Research without borders: ADA and OeAD celebrate 10 years of partnerships in higher education and research for sustainable development

Since the first call for project proposals in the spring of 2010 43 multi-year partnerships between Austrian universities and universities of applied sciences and scientific institutions in 20 countries of the global South have been established. 126 international master’s and PhD students were able to attend higher education institutions in Austria with a scholarship. At the beginning of December the Austrian Development Agency and the OeAD, which is responsible for programme’s implementation, will start the third phase of the Austrian flagship programme.

Sustainable management of water and fish resources in Burkina Faso, improved maternal and newborn healthcare in Ethiopia, soft tourism in Georgia and Armenia or the development of gender studies at the Islamic University of Gaza – this is only a small selection of topics where the Austrian Development Cooperation’s higher education cooperation programme enhances international research and teaching. The partnerships between Austrian universities and universities of applied sciences and academic institutions in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Arab region all have the same goal: to contribute to sustainable development and internationalisation in higher education.

In the past ten years the Austrian Development Agency (ADA) has funded the programme with the telling acronym “APPEAR” with approximately 20 million euros. 43 university cooperation projects and 126 scholarships were made possible in this way, and 691 scientific publications were published. Almost 11,000 students and lecturers have benefited from the higher education partnerships so far. In December 2020 the ADA and the OeAD, which manages and implements the initiative, will start the third phase of their cooperation. The Austrian Development Agency will make a total of 18.7 million euros available for this purpose until the end of 2027. This will enable at least 30 more academic cooperation projects as well as 54 PhD and ten master's scholarships.

Austrian flagship programme with international role model effect

“Education is an essential factor in reducing poverty and a decided priority of the Austrian Development Cooperation. With our higher education cooperation programme we make a significant contribution to strengthening teaching, research and institutional capacities in our priority countries and beyond – across the borders of countries, cultures and disciplines. Our track record over the past ten years is encouraging and clearly shows: the contributions of science are of enormous importance for better living conditions worldwide. APPEAR is rightly the Austrian Development Cooperation’s flagship programme,” emphasises the ADA’s managing director Martin Ledolter.

Partnership on an equal footing

Partnership on an equal footing is a basic principle of APPEAR. The programme relies on academic equality instead of one-sided knowledge transfer. The partner institutions in the global South define the development policy needs and institutional needs as well as the research questions themselves. Together with Austrian universities and universities of applied sciences they develop sustainable solutions by bringing together different methods, cultural systems and ways of interpretation. Free access to research results and, where possible, to generated data sets (“Open Access, Open Data”) is another characteristic of APPEAR.

Efficient implementation through the long-term partner OeAD

The OeAD, the national Agency for Education and Internationalisation, has been in charge of the management and implementation of the programme since the very beginning. In doing so, the ADA’s long-standing partner draws on its broad expertise both in the field of international cooperation in the tertiary education sector and in the implementation of research and scholarship programmes.

“Cooperation between Austrian higher education institutions and scientific institutions in the Austrian Development Cooperation’s partner countries is particularly important to the OeAD,” says the OeAD’s managing director Jakob Calice. “Strengthening scientific competencies, institutional learning and scientific research contribute to the gradual implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Results are implemented on site and improve the living situation in structurally weak regions. This results in diverse experiences of solution-oriented research from which domestic science also benefits significantly,” says Calice.

Contribution to high-quality higher education for all

APPEAR contributes first and foremost to Goal 4.3 of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals, SDGs), which is: Ensure equal access for all women and men to affordable and quality technical, vocational and tertiary education, including university education, by 2030. Through events, cooperation with the Viennese film festival “this human world” and the OeAD podcast series “Welt im Ohr” on Ö1 Radio Campus APPEAR involves as many stakeholders as possible in Austria, too. These activities contribute to a better understanding of global interdependencies and make science tangible in a development policy context.

Click here for photos of four selected higher education partnerships in East and West Africa.

Austrian Development Agency (ADA)

The Austrian Development Agency supports countries in Africa, Asia, Southeast and Eastern Europe in their sustainable development. Together with public institutions, non-governmental organisations and companies the Austrian Development Agency currently implements projects and programmes with a total volume of 500 million euros.

OeAD

The OeAD, the Agency for Education and Internationalisation, supports and cross-links people and institutions in education, science, research and culture with its programmes. As an agency of the Republic of Austria the OeAD thus contributes to inclusive, equal and high-quality education. European and international exchange as well as transnational mobility serve as the agency's most important tools. Amongst other things, the OeAD is in charge of the implementation of “Erasmus+ Education” in Austria.

In case of further questions please contact:

Austrian Development Agency
Mag. Katharina Schreiber
Tel.: +43 676 83903414
katharina.schreiber@ada.gv.at
https://www.entwicklung.at

OeAD-GmbH – Agentur für Bildung und Internationalisierung
Mag. Ursula Hilmar
presse@oead.at
www.oead.at