The Sustainable Development Goal 11 on cities recognises the central role of urbanisation in sustainable development, and calls for making cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable. To ensure that science can effectively contribute to the implementation of SDG 11, the International Council for Science in partnership with the Network of African Science Academies (NASAC), and the International Social Science Council (ISSC) will support 10 collaborative research projects across Africa (to the value of up to 90,000 Euro each over two years) in 2018. These projects are expected to generate new solutions-oriented, integrated knowledge required in the practice of sustainable urban development in Africa.
These projects will be supported as part of the 5-year programme “Leading Integrated Research for Agenda 2030 in Africa – LIRA 2030 Africa”, that seeks to increase the production of integrated (inter- and transdisciplinary), solutions-oriented research on global sustainability by early career scientists in Africa.
Earlier this year the LIRA 2030 Africa programme launched a call for pre-proposals on Advancing the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goal 11 on cities in Africa in order to identify research projects that will explore the development of new approaches and strategies towards the innovative re-thinking of urban futures – in partnership with local authorities, industry, communities, and government.
Following this call, 31 pre-proposals have been short-listed, representatives of which attended a training event on trans-disciplinary research on 28 August – 1 September in Kampala, Uganda. The training focused on strengthening scientific capacity to undertake trans-disciplinary research and communicate its results, to build meaningful inter- and trans-disciplinary projects and to support the development of full proposals. Now participants are expected to develop and submit full proposals by 20 November 2017. Ten successful collaborative projects will be announced in February 2018.
ICSU are now looking for scientists and non-academic experts with expertise in urban governance and planning, provision of services in cities (e.g. clean drinking water, sanitation, energy, health, housing, waste treatment transportation), ecosystem-based approaches to urban resilience, disaster risk reduction, air pollution, climate mitigation and adaptation in urban context to review full proposals between Nov 2017-mid Jan 2018. Experience in inter- and transdisciplinary research would be of great value. Guidelines for review will be provided and a renumeration for this task (20 Euro per proposal) is available.
If you are interested in contributing to our efforts in making African cities more sustainable and resilient by reviewing proposal(s), please contact katsia.paulavets@icsu.org by 10 November.
About LIRA
LIRA 2030 Africa is a five-year programme of the International Council for Science (ICSU), implemented in partnership with the Network of African Science Academies (NASAC) and the International Social Science Council, with support from the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency. LIRA 2030 Africa aims to generate solutions-oriented knowledge to address complex sustainability challenges in Africa and to increase participation of the African scientific community in global research programmes.
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