The Regional Water and Environmental Sanitation Centre Kumasi (RWESCK), hosted by the Department of Civil Engineering at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), has inaugurated thirty-two (32) new fellows on Thursday, 29th April 2021, at the IDL Conference room.
Inaugurating the twelve (12) International and twenty (20) Local fellows, the Dean of the Faculty of Civil and Geo Engineering, Professor Geophrey. K. Anornu on behalf of the Provost of the College of Engineering, urged the fellows to identify thematic areas where they best fit and ultimately contribute towards the development of the Centre.
The Centre Director, Professor Sampson Oduro-Kwarteng, stated that RWESCK is a Centre of Excellence set up to scale up graduate studies and research in water and environmental sanitation. The Centre’s vision is to be an internationally recognised hub for advancing research, knowledge, developing innovative technologies, providing high quality training and outreach in water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) for sustainable development of West Africa, he added.
Professor Oduro-Kwarteng mentioned that RWESCK is under the Africa Centres of Excellence (ACE) project with funding from the government of Ghana through the World Bank to scale-up higher education and research in water and sanitation.
He further outlined some collaboration, benefits and roles expected them as fellows of the Centre, which includes; joint grant writing in response to call for proposals, joint research leading to patents, joint supervision of postgraduate research and joint publications, mentoring of postgraduate research students and early career scientists, serve as guest Lecturers/Visiting Professors to support curriculum development for new degrees and delivery of PhD and MSc. courses (face-to-face, online or blended), serve as resource persons to design and deliver short courses for professionals and technicians (fact-to-face, online or blended), join regional and national platforms and RWESCK New Year Forum as a resource person for science and policy advocacy towards community development and engagement with national policy makers.
The Academic-Coordinator, Professor Kwaku Amaning Adjei, also enlightened the fellows on the procedures involved in conducting joint research bringing to bear their practical experiences on the quality of training and research.
After the inauguration, the fellows held a discussion session to address issues relating to research funding, activities of the Centre and explore current and future opportunities for mutual benefits.
