UG wins US$16m World Bank grant under ACE project

The University of Ghana (UG) has won two grants worth US$16million under the African Centres of Excellence (ACE) project funded by the World Bank.

Announcing this, the Vice-Chancellor Professor Ernest Aryeetey said out of a total of 52 submissions from West and Central Africa, the University of Ghana teams won two of the 15 grants submitted under the World Bank-funded ACE project.

The projects are under the University’s West African Centre for Cell Biology of Infectious Pathogens (WACCBIP) at the Department of Biochemistry, Molecular and Cell Biology, and the West Africa Centre for Crop Improvement (WACCI).

In congratulating the teams at WACCI and WACCBIP, the Vice-Chancellor said the University of Ghana was the only University that won more than one grant. Prof. Aryeetey also acknowledged the untiring efforts of the Office of Research, Innovation and Development which coordinated the proposals under the Pro-Vice-Chancellor, Prof. John Gyapong.

The two projects went through stringent assessment criteria and were selected based on positive recommendations of international experts after a transparent and rigorous evaluation exercise.

The strong points for the West African Centre for Cell Biology of Infectious Pathogens (WACCBIP) include the involvement of IT and e-learning as a platform to disseminate existing materials, quality of key personnel at the University of Ghana, and the commitment of visiting faculty; the use of science ambassadors for outreach to the region; impressive infrastructure; and the existence of clear, focused leadership and policies at the University of Ghana.

The key strengths of WACCI’s project, “Developing WACCI into an African Centre of Excellence for training plant-breeders, seed scientists and seed technologists”, point to a well-written proposal that demonstrates strong experience in dealing with regional and international institutions; experience in dealing with students from the sub-region; and enthusiastic and highly-motivated stakeholders.

The Office of Research, Innovation and Development under the leadership of Prof. John Gyapong, Pro-Vice Chancellor, coordinated the proposals. The winning of these awards is especially significant for the University of Ghana as it makes strides to transform into a research University.

The ACE project is coordinated by the Association of African Universities (AAU), and aims at strengthening the capacity of selected universities to deliver high-quality training and applied research at the regional level within areas of Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM), as well as Health and Agriculture that are of particular relevance to Africa’s development.