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The Independent Research Fund Denmark – Social Sciences has granted DKK 2,7 mill. to Postdoc Paul Austin Stacey, Department of Social Sciences and Business, Roskilde University. Illegally accessed resources comprise an expanding, billion-dollar sector in many sub-Saharan African countries. The new project is focusing on illegal gold mining in Ghana.

Walk into a local market in Uganda and you will be struck with a range of fresh fruits; mangoes, tomatoes, melons, pineapples, name it. They are arranged invitingly on the ground or on a stand to tickle your thirst and appetite. The seller is usually a woman.

Sulayman Mpisi Babiiha’s PhD experience represents the epitome of perseverance of an academic. His account is touching, but because he speaks with so much calmness, I can take it in with some ease. He has been pursuing his PhD certificate for ten years and he won’t give up the hope yet.

A recent controversial resolution on fishing quota in Colombia, that permitted to catch sharks, have had a strong reaction in the scientific area. Three private universities in Bogota managed to make the government go over it again, after making a common call to include researchers and studies.

A recent initiative of the first Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation in Colombia creates hope in the research-ambience in the country and expectations of stronger budgetary prioritizing of this central area for development in the country.

Achieving UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) requires careful attention to the risk of potential contradictions between the individual goals. For instance, how do we make energy both clean, affordable and accessible? Tanzanian Doctoral researcher Thabit Jacob’s scholarly contribution highlights the complexities of the global green energy transition. Especially the challenges in the sub-Saharan countries where most people are living without electricity.

It is becoming increasingly more evident that meat overconsumption is problematic due to various factors and there are direct consequences to the patterns of meat consumption in excess. I met with Ph.D. student Krishnachandra Sharma Hidangmayum, at University of Copenhagen Department of Food Science, to learn about his insights in the subject and the work he has done to advance sustainable solutions in food innovation.

Chile has outstanding geographical and climatic qualities to do research in astronomy. Denmark has great resources and human capital to do cutting edge scientific research. Even though Chile and Denmark are 12.724 kilometres apart, if you look deeper, you can find great research and scientific collaboration between both countries.

Dr. Firdaus Yusoff came to Denmark to study the biofuel process. He left with much more than just academic achievements. The stay in a foreign country sparked his scientific curiosity and convinced him to emphasize that scientists need to serve the public by sharing results and knowledge.

The first time I spoke to Dr. Expedito Nuwategeka was on the telephone. In my mind I saw the image of a 60-year old man sitting on a wooden chair with piles of books at his table. However, that is not the image I arrived to at Gulu University on an April afternoon to meet him.