The International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), a member of the CGIAR Consortium, and the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), have established a new research facility in Cameroon, the Congo Basin Institute, which aims to address challenges of food and water security, climate change, biodiversity loss, public health and emerging diseases with focus on the Congo Basin.
15 July 2015: The International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), a member of the CGIAR Consortium, and the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) have established a new research facility in Cameroon, the Congo Basin Institute, which aims to address challenges of food and water security, climate change, biodiversity loss, public health and emerging diseases with focus on the Congo Basin.
Launched on 20 June 2015, in Yaoundé, Cameroon, the Congo Basin Institute is designed to establish an environmentally-friendly research campus that serves as a nexus for interdisciplinary research, education, training and technology development. A five-year test version of the Institute successfully hosted more than 2,000 researchers from 15 countries at the IITA campus.
Additional partners in the Congo Basin Institute include the CGIAR Consortium’s World Agroforestry Center (ICRAF) and Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), the Centre Pasteur du Cameroun, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the University of New Orleans, Drexel University, several Cameroon ministries and universities, and other corporate partners and local and international NGOs, such as the Jane Goodall Institute. Participation is open to African countries, universities and research institutions worldwide. [ICRAF News Release] [UCLA News Release] [Congo Basin Institute Webpage] [IITA Webpage]