collaboration. The study was implemented under the “Developing Finnish Science, Technology and Innovation Cooperation between Europe, Africa, Asia and the Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) Region” (FinCEAL) initiative coordinated by the University Partnership for Development (UniPID).

Team

Antibiotics have made it possible for people to live longer, healthier lives. Antimicrobial resistance, however, is an increasing problem, especially in low-resource settings. This project will employ a range of methods from microbiology, clinical medicine and sociology to produce new knowledge about how AMR genes spread especially in poor West African regions, in areas where local capacity to address AMR is lagging behind, and identify ways to curb the spread of AMR. This knowledge can be utilized in national and international health policy and medical research.

Team

Isidore Bonkoungou, Victorien Dougnon, Kaisa Haukka, Bourema Kouriba, Salla Sariola, Marko Virta

This research focuses on designing a smart learning environment (SLE) using virtual reality mini games to support students' computational thinking skills. Aside from enhancing the teaching and learning of CT, this research aims to support first-year students and novices of computer science with the opportunity to gain CT skills through an experiential learning approach. The goal of the research is to design and develop VR mini games through a rigorous process of the design science research methodology in order to provide artefact that allows students to learn CT concepts such as algorithmic thinking, recursive thinking, pattern recognition, and abstraction of problems. This research will measure students' learning achievement and cognitive benefits through a field experiment with first-year university students in Nigeria and Finland. Currently, we have developed a VR mini games application in the VR EdTech Lab located at the School of Computing, University of Eastern Finland. The mini games were co-designed with students from within Finland and abroad in order to achieve a student-centered learning environment. The research has produced over seven research papers published in ranked journals and conferences as shown in the link (https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=mSqmwdgAAAAJ&hl=en). The research is being supervised by professors from the School of Computing, University of Finland, and Luleå University of Technology (LTU) Sweden. The professors are specialists in VR technology, educational games, and ICT4D.

Team

Professor Markku Tukiainen, Dr. Jarkko Suhonen, Dr. Solomon Oyelere, MSc. Friday Joseph Agbo

Emerging technologies such as affordable smart phones with 4G access, broadband internet, and interactive interfaces employing gestures or speech, are revolutionizing the ways we access information, learn new skills and interact with the world around us. However, developing world communities - who stand to benefit from such technologies - were, until recently, largely neglected. Interactive technologies provide a means to address learning challenges such as functional illiteracy and information access barriers, and can improve learning and education, health and wellbeing, and agricultural practices.

Team

Markku Turunen, Jaakko Hakulinen, Mikko Ruohonen, Sumita Sharma, Pekka Kallioniemi, Juhani Linna

LEAP4FNSSA is a Coordination and Support Action (CSA) whose main objective is to provide a tool for European and African institutions to engage in a Sustainable Partnership Platform for research and innovation on Food and Nutrition Security, and Sustainable Agriculture (FNSSA).

Team

Melissa Plath

The TAITASMART project, a research and development project of the University of Helsinki aims to develop a climate-smart landscape framework in Taita Taveta County, Kenya, to take into account both the needs of climate adaptation and mitigation, and sustainable agriculture supported by ecosystem services. For this purpose, the project will study land cover changes, land-atmosphere interactions, soil-crop system functioning, and climate smart landscapes for sustainable development, and build capacity in climate-smart practices.

Team

Petri Pellikka, Laura Alakukku, Timo Vesala

COST Action FP1405 - ActInPak is an international project implemented mainly to identify and focus on the key technical, social, economic and legislative factors relevant for a successful deployment of renewable fibre-based functional packaging solutions. The main objective of ActInPak is to develop a knowledge-based network on sustainable, active and intelligent fibre-based packaging in order to overcome current technological, industrial, and social limitations that hinder the wide deployment of existing and newly developed solutions in market applications.

Team

Johanna Lahti, Mika Vähä-Nissi FATIMA BOUCHAMA, JULIEN BRAS, SANNE TIEKSTRA, SELCUK YILDIRIM, GREG GANCZEWSKI, DAVID RAVNJAK, TADEJA MUCK, MARCO GIACINTI, JOHANNES BERGMAIR, VICTORIA HEINRICH, DIANA GREGOR SVETEC

The main objective of the ValBio3D project is to develop sustainable and 100% biobased composites based on agroindustrial residues, addressing the bioeconomy of the future. Sub Goals: 1. Develop novel routes for production of a bioplastic based on agroindustrial residues 2. Develop processes for production of sustainable nanofibres suitable as reinforcement of bioplastics in structured biocomposites and as a main component in bioapplications 3. Develop novel routes for functionalizing nanofibres and bioplastic for optimal adhesion in the biocompounds 4. Develop prototype biocomposites based on 3D (bio)printing as a novel technology 5. Perform a lifecycleassessment (LCA) of biocomposites

Team

Dr. Maria Christina Area, Dr. Gustavo Ciudad, Heli Kangas, Dr. Claudia Schirp, Dr. Gary Chinga Carrasco, Isabel Quispe, Marcelo Miguel Melnechuk, Gorm Bruland

The overall aim of the project is to improve productivity, livelihoods, nutrition and household wellbeing in Ghana and Uganda, while counteracting environmental degradation and mineral depletion caused by monocultures. The study will address both the individual farm level and the rural community level. Introducing the use of biofertilizers through a participatory process can highlight the potential of location-based resources, and empower the community more widely.

Team

Sumelius John (Project manager, Lindström Kristina (Principal investigator), Benjamin Ahiabor, John Baptist Tumuhairwe, Åsa Frostegård, Aserse Aregu (Participant), Vihinen Hilkka (Project manager), Sell Mila (Project manager), Sipiläinen Timo (Participant), Bäckman, Stefan, (Participant) Rosengren, Linda (Other)