Building Stronger Universities

Danish universities have a long history of successful collaboration with universities in Africa and South Asia, and these partnerships have been a cornerstone in Denmark’s long-standing commitment to strengthening research capacity in developing countries.

In this spirit, the first Building Stronger Universities programme was established in 2011 as collaboration projects between Danish universities and universities in five countries. In 2014, the second phase of the BSU programme adopted a “South driven” approach, where selected Southern partner universities, designated as partnership leads entered into collaboration agreements with selected Danish universities for implementation of a programme based on their needs.

So far three phases of the programme has been rolled out, we are now in its fourth phase.

Strengthened capacities for research at smaller and younger universities in fragile settings and regions are important for overall economic growth, natural resource management, improved governance and peace. Thus, in the design of a new BSU IV programme for research capacity development and collaboration in East Africa (which has been in the making since late 2021), it has been decided to build on the existing collaboration with Gulu University and State University of Zanzibar and to include University of Hargeisa as a new partner university in Somaliland.