Regional Scholarship and Innovation Fund (RSIF)
The Regional Scholarship and Innovation Fund (RSIF) is the flagship initiative of PASET launched in 2015. The RSIF aims to (i) contribute towards training 10,000 additional PhDs of high quality in selected African universities partnered with eminent institutions abroad in ASET disciplines, (ii) provide research grants to students who have completed PhDs and university faculty to build the research profile and rigorous academic training of the selected African universities, and (iii) provide innovation grants to enable universities and trained researchers to link up with economic partners and/or address development challenges through commercialization of research and development of startups. The RSIF will also build the capacity of around 10 African universities to become world-class institutions and deliver top quality programs in ASET fields in collaboration with leading institutions around the world. It currently has partnerships with the Korea Institute of Science and Technology in Korea and Maastricht University in Netherlands and will grow the pool of partner institutions moving forward.
The RSIF is seeded by African governments and partners, including the Government of Korea and will raise contributions from private sector, other donors, and private equity firms and venture capital firms interested in financing startups and innovations. It is also supported by the World Bank.
Please see here for more details on the partnership with Korea.
For more information on RSIF, please see: https://www.rsif-paset.org/
Regional Benchmarking of SSA Universities
The PASET Regional Benchmarking of SSA Universities initiative was launched to continue improving the quality and relevance of learning, research and technology transfer in institutions offering ASET programs in the SSA region. Following the first pilot study with 7 universities in the region in 2014, more than 100 higher education stakeholders from SSA gathered to officially launch the initiative in November 2015.
The initiative strives to equip ASET-focused institutions with the tools to identify their strengths and weaknesses and assess and monitor their progress relative to similar national, regional and global institutions. PASET developed its benchmarking methodology based on international standards in partnership with the Shanghai Jiao Tong University Center for World-Class Universities and adapted it to the African context. In February 2016, it conducted the second benchmarking exercise with 48 universities across the region and collected data on 60 indicators. For more details, please see below:
- Benchmarking brief: The PASET regional benchmarking initiative to strengthen African universities