Notre Dame International hosts IREX UASP Fellows from Nigeria
Notre Dame International welcomed two fellows from African universities as part of the IREX University Administration Sponsorship Program. IREX is an international development organization based in Washington, D.C., that helps build research management capacity of African administrators and faculty. On Feb. 19, Angela Itegboje and Titilayo Olaposi arrived on campus as part of the new fellowship program.
Fellows met with faculty and staff from NDI, Notre Dame Research; the IDEA Center; the Keough School’s Pulte Institute, Kellogg Institute and McKenna Center; Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry; Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering; Department of Electrical Engineering; the Pamoja Initiative; the Graduate School; and the Berthiaume Institute for Precision Health.
“Hosting the IREX UASP fellowship has been a great experience. Notre Dame has played an active role in enabling research leadership to thrive in sub-Saharan Africa by allowing a bidirectional exchange and acquisition of knowledge and skill by showcasing the best global practices in innovation and research management as well as commercialization of the intellectual products of research,” says Jackie Oluoch-Aridi, director of Notre Dame in Nairobi.
Jonathan Noble, senior assistant provost for internationalization at Notre Dame, also spoke of the partnership, saying, “We are extremely grateful for the enthusiastic engagement and sharing by numerous colleagues across campus. We trust this exchange will catalyze more opportunities for administrative and scholarly exchange with research institutions in the African continent.”
Since arriving in February, Itegboje and Olaposi, who are both IREX UASP Research Management Fellows from Nigeria, have met with leaders all across campus to compare their institutions’ practices with Notre Dame’s research ecosystem, and are each responsible for proposing plans to improve their own institution’s performance, using a template provided by IREX.
Olaposi, principal research fellow at the African Institute for Science Policy and Innovation of the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria, says, “Most of my research focuses on technological entrepreneurship and innovation management. Coming here, I have been very impressed. The people are very friendly and always willing to share knowledge. We have touched different centers, institutes and offices and it is very helpful to me because I have become an administrator, even as a researcher.
“The knowledge I have gained here is very useful to me to oversee research management within my own university. I have learned so much regarding grants, management, proposal development and assessment, and communication,” she concludes.
Itegboje, assistant registrar and research administrator in the Research Management Office at the University of Lagos, Nigeria, adds, “Notre Dame is an environment that is open to learning, and our visit has been both fruitful and informative. I am focusing on innovation, technology and commercialization and have already gained so much knowledge on how to make the best use of research to impact and serve societal needs.”
IREX, a global development and education organization working in more than 100 countries around the world, contacted Notre Dame International in fall 2022, seeking a partnership wherein Notre Dame would host African university leaders under the UASP (University Administration Support Program) Research Management Fellowships. UASP builds the research management capacity of African administrators and faculty to design and lead related reforms at their institutions following the program.
Learn more about Notre Dame International’s commitment to supporting faculty research through its global network and strategic partnerships.
Originally published by international.nd.edu on March 16.
atLatest ND NewsWire
- School of Architecture charrette yields $98M for downtown Kalamazoo public space regenerationOn June 27, the city of Kalamazoo, Michigan, announced that it was awarded a $25 million grant through the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity (RAISE) program, as a result of its work with the University of Notre Dame School of Architecture. The grant, which will support the restructuring of downtown Kalamazoo thoroughfares and public spaces, is the latest of $98 million in grant funding the city has received following an intense, weeklong urban planning session conducted by the School of Architecture’s Housing and Community Regeneration Initiative in August 2022.
- New women’s residence hall to be named for Therese Mary GrojeanTherese Mary Grojean Hall The family of Thomas F. Grojean Sr.,…
- School of Architecture partners with city of Gary on downtown revitalization planOn Monday (July 22), the University of Notre Dame School of Architecture’s Housing and Community Regeneration Initiative and the city of Gary, Indiana, launched the first phase of a downtown revitalization project.
- Transformed Institute for Ethics and the Common Good advances Notre Dame’s commitment to excellence in study of ethicsThe University of Notre Dame’s Institute for Advanced Study is now the Institute for Ethics and the Common Good, launching its website today at ethics.nd.edu. The transformed, expanded institute will play an essential role in advancing the University-wide Ethics Initiative emerging from “Notre Dame 2033: A Strategic Framework.”
- ND Expert: Will ‘Brat Girl Summer’ translate into an autumn of Democratic victories? ‘It’s anybody’s guess’In the past three days, people on social media have embraced British pop star Charli XCX’s online pronouncement that “Kamala IS brat.” According to to Sara Marcus, an assistant professor of English and author of “Girls to the Front: The True Story of the Riot Grrrl Revolution,” that translates to a declaration that Kamala Harris, the Democratic Party’s presumptive new nominee for president, embodies the sort of messy, complicated, casual womanhood that the singer’s recent album, “Brat,” depicts and celebrates.
- ND Expert: NASA’s cancellation of VIPER is a frustrating setback for lunar explorationLast week, NASA announced it canceled its plans to send the Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER) to the Moon’s southern polar region. The rover was meant to search for water and other resources called volatiles, such as hydrogen, ammonia and carbon dioxide, which easily evaporate…