In recent years, various studies have reported the occurrence of a wide range of antibiotics and antiretrovirals in different water systems. Of particular concern is the water emanating from wastewater treatment plants and informal settlements that have significant amounts of the drugs. These drugs end up in the water systems leading to a number of negative effects both terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. Much of the work with regard to the studies is in the developed world and there is no significant studies documented in the sub-Saharan Africa where there is high disease burden, high population and limited water treatment facilities. The goal of the present study is to develop fast and reliable analytical methods for the determination of selected antibiotics and antiretroviral drugs in water selected water systems in Kenya and Finland. The removal efficiencies of the wastewater treatments plants shall be determined. The data obtained in the study shall form the basis of research on pharmaceutical and other emerging contaminants in Kenya and the evaluation of the means for their elimination in water.

Team

Tuula Tuhkanen, Anthony Gachanja, Elijah Ngumba

ReWell-project aims at increasing the capacity of academic staffs to develop vocational and adult education programmes and practices, which promote sustainable use of countries´ natural and human resources, improve people´s employability and wellbeing and combat exclusion in Pirkanmaa, Morogoro and Kampala regions, in the context of global industry and trans-national policies. The project contains joint studies, teaching and supervision, based on collaborative research on regional adult and vocational education (VET). The shared themes in research, teaching and studies are: 1. Adult education and VET policy in regional and global perspective 2. Industrial, economical, environmental and welfare policy in regional and global perspective 3. Ethical and environmental aspects in adult and vocational education. 4. Role and responsibility of adult education and VET research and studies in regional and global perspective.

Team

Anja Heikkinen, Kirsi-Marja Varjokorpi, Tampere Perpetua Kalimasi, Haruni Muchuma, Mzumbe Kimani Muturi, Chris Serwanico, Kyambogo

The UEM-Aalto sustainability and clean technologies network aims to update the curricula and the current teaching and research practices as an effort to improve the capability to address existing and emerging sustainability challenges in the forest sector and associated with natural resources, bioproducts industry and process industry in general. The new network will encompass 1) student and teacher exchanges, 2) development and implementation of a joint intensive course on sustainability and clean technologies (“Industrial Environmental Engineering”) and 3) dissemination event and measures.

Team

Andrade Egas, Natasha Ribeiro, Olli Dahl, Roope Husgafvel, Sakari Toivakainen, Mikko Martikka

The focus of the research is to analyze the interactions between FLEGT Voluntary Partnership Agreements and REDD+ regimes in Congo Basin countries

Team

Marcus Lindner

The ongoing CAPOLSA Phase II project completes the capacity building in CAPOLSA Phase I and needed for reaching the final goal of the ongoing action to help as many children as possible in Sub-Sahara Africa to learn the basic skills, and be able to have appropriate reading skills to acquire functional literacy by being offered appropriate reading material. Together with the training of coordinators for distribution of literacy support throughout Zambia and its neighbouring countries, the project builds skills and networks to overcome the complete lack of reading material which children who have just learned to read have to have. 1. The Capolsa Centre works as a national help centre in Zambia for the tens of thousands of first grade teachers who will be using small tablet computers that Grapholearn Initiative for optimal learning results as well as the learning-game based reading practicing environments (Graphogame). It also serves as the whole Sub-Saharan resource centre in order to extend the reach of their expertise eventually to all the countries in Sub-Sahara area.

Team

The Business Informatics on the Ground (BIG) project aims to set up a sustainable learning environment where participants of the network learn to design and apply mobile technologies, including games, for practical business uses in the context of emerging economies. A key component of the design process is to collect real life design stories related to good practices and lessons learned of various business informatics projects emerging in different contexts. A concrete example of a BIG initiative is a street business school, where street vendors are trained to use mobile technologies in their daily lives. The approach used in the street business school is a living lab approach where the vendors, students, researchers and designers of technologies work in close collaboration.

Team

Prof. Erkki Sutinen, Dr. Jarkko Suhonen

A clear need for strengthening forestry education in Kenya has been identified by local and international stakeholders due to increasing demands of sustainable management of natural resources and fast developments of learning technologies. The key objectives of the project are to strengthen the educational capacity and societal role of University of Eldoret in Kenya within the area of sustainable natural resource management by enhancing (a) curricula and subject-specific capacity, (b) pedagogical and ICT capacity, (c) community engagement, and (d) administrative and networking capacity.

Team

Sari Pitkänen, Javier Arevalo, Jarkko Suhonen, Jaakko Helminen, Myriam Munezero

According to our experience, most of the African Universities still focus on education, while research outputs are generally low. We have identified two main reasons for this. First, it is common that faculty members of higher education institutions are master degree holders. This means that faculty members usually lack research experience and they do not have basic knowledge and skill to conduct research. Secondly, those faculty members who have interest and skills to do research are often heavily loaded with teaching and administrative responsibilities. Thus, developing a research culture is an important direction for the future of African universities.

Team

Prof. Emanuel Mjema, Prof. Edda Tandi Lwoga, Prof. Markku Tukiainen, Prof. Matti Tedre, Dr. Jarkko Suhonen