€1.8 Million Grant Awarded to University of Johannesburg for Collaborative Climate Action Project

A cash boost of €1,797,180 will assist the University of Johannesburg (UJ) and five Southern African partner Universities towards the realisation of Goal 13 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) ‘Climate Action: Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts’.

Named ‘TESIECS- Towards Enhancing Sustainable and Innovative Environmental Change Solutions’ the Intra-Africa Mobility Scheme is funded by the European Union (EU) and will facilitate long-term and short-term student and staff capacity enhancement and train cohorts of postgraduate students to be environmental thought leaders and sustainability champions.

TESIECS was launched at UJ’s Auckland Park Kingsway campus on Tuesday, 16 July 2024, kicking off what will be a fruitful three-year period, 2024-2027, of developing and promoting creative, locally contextual solutions to environmental challenges.

The project is funded as a continuation of previous related programmes, such as the Intra-ACP Academic Mobility Scheme 2010-2013 and the Intra-Africa Academic Mobility Scheme 2016-2020.

TESIECS has brought together four Universities in Southern Africa namely the University of Zimbabwe (UZ), the University of Botswana (UB), the Namibia University of Science and Technology (NUST) and the University of the Western Cape (UWC) with UJ being the coordinating partner. Vrije University Amsterdam in the Netherlands is the technical partner of the project.

Professor Kammila Naidoo, Executive Dean of the UJ Faculty of Humanities where the project will reside said they are eager to see the project come to life; “TESIECS is an important tool to see the Humanities take centre stage in developing strategies around informing, entertaining and educating societies in Southern Africa on climate change. By giving Masters and PhD students opportunities in the fields of Sociology, Development Studies, Urban Planning and Development and Gender studies to name a few, to focus specifically on climate and environmental challenges, we can be at the forefront of developing strategies that are suitable for our communities,” she said.

Prof Naidoo added that the beauty of the TESIECS project is that it will be specifically for students and staff of the participating institutions and by extension countries. “The project is designed to encourage intra-Africa collaboration, in the sense that students and staff will be encouraged to interact with countries and Universities they are not from, as a result strengthening the collaboration in the region, and moving towards a richly African, and decolonised scholarship,” she said.

At the launch, representatives from partner institutions were present and all offered words of encouragement, shared their excitement at the opportunity the project brings for inter-disciplinary collaboration, and collaboration among partner Universities and pledged their support to ensuring the consortium‘s success.

“One area I am particularly thrilled about is the opening up of opportunities for support staff. This is an important improvement, and while only a drop in the ocean, it is this drop that will ultimately lead to important change,” Prof Ralarala said.

The EU’s Jyrki Torni said the strength of the consortium will be its ability to cooperate.

“I would like to highlight the importance of cooperation in my remarks today. The EU is a fruit of cooperation. We are very comfortable promoting this aspect and would never be a successful continent if we cannot cooperate with our neighbours. As you are aware, Africa is the priority continent for the EU, this is due to historical, economic and challenges presented today [by things such as climate change]. The EU has recognized the importance of cooperation with academia. We also see the importance of working together without competition, and how this will foster the growth of future decision-makers. The students who will get this opportunity, it will be a truly life-changing opportunity of for them, their families, their Universities and ultimately their communities,” he said.