RECIRCULATE: Driving eco-innovation in africa: capacity-building for a safe circular water economy

Completed

Not Energy Related
Other Cross-Cutting Technologies or Research(Environmental, social and economic impacts)

Basic and strategic applied research

SOCIAL SCIENCES (Development Studies)
AREA STUDIES (Middle Eastern and African Studies)
ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES (Earth Systems and Environmental Sciences)

Not Cross-cutting
Sociological economical and environmental impact of energy (Environmental dimensions)

Professor N Paul
Lancaster Environment Centre
Lancaster University

Standard

ESRC

01 October 2017

31 December 2021

51 months

£5,926,058

North West

ESRC - RCUK GCRF - Grants

Professor N Paul, Lancaster Environment Centre, Lancaster University

Dr RE Alcock, Lancaster Environment Centre, Lancaster University
Dr O Ansa-Asare, UNLISTED, Water Research Institute (CSIR)
Dr G Ansah, Management School, Lancaster University Ghana
Professor IC Dodd, Lancaster Environment Centre, Lancaster University
Professor L Ezemonye, UNLISTED, University of Benin
Mrs H Fogg, Entrepreneurship Enterprise Development, Lancaster University
Professor SL Jack, Entrepreneurship Enterprise Development, Lancaster University
Professor NJ Lockett, Entrepreneurship Enterprise Development, Lancaster University
Professor AD Martin, Engineering, Lancaster University
Professor R Pickup, Division of Biomedical and Life Sciences, Lancaster University
Dr MK Roy, Lancaster Environment Centre, Lancaster University
Professor MC Rufino, Lancaster Environment Centre, Lancaster University
Professor KT Semple, Lancaster Environment Centre, Lancaster University

Project Contact, National Commission for Science and Technology, Malawi
Project Contact, African Technology Policy Studies Network (ATPS), Kenya
Project Contact, Botswana International University of Science & Technology (BIUST)
Project Contact, Copperbelt University, Zambia

According to the recent African Union report (2014) "On the Wings of Change. Science, Technology and Innovation for Africa - 2024 Strategy", 50% of Africans live in areas without adequate water (800 million people by 2025); 96% of African agriculture is dependent upon rainfall; 80% of Africa's population live in rural areas; Africa's Urban pollution is 'exploding'; 94% domestic energy needs come from biomass (firewood) in Africa, and 90% of natural disasters are climate-related.Informed by these statistics, RECIRCULATE focuses on the overarching need for a safer circular water economy, and is underpinned by four interlinked research areas: (i) water for sanitation and health; (ii) water for food production; (iiii) water for energy production, and (iv) water, pathogens and health.Through these research lenses, four objectives translate our vision into impact-driven deliverables:1. To understand how African eco-innovation systems work, how those differ from European models, and what new innovations would be needed to achieve SDGs 8 and 13.2. To grow capacity and capability in Africa's eco-innovation community to develop and promote new innovations through better-skilled people and to establish African research organisations as 'anchor' institutions that drive and sustain change.3. To enable African researchers to co-design ambitious eco-innovation projects aimed at delivering a safe circular water economy for Africa (SDG 6).To develop a long-term strategy to maintain and expand the scope and remit of the UK-Africa knowledge transfer on eco-innovation for achieving SDGs.

RECIRCULATE will support new partnership-based approaches to enable African researchers to grow transformational impact through working with, in and for their communitiesThe vision, objectives and strategy for RECIRCULATE emerge from Lancaster's deep engagement with researchers and research users in sub-Saharan Africa. Africa is a strategic priority for Lancaster which is currently the only UK University to have a campus on the continent. With our partners Trans-National Education (TNE) we have invested in excess of 5M to establish our Ghana campus ("LU Ghana" opened in 2013 and now supports 450 students). Lancaster University is committed to grow LU Ghana as a research base, and are about to purchase an additional 6ha of land for a larger campus that will include laboratory facilities for engineering and environmental sciences.In addition to our long-standing partnership building in Ghana and Nigeria, Lancaster University has grown national leadership in eco-innovation - innovation supporting both business growth and the environment. It has the capacity to translate high quality research into "real world impacts" as demonstrated by Lancaster's double award-winning Centre for Global Eco-innovation (CGE) http://www.globalecoinnovation.org . CGE has demonstrated that eco-innovation can deliver positive benefits to both the economy and the environment and is fundamentally underpinned by the need for end-user driven research. At the heart of our eco-innovation vision for Africa is the needs to promote medium-to-long term economic growth that is both resilient to future climate and where possible able to mitigate the impact of environmental change.Informed by our experience and that of our core partners in Ghana and Nigeria, RESILIENCE focuses on the overarching need for a safer circular water economy that is research driven but community-led. Sustainable, equitable and community-appropriate management of water plays a key role in strengthening the resilience ofsocial, economic and environmental systems in the face of change. Equally, sustainable and equitable water management needs research that is fully engaged with communities to ensure that novel solutions are developed at the appropriate scale to meet specific needs, and so provides an excellent example of the need for research institutions to work with, in and for their communities.RECIRCULATE is underpinned by four interlinked research areas: (i) water for sanitation and health; (ii) water for food production; (iiii) water for energy production, and (iv) water, pathogens and health. A fifth area of work integrates each of these work packages areas and focusses specifically on microbiology and the need to create new ways to reduce the impact of water-borne disease on vulnerable populations.The RECIRCULATE work plan integrating both research and capacity building across environmental science, biomedicine, engineering, management and knowledge exchange with external stakeholders will support high quality research partnerships to establish the systems necessary to move from research to sustainable development solutions and in so doing support the long-term transition of Ghana and Nigeria from resource to knowledge economies.

02/01/18