The first Kenyan-Austrian University Cooperation meeting was recently held at the KUCC of Kenyatta University on November the 7th 2013. The meeting, supported OeAD Austria was organised by former alumni Dr. Luke Olang from the department of Civil Engineering and Dr. Pamela Ngugi from the department of Kiswahili and African languages. The meeting was opened by the representative of the Vice Chancellor of Kenyatta University - Mrs. Catherine Githuku. The Guest of owner was His Excellency, The Austrian Ambassador to Kenya - Mr. Christian Hasenbichler.

Workshop Participants. Picture by Luke Olang

In the meeting, several researchers shared their project experiences in university cooperation. Also presented by Elke Stinnig, the OeAD representative, was the current Appear Grant Call Modalities. The call is aimed at building new partnerships between Austrian Universities and research institutions in the eligible countries in the Africa according to the needs of the partner countries. A list of the documentation and presentations of the meeting are available at
www.appear.at/appear_infos/events/past_events/kenya_meeting/

Considering that this was the first time that the OeAD, Austria organized such a professional meeting in Kenya, we at Kenyatta University were extremely pleased to host such a high profile of participants from various institutions to discuss the details of the existing Austrian funded projects, including the benefits and challenges in a development context. We are looking forward towards enhanced cooperation projects between the two countries.

From the coordinators:
Pamela Ngugi, Luke Olang & Elke Stinnig