The ‘UK-Kenya Museums Knowledge Exchange Programme’ convened in Nairobi in March, with participation by National Museums Scotland, to help forge long-term relationships between cultural institutions in the two countries. 

Zachary Kingdon, Senior Curator, African Collections, National Museums Scotland has published the following article in World Art journal: Eastern African migrant ‘modernism': reviewing the significance of the Muedan Makonde blackwood sculpting movement in Tanzania 

CarbonXtras provides a low-cost soil senor that feeds data into a real-time monitoring, reporting and verification platform.  It predicts the changes in soil health when farmers implement regenerative practices 

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The Monitoring, Analysis, Reporting and Verification for Effective Low‑carbon Climate Resilience and Mitigation Network (MARVEL‑NET) provides continuous, evidence‑based data on soil health, carbon storage and greenhouse gas emissions 

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Delivering Strategies for Eliminating Hepatitis C in Ethiopia (DESTINE) is a University of Dundee-led partnership with 5 Ethiopian universities to tackle hepatitis C in Ethiopia through research, care innovation and PhD training, strengthening public health strategy, local research capacity and long-term healthcare collaboration. 

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The University of Dundee is an affiliate institution in GC ADDA, a network of drug discovery researchers working in Africa on unmet medical needs faced by the African patient. 

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2REST, led by the University of Dundee, reconceptualises resilience as multisystemic, re-analysing longitudinal data from Growing up on the Streets in Africa, and has produced policy, advocacy and research toolkits for NGOs, research teams and other advocates for street children and youth globally. 

Photo: Dr Nombuso Gama presenting at the 2REST Workshop in Zimbabwe 

In February 2025, Dr Jun Li convened a UK-Africa Workshop on Quality Biochar Production and Applications in Accra, Ghana. The objective was simple but ambitious: to bridge science, practice, and policy around biochar, focusing on quality production, locally available feedstocks, and real-world applications for circular bioeconomy transitions in the Global South. Those rich discussions, debates, and collaborations have now culminated in a report. 

The report situates biochar within circular bioeconomy and multifunctional landscape frameworks, offering a balanced, evidence-led perspective on where and how biochar can restore soils, improve water and nutrient retention, and support climate resilience, while also unpacking the limits, risks, and trade-offs that shape real-world outcomes.

Potato cyst nematode (PCN) is an emerging pest of potato across East Africa.  As part of a project that aims to fully understand the distribution of PCN and provide management tools to smallholder farmers, a survey of two of the largest potato growing regions, Dedza and Ntcheu provinces, in Malawi was recently undertaken, funded through the SFC International Science Partnership Fund.  This was a collaboration between scientists from the University of St Andrews, the James Hutton Institute, the International Institute for Tropica Agriculture (IITA), Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources (LUANAR), The International Potato Centre (CIP) and the Department for Agriculture Research Services (DARS) in Malawi.  Samples have been collected and processed to extract potential PCN for identification.  

A major new study aims to transform dementia care in Kenya, where cases are rising but outcomes remain poor. Widespread misconceptions, stigma, limited awareness, and a lack of research mean people living with dementia are often overlooked. This five-year project, funded by the Wellcome Trust and led by Dr Mary Njoki, will explore the challenges faced in both rural and urban communities, where there is no national dementia policy and limited professional training. As formal services remain underdeveloped, families shoulder most care responsibilities with little support. Using interviews and film, the study will amplify lived experiences and inform improvements in dementia policy and practice. 

The 46 year Stirling University-Gabon National Parks Agency collaboration will be the focus of the June King’s Birthday celebrations at the Gabon British High Commission. The partnership has produced >350 ecological research papers since its inception in 1980.  
 
Stirling also funded an international workshop to bring together Scottish and Gabonese researchers to work on the ecological responses to climate change in tropical forests. Cutting edge research from the group has previously been published in Science.  

Image: One of the study-bedroom buildings at the Lopé National Park Stirling-Gabon research site. Credit: Loïc Makaga.

Dr Tosin Durodola, a recent graduate of the University of Edinburgh's Centre of African Studies, has won the 2025 Outstanding Doctoral Thesis Award from the School of Social and Political Science. His thesis, 'Does Refugeehood Ever End?', examined the lives of Liberian refugees in Nigeria who lost their official refugee status, revealing how displacement persists long after legal protection ends. Conducting six months of fieldwork in Ogun State, Nigeria, his research has been published in leading journals. He is now a Visiting Research Fellow at the Refugee Law Initiative, University of London, developing his thesis into a monograph. Read more.

This joint project (Tharaka University, University of Edinburgh) supports local communities and ECR linguists to maintain and build resources for Kîîtharaka, a minority indigenous language spoken in Eastern Kenya. 

Spotlighting Early-Career Researchers: Dr. Patrick Kanampiu is a lecturer in Linguistics at Tharaka University. He received his PhD from the University of Edinburgh in 2024, and his research, investigating Kîîtharaka, a minority indigenous language spoken in Eastern Kenya, has been published in top linguistics journals. Dr. Kanampiu has been instrumental in building community support for efforts to maintain and build resources for Kîîtharaka, and is a Co-Investigator on a Scottish Funding Council International Science Partnerships grant and an ESRC Impact Accelerator grant (in collaboration with researchers at the University of Edinburgh, and Groningen). In 2025, Dr. Kanampiu was awarded Tharaka University’s Chancellor’s Prize. 

The programme, based at Edinburgh Medical School, aims to reduce mortality and morbidity from acute poisoning due to methanol and occupational pesticides in LMIC. In Sub-Saharan Africa, the project is strengthening research in toxicology and capacity building of poison information centres.

NIHR RIGHT4: Preventing Deaths from Acute Poisoning in Low-and Middle-Income Countries | Centre for Cardiovascular Science

Photo: Post Graduate Diploma in Toxicology Contact Week – Stellenbosch University (9–13 February 2026)

In partnership with the Mastercard Foundation, and administered within Centre of African Studies, the programme aims to provide research training to equip Fellows to complete interdisciplinary research on areas related to sustainability on the African continent.

Wits-Edinburgh Sustainable African Futures (WESAF) Doctoral Programme 

Photo description: The WESAF Doctoral Programme cohort at an in-person gathering in Accra, Ghana, in April 2026 

Photo credit: Melusi Gumede 

Imo State’s One Kindred, One Business Initiative (OKOBI), which addresses unemployment and is informed by Professor Kenneth Amaeshi’s Africapitalism research at the University of Edinburgh, has been adopted for rollout in Nigeria.  

TIBA is a partnership between the University of Edinburgh and leading infectious disease research institutes in ten African countries that generates evidence to inform health policy and strengthen health systems.  The recent launch of paediatric Praziquantel in Zimbabwe and Tanzania was recently marked in both countries.

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