AfricaArray - Structure

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Overview, Rationale and Vision

Introduction | Focus | Founding Organizations| Implementation Timeline| Outcomes

Introduction

AfricaArray is a long-term (20 years) initiative to promote, in the full spirit of NEPAD (New Partnership for Africa's Development), coupled training and research programs for building and maintaining a scientific workforce for Africa’s natural resource sector. Africa’s natural resource sector (petroleum, minerals, and water, in particular) is a major driving force for economic development. Africa is a primary source of strategic and base metals for the world market. Petroleum production from sub-Saharan African countries alone may provide 25% of U.S. oil imports by 2015. Water resources are needed for supporting sustainable livelihoods throughout the continent, and in some countries geothermal reservoirs provide an important energy source.

The name “AfricaArray” refers to an array of shared training programs, an array of shared scientific observatories, scientists across the continent working on an array of shared projects, and above all, a shared vision that Africa will retain capacity in an array of scientific fields vital to the development of its natural resource sector.

Initially, AfricaArray is focusing on geophysics to:

Maintain and develop further geophysical training programs in Africa, in response to industry, government and university needs.
Promote geophysical research in Africa, and establish an Africa-to-Africa research support system.
Obtain geophysical data, through a network of shared observatories, for studying scientific targets of economic and societal importance, as well as fundamental geological processes shaping the African continent.

Focus

Geophysics education and research has been selected as the initial focus for AfricaArray because geophysicists are in high demand in the strategically important fields of oil and gas exploration, mineral exploration, geothermal energy development, water resource development, and earthquake hazard mitigation (including mine tremors). The discipline of geophysics is a cornerstone of many petroleum and mineral exploration programs. In fact, few oil, gas, or mineral discoveries are made without the use of advanced geophysical data sets to identify exploration targets, for example seismic reflection and airborne geophysical surveys. Geophysical exploration methods are also commonly used in prospecting for groundwater and geothermal reservoirs.

As demand increases for African geophysicists, especially in oil producing countries, what little capacity there is in Africa for geophysics training is disappearing fast, even though interest from students is high. Specialized fields like geophysics within African universities are particularly vulnerable in times of financial rationalization and competition for a skilled workforce. A recent survey of select mining and oil companies indicates that as many as 20 new geophysics graduates are needed every year by industry in Africa; additional geophysics graduates are needed in government agencies, particularly to work in water resource development, and in academic institutions. There is insufficient capacity within Africa to provide high quality geophysics training for this number of students.

Founding Organizations

AfricaArray is an AESEDA (Alliance for Earth Sciences, Engineering and Development in Africa) project and fulfills part of the broader AESEDA mission to promote the development of geo-resources for sustainable livelihoods in Africa. AfricaArray has been established through a partnership of three founding organizations, The University of the Witwatersrand (Johannesburg, South Africa), the Council for Geoscience (Pretoria, South Africa), and The Pennsylvania State University (University Park, PA, USA), but the partnership base has rapidly expanded to include many other organizations (See Participants section).

Implementation Timeline

AfricaArray is being built on existing programs and expertise within the partner institutions and is being implemented in three phases over ten years. During Phase 1 (1/2005 – 12/2007), the educational program at the University of the Witwatersrand is being expanded and improved to provide B.Sc., M.Sc., and Ph.D. degree training in geophysics for students from across Africa. Seismic stations are being installed or upgraded in participating countries to form networks of shared scientific observatories (permanent and temporary), and technical personnel are being trained to operate and maintain the observatories. Data from the observatories are being used for student thesis research projects, and are helping catalyze scientific community building through educational and research collaborations.

During subsequent phases (2008-2014), the in-situ education and research program will grow to provide B.Sc., M.Sc. and Ph.D. training for many more African students, the networks of permanent and temporary scientific observatories will be expanded, sustainable centers of excellence in geophysics will be established at other African universities, and a secondary school outreach program will be set up focused on natural hazards, mine safety, and career opportunities in the natural resource sector. The “AfricaArray” model of promoting capacity building through tightly coupled training and research activities will also be propagated to other science fields vital to the development of Africa’s natural resources, and will include adding other monitoring equipment to the scientific observatories (for example, GPS, meteorological, hydrologic, and other environmental sensors). The map below shows the anticipated network of scientific observatories after 10 years.

Outcomes

AfricaArray will create a pool of highly trained African scientists needed in industry, government and academia alike. By focusing on historically disadvantaged communities, AfricaArray will make a positive contribution toward the workforce demands defined under the Mining Charter in South Africa and similar legislation adopted by other African governments. Additionally, many academic training programs in Africa will be strengthened through AfricaArray to the point where they can independently provide a sustainable pool of well-trained scientists for Africa’s natural resource sector.

AfricaArray also offers the potential to advance the recruitment of minority students in the U.S. into science fields allied to Africa’s natural resource sector. There is a strong cultural and economic interest in Africa on the part of some African American students. AfricaArray will provide minority students (as well as non-minority students) interested in Africa with opportunities to engage in scientific research that can potentially benefit Africa’s development.