AllAfrica: Africa - Solving Problems Through Science - A Conversation with Phillip Griffiths

Economies across Africa have continued to expand this year, attracting increased interest from investors, along with prospects for jobs for the large numbers of unemployed young graduates. Programs that encourage entrepreneurship are proliferating.

Alongside this momentum, there is a growing recognition that institutions of higher education are failing to produce the scientists – and the research – to underpin the creation or expansion of business and industry. The need for African solutions to African problems spurred mathematician Phillip Griffiths to launch the African Regional Initiative in Science and Education (RISE), a project of the Science Initiative Group at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton (IAS), New Jersey in the United States. Griffiths, a prize-winning scholar, is a former director of the Institute and was Provost of Duke University.

RISE, funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York, a charitable foundation, trains new faculty and supports the research of faculty and graduate students at African universities. Five thematic networks link campuses across regions, sharing strengths and encouraging collaboration. Rachel Jones recently sat down with Phillip Griffiths in Kampala, Uganda, where he was attending a gathering of RISE faculty and students. Article here.