The world is facing the silent “pandemic” of antimicrobial resistance (AMR). Central Africa has the highest mortality rate (23.5 deaths/ 100,000) attributable to AMR in the world. Research is desperately needed to better understand the burden of AMR in this region, and it is vital that this work is done by local researchers who will be the future leaders of scientific and clinical research in central Africa. The overall aim of the Central Africa Training Platform for Clinical Research on infectious diseases (CATCR) project is to produce essential, world-class research in central Africa, for central Africa, by central African people. To achieve this, it is crucial that the critical mass of PhD and PostDocs in central Africa is increased. Therefore, the consortium will (1) develop a multifaceted training programme on infectious diseases focusing on AMR for MSc, PhD and healthcare professionals; (2) develop a clinical fellowship programme of recruitment, training, evaluation and retention; (3) research the lack of knowledge on antimicrobial usage trends in patients with parasitic infections; (4) research the causal link between prevalence rates and influencing factors of carbapenemase-producing Enterobacterales (CPE) and occurrence of AMR in humans and livestock; and (5) research to understand the prevalence of tuberculosis (TB) and drug-resistant TB characteristics in Central Africa. Finally, (6) the project will focus on communicating, and disseminating research results. Through CATCR, talented researchers, clinicians and health care professionals working on AMR in central Africa will benefit from access to fully-funded fellowships to complete ground-breaking research. Public and regulatory authorities in Africa will use the research and newly established fellowships to develop vital AMR action plans and to increase the critical mass of researchers in the region will ultimately lead to benefits for patients and citizens of central Africa.

Students and companies from Cameroon require engineering education that is of high level and officially recognized (cf. the national engineers’ association report on controlling the proliferation of new engineering formations whose level is sometimes appalling; this report was ordered by the Ministry of Higher Education and has yet to be published). We are going to support three different higher education institutions in defining a method for quality enhancement of their educational programs in order to reach an international standard (CTI accreditation and EUR-ACE label which are included in the project) that will be transferable to other engineering formations.The support, which will be very structured, will focus on all phases of the process: setting objectives, program and competence-based approach, setting evolutions, accreditation process, implementing the evolutions, and on-going quality. It will cover the whole set of related issues: pedagogical, didactic, institutional, economical, administration, external relations, governance, and implementation of adapted multi-purpose technological platforms so as to ensure an autonomous and efficient quality process control. At each step, staff (teachers and administrative personnel) will be trained on site or through immersion at the European institutions and then supported to take over each and every component that is required to obtain and maintain the accreditation within their own cultural and socio-economic reality.All of the acquired know-how and the general methodology of this project will be assessed and adjusted. They will lead to the writing of a White Paper and to the creation of Cameroon’s national association of engineering school directors who will take part in the release of the methods, the organization of high level schools, and lobbying towards the local authorities. Cameroon was chosen for its visibility in higher education in Central Africa where its standards and models lead the pack.

The proposed project builds on the finding of the Disability and Inclusion Africa (DIA) project that many health practitioners in sub-Saharan Africa have little understanding of the complexity of living with disability and that the alternative explanations for disability highlighted by the DIA project are not sufficiently understood. These 'alternative explanations' include assumptions and misconceptions, medical determinist, and religious or supernatural beliefs. Discourses of disability are often created by medical professionals, social scientists or development agencies, and most often in the global north, quite removed from the daily realities of disabled persons. These discourses are embedded into healthcare systems and practices in sub-Saharan African contexts, where the focus is primarily on treating the specific medical condition or disability, rather than taking a more holistic patient-centered approach which recognizes the wider impact of beliefs and attitudes on disabled persons. This follow-on project engages applied theatre and creative writing to stimulate dialogue and reflection to enhance healthcare practitioners' understandings of the experience of being disabled in sub-Saharan African contexts. A series of workshops facilitated by theatre and creative writing practitioners will be held in Nigeria, Cameroon and South Africa, bringing together disabled persons and healthcare practitioners to reflect on what it means to be disabled in contemporary sub-Saharan Africa. Drawing on the workshop discussions and outputs, the project team will work with Disabled Persons Organizations and trainers of healthcare practitioners to develop a Continuing Professional Development Resource for healthcare practitioners. By increasing awareness of the impact of these alternative explanations among health professionals, the project aims to inform their practice and inspire a more patient-centered approach.

The project aims at developing a pioneering approach to the reception of Classical Antiquity in children’s and young adults’ contemporary culture. This newly identified research field offers valuable insights into the processes leading to the formation of the culture recipients’ identities along with their initiation into adulthood. However, the most vital potential of this phenomenon remains unexploited, for the research is still selective, focused mainly on Western culture. With my project, I intend to overcome these limitations by applying regional perspectives without the pejorative implication of regional as parochial or inferior. I recognize regions as extremely valuable contexts of the reception of Antiquity, which is not only passively taken in, but also actively reshaped in children’s and young adults’ culture in response to regional and global challenges. Thus, the essence of this innovative approach consists in comparative studies of differing reception models not only across Europe but also America, Australia & New Zealand and – a bold but necessary step – in parts of the world not commonly associated with Graeco-Roman tradition: Africa and Asia. The shared heritage of Classical Antiquity, recently enhanced by the global influence of popular culture (movies, Internet activities, computer games inspired by the classical tradition), gives a unique opportunity – through the reception filter – to gain deeper understanding of the key social, political and cultural transformations underway at various locations. The added value of this original research, carried out by an international team of scholars, will be its extremely broad impact on the frontiers of scholarship, education and culture: we will elaborate a supra-regional survey of classical references, publish a number of analyses of crucial reception cases, and prepare materials on how to use ancient myths in work with disabled children, thus contributing to integration and stimulating cultural exchange.