The women of DAAD Alumni Cameroon are organizing a workshop from November 8 to 10, 2023 in Douala with the theme: “Women and interdisciplinary research for sustainable development”. The president of the Organizing Committee discusses the challenges of this event.
The women of DAAD Alumni Cameroon are organizing a workshop from November 8 to 10, 2023 in Douala with the theme: “Women and interdisciplinary research for sustainable development. Why organize this type of workshop at this specific time?
We are at the start of the academic year and the majority of DAAD alumni Cameroon women find themselves in different Higher Education institutions working in several disciplines. Their mission is teaching, research and development support. Research occupies a very important aspect for the progression of their career and it must also be oriented towards the contribution to sustainable development.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank DAAD, the German Academic Exchange Office for promoting international and regional scientific cooperation and which is the main sponsor of this event. Indeed, DAAD alumni are people qualified in several fields such as Physical, Economic, Political, Social and Cultural Sciences, who have studied or who have completed a research stay in a German institution of higher education financed by DAAD.
DAAD particularly supports events that contribute to achieving the objectives of sustainable development and our event is part of the framework of quality education, gender equality, reduction of inequalities, development of industry and of innovation.
What is the place that women occupy in research in Cameroon and what do you want to show through the theme chosen for your workshop?
Women are found in the majority of research fields in Cameroon, but very few reach the top and many do not integrate multidisciplinary collaboration into their research projects. Through this workshop, we want to show that the credibility of a research project becomes more and more visible through the number of complementary disciplines that are involved in its execution.
Thus, by engaging in multidisciplinary projects, young researchers will be able to better impact the recipients of their research through the quality of their contribution in different fields. For example, a research chemist who would like to synthesize new bioactive molecules should work in collaboration with a biochemist or a molecular biologist to analyze the activities and a physical chemist who uses the computer to predict the activities and the mechanism of these activities.
What is the objective you want to achieve at the end of the discussions?
Several objectives are targeted: collaboration in research between DAAD alumni from different Institutions and the encouragement of young girls to take an interest in the scientific field and in research. We hope that the presentation of the different research units and certain results from interdisciplinary research by the speakers could inspire the participating women and offer the opportunity for possible collaboration which will lead to not only quantitative but also qualitative research results.
Thus, the capacities to develop multidisciplinary research projects of emerging researchers in general and young researchers in particular will be strengthened through sustainable collaboration for the promotion of female leadership and the valorization of results with the aim of solving development problems. sustainable.
A word on the workshop’s connections?
After the opening ceremony, the presentations will be divided into 6 sessions according to inter-disciplines and on the last day, there will be a round table on the possibilities of a multidisciplinary research laboratory for DAAD alumni. We also hope that local media will be a little closer to researchers to bring information from research results to recipients. Comments collected by Jean Daniel Obama
