AFRAMED is a project financed for five years (2022–2026) by the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS). It is an ambitious project for the development of crystallography in Africa.
Motivation for the AFRAMED project
Crystallography is a powerful science in helping to understand the world around us. It can determine the atomic-level structure of materials, and researchers use this knowledge to explain why things behave the way they do. This can be used to improve the properties of materials and contribute to developing new ones and drugs with improved properties.
On the African continent, this science is in the early stages of development thanks to the IUCr Africa Initiative, the African Crystallographic Association (AfCA), UNESCO, ISC, CNRS and the national crystallography associations in South Africa, Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Cameroon, Congo Brazzaville and Senegal. One of the tools used to tackle the lack of equipment, which is the main factor responsible for the delay in the development of crystallography in particular and science in general on the continent, was the existence of OpenLabs. Different types of OpenLabs exist: OpenLab type I, OpenLab type II, the Travelling Lab and the OpenFactory.
The OpenFactory took place in Grenoble (France) and Darmstadt (Germany); type I and II OpenLabs were held in Senegal, Cameroon, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, Benin, Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire, Gabon, Congo Brazzaville, Mauritania and Kenya. The details of these four types of OpenLabs are given on the IUCr website.
With the COVID-19 pandemic, it was no longer possible to organize these OpenLabs and continue to train our African colleagues on the African continent. The idea to use diffractometers remotely was proposed, and the CNRS IRN (International Research Network) “AFRAMED” project was launched by the chair of the IUCr Africa Initiative, Professor Claude Lecomte, and his team in Nancy (France)
The launch ceremony of AFRAMED
AFRAMED ( Support for Training and Research in Africa through Measures at Distance) is a project financed for five years (2022–2026) by the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS). It aims to help African researchers and university teachers whose field of research depends on crystallography – chemists, physicists, geologists and biologists – to carry out diffraction experiments from their home laboratories using a French diffractometer remotely for research or teaching activities.
During the five years of the project, at least three representatives from different African countries, who hold permanent positions in their universities, will be trained in the laboratories of the French partners of the project for at least one month.
Then these representatives will connect to the diffractometer remotely for about 100 hours per year from their respective countries. This time is used for X-ray diffraction measurements of new crystals and for the training of students and other interested permanent lecturers. At the end of the project, at least 15 national representatives in Africa will be trained and at least 15 African countries will be involved in the project.
The project was launched on 31 August 2022 in the Conference room of the Faculté des sciences of Université de Lorraine with three CNRS French laboratories (CRM2 Nancy, LCC Toulouse and Institut Européen de Chimie et Biologie Bordeaux) and six African countries (Cameroon, Gabon, Egypt, Togo, Cote d’Ivoire and Senegal) in the presence of many personalities: Professor Alain Schuhl, CNRS science director (Directeur general délégué à la science); Professor Christelle Roy, CNRS Director of Europe and international affairs; Dr Edwige Elmer-Laurent, Regional CNRS delegate; Dr Helene Boulanger, President of the University de Lorraine; Professor Karl Tombre, Vice President in charge of international cooperation; Professor Amal Kasry, head of Capacity Building at UNESCO; and Professor Delia Haynes, President of AfCA.
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