HP and UNESCO today announced their selection of universities in Algeria, Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal and Zimbabwe that will benefit from their joint project “Piloting Solutions for Reversing Brain Drain into Brain Gain for Africa”.
The goal of the project is to allow universities in Africa to collaborate on research by connecting to international networks through the use of advanced technology called grid computing. HP and UNESCO developed the project following the success of a similar programme in South-East Europe.(1)
Replacing the 300,000 highly qualified Africans who have emigrated costs African countries an estimated $4 billion annually.(2) HP and UNESCO will cooperate with IT-intensive science departments of African universities which can use grid computing to connect students to the valuable experience of emigrated researchers.
”Technology represents a powerful tool in facilitating “brain gain”. It has the potential to help create environments for the sharing and exchange of knowledge among scientists who remained in their home country and those in the diaspora,” said Ana Luiza Machado, the UNESCO deputy assistant director-general for education. “But more importantly, access to joint research and development collaboration and to the worldwide distributed scientific community through high performance technology, could prove to be a strong incentive for experts to continue to work in their home country.”
“We selected the universities from a wide range of impressive proposals in disciplines ranging from biotechnology to renewable energy,” said Jeannette Weisschuh, head, Corporate Affairs, Europe, the Middle East and Africa, HP. “The project will make it possible for ambitious researchers who stay in Africa to benefit from the experience of those who have left.”
HP and UNESCO chose the five universities for their ability to connect with their diasporas in order to carry out advanced scientific research:
• Centre de Développement des Energies Renouvelables (CDER), Algeria
• College of Engineering, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Ghana
• University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Nigeria
• Université Cheikh Anta Diop de Dakar, Senegal
• Chinhoyi University of Technology, Zimbabwe
Beyond the provision of IT equipment and training, HP will fund research visits abroad and meetings between the universities. For example, one of the grantees, the Centre for the Development of Renewable Energies in Algeria, will create a ‘virtual network’ of Algerian researchers working on solar power at home and abroad. Using video-conferencing, experts working in advanced laboratories abroad will lecture students in Algeria. The university will thus be able to offer doctorate-level teaching to its students and relay the classes to remote parts of Algeria.
“Before, if we funded researchers to work in laboratories abroad, we could not be sure if they would come back,” said Dr. Maïouf Belhamel, director of the CDER. “We hope that this project will set an example that others can follow.”
(1)More details of this project are available at: 41131.www4.hp.com/uk/en/global_citizenship/pr_braindrain.html?jumpid=reg_R1002_UKEN
(2)African countries spend an estimated $4 billion annually to employ about 100,000 non-African expatriates to replace emigrants. International Organisation for Migration, Facts and Figures on International Migration , Migration Policy Issues no. 2, 2003
About Grid Computing
Grid computing is a hardware and software infrastructure that clusters and integrates high-end computer networks, databases and scientific instruments from multiple sources to form a virtual environment in which users can work collaboratively. The grid concept was developed in the mid-1990s as a shared computing approach that coordinates decentralised resources and uses open, general-purpose protocols and interfaces to deliver high-quality service levels.
Grids of computing centres are being created by universities and public research laboratories to be able to make massive distributed computations in areas such as bioinformatics, physics, molecular science and meteorology. Most efforts in grid computing are related to the ability to build infrastructures and use them for cooperative work. The grid is designed to render almost anything in IT – computers, processing power, data, web services, storage space, software applications, data files or devices – a “grid service”.
Additional information about HP’s grid initiative is available at www.hp.com/go/grid.
About UNESCO
UNESCO is the United Nations lead agency for education, science, culture and communication. It functions as a laboratory of ideas and a standard-setter to forge universal agreements in its fields of competences. The Organisation also serves as a clearinghouse – for the dissemination and sharing of information and knowledge – while helping its 192 Member States to build their human and institutional capacities in diverse fields. Complete information about UNESCO’s activities around the world is available at www.unesco.org 
. For news about UNESCO: www.unesco.org/en/news .
About HP
HP focuses on simplifying technology experiences for all of its customers – from individual consumers to the largest businesses. With a portfolio that spans printing, personal computing, software, services and IT infrastructure, HP is among the world’s largest IT companies, with revenue totaling $97.1 billion for the four fiscal quarters ended April 30, 2007. More information about HP (NYSE: HPQ) is available at www.hp.com.
Note to editors: More news from HP, including links to RSS feeds, is available at www.hp.com/hpinfo/newsroom/
Printable version
