NORTH-SOUTH CENTRE - ETH - North-South Centre North-South ...

caused by bacteria in East African milk, a research collaboration
between Nairobi University in Kenya and the Laboratory
for Food Biotechnology of the ETH Zurich. Furthermore,
jointly with the ETH Foundation we have entered in
promising negotiations with another private foundation
who wants to expand its activities in Africa. In the course of
these negotiations our emerging new strategy has proven
a powerful instrument for making our case. Finally, two other
funding mechanisms are currently being explored. The
North-South Centre is steadily expanding its funding basis –
a promising development for the future.
of the “Livestock systems research programme” showed
that this research partnership has yielded nearly thirty Master
students as a “by-product” of eight research projects
with a total of 14 doctoral students. Two-thirds of the
trained Master students are from the South and obtained
their degrees from their home universities in the partner
countries. From this analysis, we have drawn the preliminary
conclusion that Master grants are not a goal in itself. They
should preferably be embedded in a wider research partnership
with research institutions in the South, which in turn
would reduce potential brain-drain.
Challenging Master grants
Another brokering success was mobilising a fellowship and
a partial grant for two participants in the Master of Advanced
Studies (MAS) in Sustainable Water Resources (see p. 91).
The two grants were obtained from the Oeuvre St Justin
(www.justinus.ch), which supports students from developing
countries in higher education. In addition, they provide
housing for international students in the “Justinus-Haus” in
Zurich. During many years, the Managing Director of the
North-South Centre has been the person linking the ETH
Zurich to this association. For the first time, this link materialised
in a significant way. Beyond the grants of the Oeuvre
St Justin, all six participants of the MAS course were provided
affordable rooms in the “Justinus-Haus”. The Oeuvre St
Justin indicated that they are interested in a longer-term
commitment for Master students at the ETH Zurich and the
University of Zurich.
Beyond this achievement, the North-South Centre management
explored further options in promoting Master grants
for candidates from developing countries. This objective
proved more complex than expected. With regard to Master
grants we continued our discussion with the ETH Foundation
with the goal to complement the ETH Excellence Scholarships
with a fund that suits excellent candidates from
developing countries better. In the meantime, our analysis
Enhanced visibility
The North-South Centre kept the momentum of its first
year with a series of events and other communication tools.
Our conferences are presented in detail in the chapter on
networking and communication. In addition, the Centre
was actively involved at the SDC Annual Conference, the
“Tropentag 2009”, “Treffpunkt Science City”, and the Alliance
for Global Sustainability Annual Meeting. From the
Managing Director’s perspective, a unique communication
opportunity in 2009 was writing monthly columns in the
ETH Life online magazine. These columns triggered interesting
personal comments and made the North-South
Centre more known throughout the entire ETH Zurich.
Barbara Becker
7
Profile
A word from the Managing Director