AfricaNews: Tell us a bit about yourself?

Noor: I am a Kenyan research fellow based at the Kenya Medical Research Institute/Wellcome Trust Research Programme working in the area of the spatial epidemiology of malaria. I completed my PhD in this field in mid 2005 from the Open University and the University of Oxford in the UK. I was awarded a four year research fellowship by the Wellcome Trust, UK in 2007, which has been the main platform for the development of most of my research work.

AfricaNews: What do you make of your new award by the African Union?

Noor: It is an honour to be recognized for my work by both the AU and my country.

AfricaNews: How were you able to win this award?

Noor: The AU advertises the awards every year. I applied in 2009 and in mid 2010 I was called by someone from the Ministry of Higher Education Science and Technology who informed me that I had won the AU national award for life and earth sciences.

AfricaNews: What is next after this award?

Noor: Continue with my research work. Obviously a key part of this is trying to generate funding to do the research work. I have been fortunate in securing the Wellcome Trust fellowship in 2007 and plan to apply for another Wellcome Trust fellowship, which hopefully will be successful.

AfricaNews: You have been working on Malaria in Kenya, how is it going?

Noor: A large amount of resources have been invested in malaria control in Kenya over the past few years and recent research shows that the burden of the disease has reduced significantly.

However there is still a lot more work to be done in terms of control and further investment is required so that we don’t lose upon the gains we have achieved especially now that elimination is part of the government’s malaria control agenda. As the disease burden declines, new research questions emerge in terms of understanding the epidemiology of the disease and the appropriate ways to control it. Some of these questions interest me.

AfricaNews: How do you see science in Africa?

Noor: Going by the increasing research output by African scientist, I think science in Africa is improving, but we are far from where we should have been by 2010. There are a few chronic challenges that need addressing before Africa can realize its full scientific and technological potential.

AfricaNews: What is the way forward for Africa in terms of science?

Noor: I think four big issues need to be addressed:

1. African governments need to commit a sizable proportion of national income to science and technology and identify areas of important national S&T gaps on which these funds are spent. Many of the resources that could be put to good use are wasted on bureaucracy. Expensive national celebrations, numerous ministerial posts, white elephant projects…I am sure you have heard of all these before!!

2. Restructuring and strengthening institutions that fund scientific research and those that do the science. In many African countries there are national research institutions initiated by governments but most research money and key researchers come to these institutions from western countries. These links have worked very well in some settings in terms of capacity building and research output, and I am personally a beneficiary of such collaboration, however they are not the long term solution to the S&T problem in Africa. Many African scientists who work at these national research institutions and don’t have access to funding are wasting away their most productive years and ideas.


3. Building scientific capacity and leadership: in Africa there is this dangerous notion that scientific research is what you do after you finish university. Consequently most students who finish from local universities are not equipped with the tools for critical thinking and research. Yet universities should serve as the hotbed for innovative ideas and free thinking. Training in research should start early on in our education systems. Training in scientific subjects from set books isn’t necessarily equal to training in research. You can have scientific knowledge without having the skills to undertake high quality research. Besides, national research institutions have taken over the role of implementing research away from universities; most African researchers in these institutions have minimal links with local universities and do not effectively transfer their research skills to students at the universities. Therefore there is an urgent need for a radical change of institutional mandates so that they primarily serve as scientific funding and regulatory bodies and allow the actual scientific research back into the universities and in turn guarantee a dynamic pipeline of scientific capacity.

4. Facilitating private sector-led S&T- governments need to find ways of attracting science and technology companies into countries. This is an effective way of transferring technology because private individuals and institutions know they will make money out of doing so. Technology transfer has done wonders for countries like China, India, South Korea, Malaysia and others. The revenues generated from these companies can help fund research in Africa and therefore create a larger, more independent scientific community.