About Gr2A

About Grow Green Africa (Gr2A)

This Grow Green Africa (Gr2A) project equips 10 PhD students, 35 Master of Science students, and 8 trainees from the Southern African region with competencies in green computing technologies. The project also supports the mobility of 15 staff members from the five participating African institutions which are: the National University of Science and Technology (NUST Zimbabwe), Namibia University of Science and Technology (NUST Namibia), the Copperbelt University (CBU) of Zambia, Rhodes University (RU) of South Africa and the University of Eswatini (UNESWA) of Eswatini, for the purposes of knowledge exchange to address Southern Africa’s skills shortage in green computing. The technical lead is provided by a European Union partner from Finland, which is the University of Turku (UTU). Green computing competencies acquired by staff and students from this project will support the climate change agenda at both national and regional levels. This promotes the development of innovative green solutions that are of relevance to the African continent, and focusing on sustainability.

This project addresses the scarcity of trained African personnel in green computing and the negative impacts of climate change. It is also aligned with the Southern Africa Development Community’s (SADC) Green Economy Strategy, and complements other regional actions. The project is divided into five parts, each led by a different university. UNESWA will lead the research on modelling underground water supplies due to climate change. NUST Zimbabwe creates models for climate change and use the resulting models to develop information systems for green agriculture. RU leads research on the development of ICTs for renewable energy integration to mitigate against climate change. NUST Namibia develops ICT technologies to enable the early detection of changes in weather patterns. CBU Zambia leads on green mining technologies to mitigate against climate change.

This project is part of the Intra-Africa Academic Mobility Scheme Initiative funded by the European Commission. Grow Green Africa (Gr2A) is a visionary initiative aimed at bolstering climate resilience across the African continent. As the effects of climate change intensify, Africa faces unique challenges due to its high exposure and vulnerability to climate hazards. Over the next three decades, more than 900 million Africans could find themselves at risk from these environmental shifts.

The Project Activities:

The project entails the following activities:

• The main activity will involve integrating climate change content into selected computing courses. This will be done in collaboration with the University of Turku, Finland, which has expertise in sustainable engineering. At the same time, short courses will be developed to equip staff and students with climate change-related skills. These courses will be delivered by experts in the area from the participating institutions.
• The other main activity will involve the mobility of staff and students between the participating institutions. Once the curricula has been harmonized, staff and student mobilities will be hosted in participating institutions to facilitate knowledge exchange and collaboration in research around the specialties on climate change.

Expected Impacts Intra-Africa Mobility Program