Department of Management Sciences

Applied Research and Teaching for Sustainable Development in Africa (ART4Dev)

Establishing structures that enhance educational quality by building expertise in sustainable economy, strengthening applied research in sustainable development and promoting innovative solutions to SDG challenges in Africa. Hochschule Bonn-Rhein-Sieg has partnered with the University of Cape Coast, Mount Kenya University, MOI University, Institute of Financial Management Tanzania and IU Uniersity of Applied Sciences, Germany have teamed up to achieve these goals, focussing on applied research, digital learning development and sustainable innovations.

Project Goal

The primary objective of "Applied Research and Teaching for Sustainable Development" (ART4Dev) is to support the partner institutions University of Cape Coast Ghana, Mount Kenya University, MOI University Kenya, and Institute of Financial Management, Tanzania in their efforts to contribute to sustainable development and establish structures that enhance educational quality. The project will achieve this by building expertise in Sustainable Economy, strengthening applied research in sustainable development, promoting innovative solutions to SDG challenges, and delivering extracurricular training at the partner universities in Ghana, Kenya, and Tanzania.

The concept of a Sustainable Economy refers to providing the greatest amount of general well-being and ensuring that overall demand is less than nature's renewable supply of resources. The sustainable economy module will consist of topics in 1) Environment and Climate, 2) Social protection, 3) Innovation and entrepreneurship, and 4) Microfinance.

Project Output

The proposed project will, over four years, produce (1) a Sustainable Economy working group, (2) two capacity building/didactic/technical workshops, (3) one Sustainable Economy module, (4) 16 online guest lectures from industry experts (5) one research agenda workshop (6) eight transdisciplinary/community engagement workshops (7) A collection of working papers in sustainable development in Africa (8) three sustainable development in Africa conference (9) three SDG innovation challenge (10) 16 extra-curricular workshops for students, graduates, and businesses. The project will work closely with several non-university partners. These partners will offer access to case study materials, help create content for online modules and provide placements to students. Hochschule Bonn-Rhein-Sieg, University of Applied Sciences (H-BRS), and the IU International University of Applied Sciences (IU) will bring their expertise and networks. H-BRS will coordinate of all project activities.

Project sponsorship

The BET Ghana project is generously funded by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) with funds from the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). The total funding amounts to 325 000 Euros over the full project duration.