A promising start for 25 UiB projects in the NORHED programme
More than a quarter of the projects which have been granted seed funding by Norad have the University of Bergen as their main partner.
Hovedinnhold
The Norwegian Programme for Capacity Building in Higher Education and Research for Development (NORHED) is launched by Norad, and will start in 2013. The aim of the programme is to strengthen higher education and research capacities in low and middle income countries (LMIC), with the ultimate goal of sustainable economic, social and environmental development.
Each project will constitute a partnership between a Norwegian institution of higher education and an institution in a specific country of implementation.
A large portion of the seed funding to UiB
At the deadline on 5 November, Norad had received around 300 applications for seed funding, the purpose of which is to develop applications for a main NORHED project. The results were published by Norad on 30 November. 97 projects were granted support, of which 25 are based at the University of Bergen.
Geographical diversity
These 25 projects comprise partnerships with institutions in a number of countries, among them Bolivia, Ethiopia, Tanzania, DR Congo, Sudan, Malawi, Uganda, Burkina Faso, South Africa, Nepal, Palestine and South Sudan.
Norad has developed criteria for countries and institutions to be eligible for project applications: “Partners from [low and middle income countries] must be higher education institutions (HEI) accredited/recognised by in-country national authorities in countries registered as OECD DAC official development assistance recipients, or as listed in the specific call for applications”. However other countries can also be considered, if they are part of a network.
Building on and forming partnerships
– The NORHED programme has given the University of Bergen the chance to build on and create new partnerships with foreign institutions. Makerere University in Uganda, which is a partner in eight of the projects, has a long history of collaboration with UiB, while the University of Kinshasa in DR Congo is a new partner, says Kristin Svartveit, institutional contact for NORHED at the University of Bergen.
All six sub-programmes developed by Norad are represented by the UiB projects: Education and training; Health; Natural Resource Management, Climate Change and Environment; Economic and Democratic Governance; Humanities, Culture, Media and Communication; and Capacity Building in South Sudan.
Deadline for main applications in March
The main call was announced on 13 November 2012, with a final deadline of 15 March 2013. Seed funding is no precondition for applications.
For more information, please contact UiB Global (oyvind.gjerstad@adm.uib.no or kristin.svartveit@adm.uib.no) or visit the Norad website.
