Interdisciplinary courses at UB

In 2022-2024, the efforts of IPORA WP8 to build an interdisciplinary research-based training program were mainly concentrated at the University of Bordeaux, with the support of colleagues from the other three IPORA partner universities.

This included two activities:

• A course entitled "Africa's population by 2050: challenges and potentials, interdisciplinary perspectives"

This annual 5-days remote course has been taking place since May 2023 within the framework of the Bordeaux University Summer School. It welcomes African and European students, and has them work under the co-supervision of researchers from different disciplines. It includes interactive interdisciplinary courses, debates and tutored working groups. During the working groups, students work on themes in line with IPORA research axes.

• The 2023 session took place from May 20 to June 2 (and June 8 for final students’ presentations) 2023. It welcomed 21 participants (8 UB, 4 UFHB, 4 UIR, 1 AAU, 4 others).
• The 2024 session took place from June 24 to 28^th It welcomed 14 participants (3 UB, 2 UFHB, 3 UIR, 1 AAU, 5 others).

Students and topics covered during the 2023 and 2024 sessions of the course led by IPORA during the UB summer school

Student names	Student disciplines	Student counties	Tutors names and disciplines	Title of the tutored project
Philémon Bassan, Mahmadou Dembele, Maëlle Sodegla, Nina, Céline Huber, Lamine Diaby	Global Health, Political science, Economics,	Benin, Mali, France	Madina Doumbia (Physics), Olivier Marcy (Global Health)	Design a participative research project with children, adolescents and young adults to address health challenges in Africa to allow their generation to reach their full potential
	Physics	Côte d’Ivoire
Hiba Guessous, Marie Yapo	Political science, Physics,	Morocco, Côte d’Ivoire, Germany	Thomas Thivillon (Economics), Tanguy Bernard (Economics)	Design a cost-effective quality certification system that enables small-scale rice Farmers to better sell their product to urban consumers in Côte d'Ivoire
Luisa Muting, Stéphane Ahoua, Alemaheyu Geletu	Economics,	Ethiopia
Josias Ouedraogo, Priscilia Antoinette, Fagdeba Bandjaguena, Marion Imboden, Adama Doumbia	Economics,	Burkina Faso, France, Togo, Switzerland, Côte d’Ivoire	Eric Rougier (Economics)	Reforming higher education to reduce unemployment among graduates and non graduates in Côte d’Ivoire / apprenticeship
	Global Health, Political science, Education
Joël Bonigni, Meron Gebere, Kadiatou Koita, Meriem Bahjaoui, Asrafil Kere	Global Health, Nutrition,	Benin, Ethiopia	Joanna Orne-Gliemann (Global Health), Marc d’Elbée (Economics)	Strengthening health systems in rural areas through digital health interventions. Challenges and opportunities for the Decide-TB project. Interdisciplinary insights
	Political science, Economics	Mali, Morocco, Burkina Faso
Julien Guillot, Yosief Mekonnen, Leysa Maty Sall	Political science, Economics	France, Ethiopia, Senegal	Alemayehu Geletu (Economics)	Enhancing food security research-policy dialogue through maps of Ethiopia
Kouakou Philipps, Lina Alaaeldin Abdelfattah	Geography, Economics	Côte d’Ivoire, Ethiopia	Auriane Pajot (Global health)	Impact of Urbanization on Air Quality in African Cities: Case Study of the city of Abidjan
Arsène Ochou, Habia essi Sonia, Ward Karssemeijer, Rania Qarouach	Chemestry, Law, Management, Political science	Côte d’Ivoire, Togo, Morocco, Netherlands	Thomas Thivillon (Economics)	E-cooking: pollute less, save more. The use of e-cooking as a replacement for traditional fuels in Abidjan
Ismaili Kenza, Sarah Coulibaly, Frederic Ello	Global health	Côte d’Ivoire, Morocco	Céline Thiriot (Political science), Damien Girollet (Economics)	Under what conditions can access to the malaria vaccine be made sustainable?

• A course entitled "Contemporary Transitions in Africa: Interdisciplinary Approaches"
  

This annual 6-month course (October to March) has been taking place since October 2022. It is organized by distance learning, and leads to a University Certificate delivered by the "Collège des Écoles Doctorales de l'Université de Bordeaux".  It is co-supported by IPORA and by the Africa Graduate Program (Africa GP) at UB. Teachers are from three UB and Sciences Po Bordeaux Master programs: global health, development economics and political sciences. The course welcomes 12 students per year, originating from the three Masters. It includes:

• Disciplinary courses: Migration in Africa (Political Sciences); Challenges of urbanization in Africa (Development Economics); Health and urbanization (Public Health).
• Interdisciplinary tutored projects in line with IPORA research priorities.

Students and topics covered during the 2022-2023 and 2023-2024 sessions of the course "Contemporary Transitions in Africa: Interdisciplinary Approaches" at UB

Strengthening the offer of interdisciplinary training in other universities

In 2024, an inventory and critical analysis of interdisciplinarity training needs, opportunities and offer among IPORA partners was conducted within the framework of a Master internship (Daniela Cernat, see Table 8 on page 26). This mapping exercise has fostered new training initiatives in each partner university, with several specific seminars organized in Quarter 3 of 2004.

• At UFHB: Interdisciplinary seminar on the Fight against Antimicrobial Resistance (26-27 November 2024-: 2-day face to face workshop for PhD students in economy, sociology, medicine, agronomy (one health), veterinary schools.
• At UIR: Preparation of an agreement between the UIR and the Climate Change Competence Centre (4C) for the creation of a series of interdisciplinary MOOCs on climate change adaptation, the green economy and sustainable cities in Africa.
• At UAA: Interdisciplinary training organized by the Department of Economics on the Water, Energy, Food Nexus for post-graduate students, third week of December 2024.
• This work will continue in 2025 with the support of an IPORA post-doctoral fellow in the process of being recruited.

Strengthening the collaboration between "programs of excellence " at UB

Africa GP is another "program of excellence" of the UB.  Africa GP is coordinated by researchers from three IPORA founding teams, GHiGS, BSE and LAM. The collaboration between IPORA and the Africa GP includes: (i) enrolling IPORA students (at Master and Doctoral level) within the Africa GP program, thereby providing opportunities for networking with other UB students, international mobility and scientific collaboration; and (ii) inviting Master 2 level students following the Africa GP to contribute to current or future interdisciplinary research projects, by participating in working group tutored by IPORA researchers during the BSS and/or through internships contributing to on-going research.