WACCBIP Marks 10th Anniversary and Hosts 8th Annual Conference
The West African Centre for Cell Biology of Infectious Pathogens (WACCBIP) is celebrating 10 years of impactful research through community and public engagement initiatives.
As part of the 10th anniversary celebration, a formal event was held, which coincided with the opening of WACCBIP’s 8th Annual Conference on the theme, "Addressing Health Challenges in Africa: A Decade of Building World-Class and Innovative Scientific Capacity". The five-day conference set the tone to reflect on the journey and achievements of WACCBIP over the past ten years.
Founding Director of WACCBIP, who doubles as Pro Vice-Chancellor responsible for Academic and Student Affairs at UG, Prof. Gordon Awandare, stated that WACCBIP has exceeded its expectations within the first 10 years but will be seeking to train more scientists through collaborations and capacity-building initiatives.
He recalled the burning desire he and some other colleagues who had just returned from Ph.D. studies abroad had to build research capacity at the Department of Biochemistry, Cell and Molecular Biology, which led to the establishment of WACCBIP.
He intimated that the World Bank Africa Centres of Excellence provided a unique opportunity to address this challenge. “We were looking to build a centre of excellence to train high quality scientists locally and to stem the brain drain. We wanted to create a dynamic research ecosystem that would serve as a platform for training young African scientists, especially in the basic sciences, which we believed was lacking.”
Prof. Awandare further recalled the additional training opportunities that the Developing Excellence in Leadership Training and Academic Sciences (DELTAS) initiative, which was launched by the Wellcome Trust and the African Academy of Sciences, provided.
“This initiative was more tailor-made for us as it targets people with an interest in quality science in Africa. With the combined funding of the two initiatives of $15 million (ACE and DELTAS) we built a foundation of what we are celebrating today.”
He acknowledged Prof. Kevin Marsh, who designed the programme and secured funding from the Wellcome Trust to start the initiative.
“We are proud of the partnerships and what we have achieved together. What we celebrate today is a result of passion, commitment and hard work,” Prof. Awandare stated.
“Today and the rest of the week, we will be showcasing what we have achieved together, which is not only building scientific research capacity but also developing people and building up new science leaders for the continent. We will demonstrate that Africa can lead effectively, that Africans can lead our own research,” he added.
Chairing the event, Prof. Nana Aba Appiah Amfo, Vice-Chancellor, stated, “Conferences of this nature resonate with our university’s renewed vision to achieve global impact through innovative research, teaching, and learning, using a technology-driven and people-centred approach.”
She emphasised that WACCBIP, through its conferences and activities, speaks to the University’s second strategic priority of impactful research.
“I have no doubt in mind that WACCBIP epitomises all of our strategic priorities outlined in our ‘5 for 5’ strategic plan; transformative student experience; impactful research; commitment to our faculty and staff; engagement and partnerships and sustainable resource mobilisation and stewardship. These research outputs must be showcased to ensure that its full potential is explored through expanded stakeholder dialogue,” the Vice-Chancellor explained.
She highlighted the crucial roles WACCBIP and the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research played in the COVID-19 response, showcasing their research capacity. She noted that WACCBIP, a self-financing unit, has attracted over $56 million since its establishment. These funds she added have been used to construct the WACCBIP building, upgrade and equip laboratories in various departments and purchase high-end equipment such as genome sequencers, a high-performance computing system and a confocal microscope.
Prof. Amfo further disclosed that “The Centre has provided fellowships for 56 post-doctoral fellows and 374 students from 20 countries, including local and international students for masters and PhD training at the University of Ghana. The Centre also houses modernised teaching facilities for high quality training of graduate students. WACCBIP faculty and students have contributed to over 440 publications in peer reviewed journals.”.
"WACCBIP, along with the two other World Centres, has enhanced the UG student experience through digitisation and promoted inclusivity by equipping an assistive technology lab for students and faculty with disabilities. With these achievements over the past decade, WACCBIP’s performance is set to improve even further," she added.
Prof. Amfo assured WACCBIP and other flagship centres of her unflinching support to ensure that they continue to excel and promote the UG brand.
Keynote Speaker, Emeritus Prof. Ernest Aryeetey, outgoing Secretary-General of the African Research Universities Alliance (ARUA) and former Vice-Chancellor of UG, addressed the Challenges of Conducting Research in Africa and how to overcome them.
Emeritus Prof. Aryeetey indicated that there is a big need for research and development in Africa to make impact, but very little is done in terms of contribution to global knowledge.
“Despite having about 18% of the world’s population, Africa’s contribution to the global knowledge system is low. About 3.5% of global scientific research output comes from Africa” he noted.
He mentioned insufficient funding and investment; weak research infrastructure and capacity; limited cross-disciplinary collaboration and weak linkages between research output and policy making processes as some of the issues that make conducting research in Africa challenging.
He advocated for a new model to address the challenges, commending the WACCBIP model as a prime example of overcoming key research challenges. He noted that the model aligns with innovative thinking and has the potential to develop world-class talent and enhance scientific capacity.
Some strategies Emeritus Professor Aryeetey proffered included establishing jointly owned research centres for collaborative work with co-owned laboratory capacity and co-authored objectives, as well as research partnerships through joint courses, co-teaching and co-supervision
He further called for long term collaborations that have clusters of research centres of excellence that provide world class infrastructure, robust doctoral and post-doctoral programmes as well as opportunities for career development.
Dr. Daruis Osei, Special Advisor to the Minister of Health, who represented the Minister of Health as the guest of honour for the occasion, warmly congratulated WACCBIP for its impressive achievements over the years.
Speakers at the opening ceremony of the 10th anniversary and 8th Research Conference of the West African Centre for Cell Biology of Infectious Pathogens (WACCBIP) were full of praise for the Centre’s contributions to scientific excellence, from high-quality research on infectious diseases to advanced training programmes that have empowered hundreds of scientists across Africa. Solidarity messages were delivered by representatives from the World Bank, Association of African Universities (AAU), Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC), Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences, Ghana Health Service, SFA/Wellcome and Africa Oxford Initiative, among others.
Ms. Sika Menka, a Senior staff at the Centre and Solomon Yenyenle, a Security officer also at the Centre were awarded for their dedication and hard work over the years.
Mr. Albert Komla Arden gave an inspiring spoken word piece on WACCBIP’s 10-year milestone.
In attendance at the opening were the Pro Vice-Chancellor, Research, Innovation and Development, Prof. Felix Ankomah Asante; Registrar, Mrs. Emelia Agyei-Mensah; Former Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Clifford Nii Boi Tagoe.
The were also some Provosts, Deans, Directors, Heads of Departments, as well as members of the University community.
The five-day conference also included plenary talks and fellows’ sessions.
