AN INTEGRATED APPROACH

The Institute aims to advance, foster and attract researchers with a view that intractable challenges faced by developing countries require a well-integrated interdisciplinary approach. To achieve this the Institute amalgamates researchers in the clinical, social, life, population, psychological, physical, engineering- and computational sciences. Its overall strategy will be shaped by an executive committee comprised of three academics from each University under the leadership of a joint UI-UCL Centre Director who will also oversee the management committee and receive input from an international panel of external expert advisors.

Crossing Disciplines and Boundaries

UCL-CS has a strong inter-disciplinary and ground-breaking research portfolio with co-Investigators at COMUI. UCL-CS and COMUI have recently secured two priming (£100K each) and two large three-years long EPSRC GCRF awards (£2.5 millions) expected to run to 2021. The ongoing research breadth and depth is evidence of academic critical mass and regional footprint to attract further funding to realise the vision of the proposed Institute. Its location, academic excellence and current engagement with UCL makes the University of Ibadan (UI) an extraordinary choice to host such a regional centre of excellence that will underpin the success of south-to-south partnerships with other academic institutions, industry, NGOs, charities and Governments across the African region. Similarly, the centre will further UCL’s international leadership in cutting-edge computational science and engineering to tackle global health intractable challenges and it is aligned with UCL Human Global Development strategies and ethos.

Training the future

The Institute takes seriously its role of sharing and fostering good academic science in the African region by creating an environment where researchers are actively engaging in south-to-south and south-to-north training programmes. Our current work provides the foundations for multi- and inter-disciplinary training in world-leading advancements of computer science with the potential to contribute to the development across the African region. Furthermore, the technological-sector companies (e.g. Google) are currently training local talent in Nigeria, our Institute provides a platform focusing on utilising this local talent to its maximum.

Breaking New Ground on the Ground

The overarching aim of the collaborative Institute is to foster an academic environment where interactions and dialogue can exist and flourish and can quickly be implemented or prototyped. This will mean that the time between a research idea discussion and a trial or prototype development will be much reduced- ensuring we remain competitive and at the forefront of scientific innovation and discovery. Many of our existing projects such as rapid malaria diagnosis, epilepsy detection and hearing-aid mobile solutions are already innovative, practicable and their portable solutions are likely to be quickly adopted by developing countries- examples of taking science directly to the field.

National Asset

As the first of its kind, the Institute amalgamates interdisciplinary academic research excellence and outreach of the University of Ibadan and that of University College London to develop state-of-the-art computational approaches to address these challenges in concert, and consequently propel improvements in Global Health and Wellbeing.