The MacArthur Higher Education Initiative in Africa funded the establishment of four advance manpower training and research collaborative centres in 2011. This initiative provides project grants for three years to build up particular university departments or centres through collaboration with top departments at other universities, research institutes and private sector entities in Africa and beyond, with the objective of building up leading African universities and advancing their contributions to development in the continent.

Grants received under this initiative support disciplines that are strategic to universities’ institutional development and that enable grantee institutions to respond particular national and regional development challenges in Madagascar and sub-Saharan Africa. The grants range in smaller amounts for emergent collaborative research and graduate training projects to a maximum of $ 1 million for exceptionally strategic projects. They can be used for a range of activities including but not limited to, curriculum development, joint teaching among institutions, thesis supervision, exchange of scholars, workshops, doctoral bursaries, community outreach, strengthening departmental infrastructure, research, pedagogy and effective management of collaborations.

The centres established under this programme are:

§ Centre for Adolescent and Child Mental Health (January, 2011).

§ Centre for Petroleum and Energy Economics and Law (January, 2011).

§ Centre for Control And Prevention of Zoonoses (September, 2011).

§ Centre for Drug Discovery, Development and Production (September, 2011).

§ UI-CARTA Partnership for Training and Research Capacity Building in Population and Public Health : Additional funding awarded in January, 2011 to build the capacity in African Universities by strengthening postgraduate training and research in population and public health through collaboration with the Consortium for Advanced Research Training in Africa (CARTA).