High-Level Meeting between ARUA and The Guild Presidents and Vice-Presidents 07 to 08 June 2023 in Brussels, Belgium

I participated in the High-Level Meeting between leaders of ARUA (African Research Universities Alliance) and The Guild of European Research-Intensive Universities held in Brussels, Belgium, from 07 to 08 June 2023.

ARUA hosts the highest ranked Universities in Africa as per THE World Ranking of Universities, namely, University of Cape Town and University of Stellenbosch amongst others. The University of Mauritius is an Associate Member of ARUA since 2021 when a MoU was signed in 2021 between the UoM and ARUA with the aim of promoting research between ARUA member universities, its Centres of Excellence and the UoM.

The Guild on the other hand consists of 21 Research Intensive Universities, which are based in Europe with equally prestigious universities such as King’s College London, University of Warwick and University of Glasgow amongst others.

The purpose of the meeting was to establish Clusters of Excellence comprising of 13 ARUA Centres of Excellence which are based within the 16 Universities of mainland Africa and the 21 Universities forming The Guild.

The Clusters of Excellence are a composite of Universities within ARUA and The Guild with the following objectives:

1.      Create a platform and synergy between universities in Africa and Europe through a more comprehensive approach

2.      Foster cross fertilisation of ideas across researchers in both areas

3.      Facilitate the exchange and mobility of staff and Research Students across Universities between AU and EU

4.      Attract joint funding and mobilisation of financial resources to support all institutions in the so called Clusters of Excellence

5.      Provide a think tank for policy recommendations on key areas that would help both the AU and the EU to make further socio-economic progress.

At the conclusion of the ARUA-The Guild Meeting, 17 Clusters were approved in the broad areas of Health Care, Food Security, Climate Change, Water Resources Management, Renewable Energy, Artificial Intelligence, Gender and Sustainable Development. UoM will be collaborating in the Health and Gender Cluster of Excellence co-led by the University of Pretoria and the University of Oslo.

It will be highly advantageous for the UoM academics to connect with these Clusters of Excellence for networking, cross-fertilisation of knowledge ideas and strengthening their research potential. I encourage academics and doctoral students alike to take advantage of these Clusters in bidding for projects and seeking internships/placements or other academic pursuits.