Blog

In this blog, AAS Grand Challenges Africa members Dr Moses Alobo and Colette Adhiambo, detail the process for setting R&D priorities for maternal, neonatal and child health and why these are important for Africa.

Dr Sophie Uyoga, an IDeAL fellow, is working on the first comprehensive study on donor blood in Africa. Sophie explains why this is important and how it can improve how this limited resource is managed and shape better policies for blood transfusion in future.

In this blog, Zebib Yenus Nuru, fellow of the Future Leaders – African Independent Research (FLAIR) programme, discusses her research project, which seeks to harness solar radiation to provide access to clean energy for the community.

Simon Ndoria, Programme Officer at Grand Challenges Africa (GC Africa), presents the Grand Challenges Innovation Network, a virtual network that launched today for African innovators and innovation support partners.

In this blog, Marthe Montcho, CR4D Grantee, shares information about how her research project will contribute to the development of adaptation strategies and best models that improve milk production and, in turn, improve the livelihoods of the women affected.

The African Academy of Sciences Fellow in Chemical sciences, Prof Ameenah Gurib Fakim, was the sixth President of the Republic of Mauritius, and was one of just 13 women out of a total of 178 heads of state in the world. In Africa she and President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf of Liberia, were the only two women heads of state in Africa at the time. She explains how this is not just an African problem, but a global problem. To rectify it, we need all the world’s leaders to empower women, not just the world’s women leaders empowering other women.

In this blog, Delesa Damena, an Ethiopian geneticist at the Developing Excellence in Leadership and Genetics Training for Malaria Elimination, describes the major challenges of the global malaria eradication efforts, what inspired him as a youngster to pursue a career in scientific research and how a comprehensive understanding of the genetic basis of resistance of severe malaria can potentially inform the development of new treatments and vaccines.

This month marks two years since the launch of AAS Open Research. We have taken this opportunity to reflect on the impact and development of the platform over the last two years and to look forward to the future.

Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) have always been a part of Professor Francisca Mutapi’s life, even from a young age growing up in Zimbabwe, where NTDs are prevalent. Now, an AAS Fellow in Biosciences, Co-Director Global Health Academy, Deputy Director Tackling Infections to Benefit Africa (TIBA), she is shaping national and global policies around them. In this blog, she talks about her global family, the one she found being part of the AAS fellowship, and all the nurture and support that family provides in helping build a science career.

From an early age, Professor Catherine Jane Ngila, AAS Fellow in Chemical Sciences, felt discriminated against by her culture just for being a girl. In this blog, she discusses the challenges she has faced and how she is using her platform as an AAS Fellow, to inspire the next generation of women in STEM.