CREATING · COOPERATIVE RESEARCH ON EAST AFRICAN TERRITORIAL INTEGRATION WITHIN GLOBALISATION

This project seeks to improve research capacity and develop collaboration amongst researchers in Europe and East Africa, and by doing so to contribute to the larger objective of regional integration. The project will enhance integration in the research community in both Europe and East Africa through bringing researchers together in a series of training activities. These activities will focus on two kinds of transborder environment: mountains and Lake Tanganyika. Through this focus on resources which span the borders of the multiple political units of East Africa, the project will contribute directly to public understanding of some of the challenges to regional integration in East African context. The project is organized around four themes, all of which relate to human use and management of these cross border resources: resource management and livelihood sustainability, environmental and climate change, migration and identity and the role of small and medium cities. At the core of the project, five institutions – four European, and one East African – will be brought together; the project will also draw on the skills and knowledge of four university research institutions in Europe, whose staff will take the role of leaders for each of the four themes. All the individuals and institutions involved have substantial experience of work in Africa, and have commitment both to the enhancement of an integrated European research capacity and to the building of research capacity and regional integration in East Africa.