The SPIN network for knowledge-driven, sustainable, and clean cement and concrete technology in Africa - Practical experiences from international research cooperation between Europe and Africa

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The SPIN network for knowledge-driven,
sustainable, and clean cement and concrete
technology in Africa - Practical experiences
from international research cooperation between
Europe and Africa

• Wolfram Schmidt
• BAM Federal Institute for Materials Research and
  Testing
• Unter den Eichen 87
• 12205 Berlin

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SPIN at a Glance

• Funding Scheme ACP-ST Science and Technology
  Programme
• Total Budget approx. 1,250,000.00
• Funding approx. 1,000,000.00
• Project Partners
• Democratic Republic of Congo University of
  Lubumbashi
• Uganda Department of Geological Survey and
  Mines
• Burundi Université de Burundi
• Rwanda Kigali Institute of Science and
  Technology
• Tanzania University of Dar es Salaam
• Mozambique Eduardo Mondlane University,
• South Africa University of the Witwatersrand
• South Africa Advanced Cement Training Projects
  CC
• Netherlands Eindhoven Technical University
• Croatia Institut IGH d.d.
• Germany BAM Federal Institute for Materials
  Research and Testing

Spearhead Network for Innovative, Clean and Safe
Cement and Concrete Technologies
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• Project Background and Activities

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Project Background

• Problems, Opportunities, and Challenges for Africa

Large need for urbanization and infrastructure
Challenging climate, geography and geology
Availability of prospective raw materials
Africa needs cement and concrete, but it has no
concrete history!
Africa can not afford a 150 years learning
process as Europe in the past. STATE OF THE ART
technology is required.

• High performance
• Versatile

• Green technology
• Sustainable

• Affordable
• Foster local economy

Large technical problems in implementation

• Lack of experts, engineers and qualified staff

• Lack of laboratories, scientists and equipment

• Lack of standards and regulations

SPIN develops African STAR cement and concrete
technology
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SPIN Activities

• SPIN Activities

• Technical committees
• Laboratory visits and practical trainings
• Guest lectures
• Plant and site visits
• 1-month work placements
• TU/e, Eindhoven, Netherlands
• IGH, Zagreb, Croatia
• BAM, Berlin, Germany
• Wits, Johannesburg, South Africa
• SPIN Website Internal Platform

www.spin.bam.de
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SPIN Activities

• Dissemination activities

• Public workshops
• Berlin, August 17th, 2011
• Proceedings (ISBN 978-3-9814281-4-8)
• of the 1st workshop can be received
• for free via
• www.spin.bam.de
• Next workshops
• Dar es Salaam, 2012
• Johannesburg, 2012
• Final international conference ACCTA 2013
• January 28-30, 2013
• Emperors Palace Hotel, Johannesburg

ACCTA 2013 Advances in Cement and Concrete
Technology in Africa www.spin.bam.de/en/accta_20
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SPIN Activities

• Dissemination activities

• Joint conference papers
• 13th International Congress on the Chemistry of
  Cement, 2011, Madrid, Spain
• 2nd Environmental Cement Africa Conference, 2011,
  Nairobi, Kenya
• 12th Biennial Conference of the Institution of
  Engineers, Gabarone, Botswana, 2011
• 6th Africa MRS Conference, Victoria Falls,
  Zimbabwe, 2011
• 3rd Intl. Conf. on Concrete Repair,
  Rehabilitation and Retrofitting, Cape Town, ZA,
  2012
• HiPerMat, Kassel, Germany
• DAAD German-African Summit (ACP-ST EDULINK),
  Nairobi, Kenya, 2011

• Joint conference papers
• Joint journal articles
• Concrete Plant International, 2011
• The Bulletin of the American Ceramic Society
• Global Cement

Trigger Berlin Workshop announcement
Synergies 2 papers sent to increase the number
of authors and co-authors Combination with SPIN
meeting in ZA
Synergy Main author from Wits, Co-Author and
reviewer from BAM As conference is in Germany ?
Co-author from BAM will present
Trigger ICCC Conference presentation, Madrid
The role of dissemination activities cannot be
overemphasised!
Synergy Several options to cross-link
activities, financed outside SPIN by
DAAD Trigger Berlin SPIN workshop announcement
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SPIN Activities

• Generation of Networks

Schools and Universities
Funding Bodies
SMEs and large companies
Research Networks
Associations
Local Authorities and Ministries
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• Spin-Off Activities

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SPIN-Off Activities

• Generation of new funded projects

LightSHIP Lightweight Construction Scientific
Cooperation for Housing with Innovative Panel
Technology
Funding German Federal Ministry of Education
and Research (BMBF)
Funding scheme allows 2 project types Project
initiation activities? 20 to 40 k projects,
mainly travelling Large scale projects ? up to
200 k

• Partners
• EiABC / Addis Ababa University
• Kigali Institute of Science and Technology
• Wits University, Johannesburg
• German-African Business Association
• Convena AG

Initiation projects allow physical meeting of the
partners with the aim to generate robust large
scale projects

• Project objectives
• Development of lightweight panels for housing
  with local materials

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SPIN-Off Activities

• Generation of cooperation activities

• Shared supervision of PhD student at University
  of Dar es Salaam
• Funding by DAAD (German Academic Exchange
  Service)
• Cooperation between UDSM and BAM
• Equipment of BAM will be made available
• Shared supervision and consulting

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• Experiences from Cooperation

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Experiences from Cooperation

• Critical mistakes in the project history and
  solution

Project proposal was written by one person each
from BAM and Wits
Problem source
Partner at Wits acted as a private person without
involvement of Wits administration
This was not identifiably for the coordinator as
documents were official
Problems
Partner at Wits claimed for total control and
more money
First we tried to negotiate
Reasons to stop the project
Cancellation of kick-off meeting
Claim Money to private account
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Experiences from Cooperation

• Critical mistakes in the project history and
  solution

Step 1 Inform ACP
Step 2 Develop solution strategies
Negotiate with Wits University
Slow processes Lack of understanding Lack of
responsible person
Replace Wits by another institution from ZA
Equivalent to new project application
Reduce Wits involvement to approx. Zero, while in
parallel increase share of another partner
No other partner capable and willing to quickly
replace Wits
Step 3 Sort out matters apply for cost-neutral
project prolongation
Physical meeting prior to the application is most
important!
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Experiences from Cooperation

• Underestimation of the administrative workload
  and time effort

• Most partner institutions are not experienced in
  international cooperation projects and need
  strong support
• Universities administrations are often
  complicated and lack responsible persons (e.g.
  contract with Wits more than 1.5 years)
• Partners expect too much from coordinator (e.g.
  people often ask us, how to sort out problems in
  their institutions)
• Lack of experiences with budgets and
  documentation

The coordinator needs sufficient manpower (e.g.
1 full time technical secretary 1 full time
scientific chair)
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Experiences from Cooperation

• Financial Matters

• Not a single partner has the capacity to
  pre-finance efforts
• Coordinator has to first transfer money before
  actions can take place
• High financial risk for the coordinator
• Delay of activities
• In order to avoid delay, BAM covered expenses for
  all partners during the first meetings
• Very complicated internal calculation

To avoid problems, the coordinator should
organise everything ? more manpower and funds to
the coordinator
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Experiences from Cooperation

• Project handling

• Reporting, accounting is time intensive
• (e.g. SPIN project has more than 220 single
  budget positions )
• 1st year report required amendments, final
  acceptance June 2011
• Next payment rate was received in August 2011
• High amounts of own funds have to be activated
• Feedback is time intensive and the direct contact
  cannot give a definite response
• Partners expect direct answer
• Coordinator is always in conflicts between
  project continuation and contractual risk

The coordinator needs financial power to
pre-finance activities and absorb possible
financial risks
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Experiences from Cooperation

• Some other practical aspects and problems

• Language problems
• (SPIN communicates in English, French, and
  Swahili, reporting language is English)
• Difficult communication with some partners
• (e.g. in DRC sometimes internet or phone are off
  over long period of time)
• Time for sending documents might cause delayed
  reporting, etc.
• Intercontinental money transfer takes long time
• (at least 2-3 weeks, but also more than 1 month
  is possible)
• Visa application for some African countries are
  complicated

Be multilingual! Do not expect everything to run
smoothly! Dont be overambitious with objectives!
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Experiences from Cooperation

• Newly gained experiences

• The focus of African professors is rather put on
  teaching than on research
• Possibilities to do research are very limited
• Limited access to international journals
• Laboratories are not always fully equipped
• Lack of support to do research
• Hardly no existing multi-national research
  cooperation
• No support or initiative by institutions
• No funds made available
• Sub-Sahara-Africa is not competitive in
  international research!

• Major deficit

The missing ability to conduct self-responsible
research
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Experiences from Cooperation

• Lessons learned to run a project smoothly

Physical meeting prior to project
Manpower to the coordinator
Coordinator as general manager
Coordinator with high administrative and
financial capacity
Moderate objectives

• Major deficit

The missing ability to conduct self-responsible
research
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Experiences from Cooperation

• How can drawbacks be overcome?

Alternative projects with higher responsibility
of partners Project objectives should focus more
on research
Partner A
Partner B
Coordinator
Funding
Funding Travelling, Meeting Administration Consum
ables Equipment
Partner C
Partner n

Research objective, Product
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Experiences from Cooperation

• Conclusions

• Many practical problems can occur
• ? challenging but not unsolvable
• Cooperation is enrichment for all parties
• Interesting discussions and diversification of
  approaches
• Understanding of different cultures and
  traditions
• New view on construction styles and environments
  as well as their challenges
• New ideas for future research
• The feedback from internal and external partners
  is very positive and the enthusiasm is enormous

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Thank you very much for your kind
attention Acknowledgements Thanks to
Dubravka, Irina, Miruna, Ruth, Naomi, Birgit,
Nsesheye, Mitch, Herbert, Akindahinde, Antonio,
Jean-Bosco, Paul, Ndala, Dionisio, Senthil, Balu,
John, Jos, Andreas, Hans-Carsten, Gregor
Announcements SPIN Website www.spin.bam.de Int
ernational conference ACCTA in Johannesburg,
South Africa, in January 2013