Recirculate is funded by Research Councils UK through the Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) which has the stated aim of “Growing Research Capability to Meet the Challenges Faced by Developing Countries”. In that sense, RECIRCULATE is quite different from many traditional research projects. 

While there is a clear research focus on a circular water economy there is also a broader underpinning aim to support new partnership-based approaches to enable African researchers and research institutions to grow transformational impact through

(i) working with, in and for their communities and

(ii) developing robust, durable and equitable partnerships with UK researchers.

That aim certainly applies to water research but we see it as relevant to all disciplines and sectors if research is to underpin sustainable and equitable growth.  

The project is led by Lancaster University in partnership with the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) in Ghana, Lancaster University Ghana (LU Ghana), University of Benin (UniBEN, Nigeria), Botswana International University of Science and Technology (BIUST), African Technology Policy Studies Network (ATPS, Kenya), Malawi National Commission for Science and Technology (NCST), and Copperbelt University (Zambia).  UniBEN, CSIR and LU Ghana are the projects’s core research partners (Phase 1 partners).

BIUST, ATPS, NCST and Copperbelt are the project’s Phase 2 partners, participating primarily in our training activities but with the explicit aim of enhancing their capacity to engage more fully in research in future projects.