Jaramogi Oginga Odinga University of Science and Technology (JOOUST) has launched a data centre to enhance health, climate and environmental research work in the Lake region.
The data centre based at JOOUST Kisumu campus has been equipped to tune of Sh6 million, funded by the Belgium government through the Vlir-OUS programme.
The data centre is part of the deliverables in the 10-year cooperation between JOOUST and Belgian (Flemish) universities which includes strengthening research capacity in natural resource management, agri-food systems, health, ICT and climate change resilience projects.
According to JOOUST Director of ICT Prof Solomon Ogara, the data centre will be used to gather census-based data from the field and will not only act as a repository from which researchers across the globe will access the data, but will also serve as a disaster recovery centre for sustainability purposes of the projects.
Speaking during the launch, JOOUST Deputy Vice Chancellor Prof Aggrey Thuo noted that the data center will be key in not only digitisation research data but also in supporting of research and administrative activities.
Prof. Thuo observed that the collaboration has helped JOOUST to bridge the local scarce resource gap exuding confidence that phase two of the programme will receive funding amidst concern of looming funding cuts by the Belgian government.
Prof Jan Danckert, Vice Chancellor Vrije University of Brussels (VUB) said he was proud of the mutual collaboration terming it a win-win situation between JOOUST and VUB in Belgium.
Prof Danckert said that the data collected by JOOUST is useful for research undertaken by professors and students back in Belgium.
He on the other urged the government of Belgium to implement the intended budget cuts gradually with transition periods to enable universities adopt and look for new sources of funding to create stability.
Through the 1-0-year (2022-2032) collaboration between JOOUST and Belgium universities, JOOUST received a grant of Sh898 million with the anticipated cuts expected to chop off Sh7.5 million annually from the research grants.
Flemish coordinator Prof. Ann Van Griensven expressed satisfaction with JOOUST and the investment of the funding and the progress of sub-projects.
Prof Griensven underscored the importance of the newly launched data center revealing that so far, a lot of data has been collected and project milestones recorded which would not have been possible without the data center.
“If we collect data but we cannot make it available for use by researchers and the community ,then our efforts will be pointless” said Prof Griensven.
By Brian Ondeng
