Ghana shares new superlab with West African scientists
“For once researchers in Ghana can start to dream. Right now you are not limited by the absence of equipment,” says Lawrence Borquaye, assistant manager of the new central laboratory at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST). The lab, opened in May, cost the university US$6.5 million to build and fill with some of the most advanced lab equipment in the world. The idea behind it is to reduce costs by sharing equipment between individual departments. And the novel collaborative approach is even more ambitious than that: it is open to researchers from other universities both in Ghana and other West African countries. The lab’s designers are confident that the fees charged will help pay for its upkeep. This is part of the Africa’s PhD Renaissance series funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York.
