Abidjan, 3 June 2023 (AIP)- The principal investigator of the HE2AT project, Pr Cissé Guéladio, presented the project at a workshop held from Wednesday 31 May to Thursday 1 June 2023 in Abidjan-Cocody.

The aim of the project is to reduce vulnerability and build resilience to extreme heat in African cities.

"The HE2AT project is funded by the National Institutes of Health. The project partners are the University of the Witwatersrand and the University of Cape Town in South Africa, the Université Péléforo Gon Coulibaly in Côte d'Ivoire, IBM Research Africa in South Africa and Kenya, the University of Washington and the University of Michigan in the United States", explained Pr Cissé Guéladio.

For two days, members of the HE2AT research team in Côte d'Ivoire and South Africa took part in celebrating the second year of the project at a workshop organised by the Université Péléforo Gon Coulibaly de Korhogo (UPGC) and the Centre Suisse de Recherches Scientifiques en Côte d'Ivoire (CSRS).

At the opening of the workshop, the representative of the CSRS Director General, Professor Koudou Benjamin, reaffirmed his institution's commitment throughout the project, and emphasised that this collaboration would lead to many others.

"The HE2AT project will enable the Université Péléforo Gon Coulibaly in Korhogo and the Centre Suisse de Recherches Scientifiques in Côte d'Ivoire to pool their experience and collective intelligence to find solutions to a major global problem," he added.

The President of the UPGC, Pr Adama Coulibaly, recalled that his institution was the main partner in Côte d'Ivoire of the HE2AT centre's international research project.

The UPGC is the only French-speaking university in Côte d'Ivoire and West Africa to be a member of the consortium behind the project.

This workshop for members of the HE2AT research teams also served to strengthen the working dynamic of the research teams and their collaborators with the stakeholders in order to achieve the objectives set by the project.

(AIP)

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