The first project entitled “BETTEReHEALTH” is a European Commission funding through the Horizon 2020 funding scheme. It is a consortium of 11 African and European partners (Ethiopia, Ghana, Malawi, and Tunisia). It mainly focuses on a continent-wide coordination and implementation of registries for eHealth solutions and policies. The University of Gondar eHealthlab Ethiopia research team will be leading the development of Health Information System standardization policies and interoperability strategies.

The second project entitled “NURTURE” is funded by the Norwegian government under the NORHED Program that aims to build the capacity of Higher education institutions for research and training. This specific project will focus in the area of eHealth, informatics, and special needs education in partnership with 5 Universities in Ethiopia ( Gondar, Jimma, Hawassa, Debre Markos and Addis Ababa Science and Technology). The project has a span of six years with 20 Million NOK funding to support academic programs, mobility of 45 Msc and PhD students, and inter-disciplinary research activities.

Dr. Binyam Chakilu who led the multidisciplinary team from the University of Gondar side (in writing both of the grants) expressed, “We are very pleased to win both of the grants. Our staff will have the opportunity to work with more than 14 institutions across the globe for the next 6 years. In the NORHED program, we will be training more than 45 potential young staff at masters and PhD level in a joint program between our university and Universities in Norway which will be a massive capacity building.”

He concluded by saying, “we have also brought along additional universities like Debremarkos University and Addis Ababa Science and Technology university into the consortium. I am very grateful to Our partners in Norway specially Dr. Shegaw Mengiste for his hard work and passion in both of the projects. Our research group members and staffs from informatics and education college also worked with us on this project.”

University of Gondar which was recently classified as a research university is striving to attract more grants like these. Overall grants like these are a way to fast track the University’s aims and goals to better live up to its true name. In the near future with the incorporation and cooperation of international institutions the University of Gondar will be able to internationalize quicker and increase the quality of education for millions and millions of Ethiopians who look towards UoG as a beacon of light over the horizon.