A delegation of 10 Vice-Chancellors (VCs), Deans and their representatives from across Africa visited the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (icipe) Duduville campus. The VCs were of the Partnership for Skills in Applied Sciences, Engineering and Technology (PASET) Regional Scholarship and Innovation Fund (Rsif) African Host Universities (AHUs).
PASET-Rsif has a network of 15 AHUs that offer PhD programs in five priority thematic areas namely, ICT including big data and artificial intelligence, food security and agri-business, minerals, mining and materials engineering, energy including renewables and climate change.
This visit which was on the sidelines of the PASET Governance Meetings and High-Level Policy Dialogue, aimed at strengthening the ongoing collaboration and showcasing icipe’s cutting-edge research that underpins the Rsif model.
Human capital development remains critical in Africa to provide relevant and important skills, especially the youth who form the biggest percentage of Africa’s social group. The visit by the VCs from various African countries and universities to icipe underscores the Centre’s contribution to Africa’s human capital development.
The visit offered the VCs a front row seat to icipe’s best practices in research and innovation in three key laboratories: the Bee Health, the Chemical Ecology, and the Biopesticides. They were impressed by the state-of-the-art equipment and world-class research and noted that icipe provides valuable lessons on how an African research institution can set global benchmarks.
talking to the delegation at the Africa Bee Health Reference Laboratoty. Photo/ Brian Mwashi
At the Bee Health Laboratory, they observed how honey can be diversified into a range of products. This underscored the potential for creating additional income streams for farmers through value addition.
The delegation also observed how icipe translates its high-quality research into registered and commercialized products and intellectual property, illustrating how science can generate both social impact and revenue.
The visit highlighted icipe’s structured approaches for ensuring that technologies and innovations reach farmers and wider society, bridging the gap between research and practical application. They gained insight into icipe’s protocols for receiving and analyzing samples, with an emphasis on material transfer compliance — a key safeguard for scientific integrity.
They also learned about icipe’s procedures for managing laboratory waste—wet, dry, and biohazardous—including the outsourcing of this function to qualified and vetted service providers. This demonstrated a robust and sustainable model for environmental safety.
The Vice Chancellors appreciated icipe’s intentional embedding of postgraduate students—both Master’s and PhDs—into research projects by Principal Investigators. This was highlighted as a best practice in capacity building, ensuring that young scientists gain hands-on research experience while contributing to impactful projects.
Overall, the visit gave the VCs more than a tour of the state-of-the-art labs, it offered them a blueprint of how African institutions can combine research excellence, innovation, and sustainability to deliver real-world impact.
