Accueil

From !khure

Revision as of 15:17, 15 June 2009 by Emmelyne (Talk | contribs)

!Khure africa - The story is the African wind (San proverb)

A South African - French flagship scientific cooperation program in the Geosciences


!Khure Africa explores the dynamic co-evolution of Earth and Life and their links to tectonics and climate change. It concerns the coupled geo-ecodynamic history of the solid Earth, its fluid envelope and the intervening biosphere, from the early earth to its present state.

South-Central Africa, including Madagascar, is the chosen open-air laboratory because it is a natural treasure trove waiting to be explored for its past and present geobio-information that is mostly missing in global-change scale models aimed at future forecasts.

!Khure Africa integrates researchers from diverse fields within the Earth and Life sciences. In South Africa, scientists from ten universities/institutions are participating, locally coordinated through the Africa Earth Observation Network (AEON) and the University of Cape Town (UCT); in France, participating scientists from six universities/institutions are coordinated through the Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris (IPGP) and University Paris Diderot.

!Khure Africa incorporates a strong Capacity Building program, facilitated through visits and exchanges, especially to enhance analytical skills of South African graduate students in France,and intercollaboration to construct new laboratories in South Africa. Joint supervision of PhD, MSc students, and exchanges of scientists, are ongoing and expanding to fill up to 20 students.
The !Khure Africa program has been strongly supported from the start by CNRS and its President, Dr. Catherine Bréchignac The project is financially supported through the ARCUS programme, with equal funds from "Région Ile de France" and the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, with specific help from Professor Samuel Elmaleh (attaché for S&T at the Embassy of France, Pretoria, South Africa).