The Collaborative Project will focus on Co-Developing Veterinary Public Health and Epidemiology Curriculum; Support Capacity Building and Skills Transfer in Grant Proposal and Scientific Writing, Research Designs and Analysis among Professional/Graduate Students and Faculty with interest in One Health.
Carnegie African Diaspora Fellowship Program to Support Projects at Universities across Africa.
Benin City, January 27, 2025 – University of Benin (UniBen) was selected by the Carnegie African Diaspora Fellowship Program (CADFP) to host an African diaspora scholar from the United States to work on a collaborative project to co-develop veterinary public health and epidemiology curriculum; support capacity building and skills transfer in grant proposal and scientific writing, research designs and analysis among professional/graduate students and faculty with interest in one health.
Prof Edwin Uwagie-Ero will lead the Project, together with Dr. Chika Okafor from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee (UTK), USA.
The proposed project is hinged on two objectives. Firstly, to create an evidence-based Veterinary Public Health and Epidemiology curriculum that addresses the local needs of UniBen and meets the expectations of the National University Commission (NUC). In 2022, the NUC mandated Nigerian universities to create innovative curricula that will advance Nigeria’s educational objectives by 2027. Hence, UniBen’s Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (DVM) program is poised to taking the lead in reorganizing their curricular to meet NUC’s Core Curriculum Minimum Accreditation Standard (CCMAS). Also, this project nicely aligns with our institution’s vision of becoming a regional hub in training veterinarians that will contribute to improving the economy and well-being of Nigerians through their contributions in One Health. Teaching and mentoring of our professional students on diverse career opportunities in One Health research post- graduation has been a critical need and a mission of our academic program. With this project, our students will also be equipped to handle the complexity of the outside world. Secondly, this project would support the capacity building of our staff and students by expanding their skills in grant proposal and scientific writing, research designs and analysis. Dr. Okafor will assist us with curriculum adaptation to meet global standards, as well as to train staff on curriculum implementation, delivery, scientific proposal writing to project execution and publication. The influence can be profound and diverse, affecting many facets of UniBen’s staff and student performance and professional growth. With products from this project, UniBen will gain international collaboration and an improvement in her global position. Dr. Okafor’s interactions with our staff will open new possibilities for future UTK and UniBen collaboration in teaching and research. These collaborative initiatives and multidisciplinary research would grow to provide young faculty members with networking possibilities.
The University of Benin project is one of 43 projects that will pair African Diaspora scholars with higher education institutions and collaborators in Africa to work together on curriculum co-development, collaborative research, graduate training and mentoring activities in the coming months.
The CADFP, now in its eleventh year develop long-term, mutually-beneficial collaborations between universities in Africa and the United States and Canada. It is funded by Carnegie Corporation of New York and managed by the Institute of International Education (IIE) in collaboration with the Association of African Universities (AAU). Nearly 750 African Diaspora Fellowships have now been awarded for scholars to travel to Africa since the program’s inception in 2013.
Fellowships match host universities with African-born scholars and cover the expenses for project visits of between 14 and 90 days, including transportation, a daily stipend, and the cost of obtaining visas and health insurance.
Please direct all questions related to the application process to [email protected].