AMES – Project to support the modernisation of higher education in the Congo

Under the AMES project, Expertise France is contributing to building the capacities of the Ministry of Higher Education, Scientific Research and Technological Innovation (MERSIT) and Marien N’Gouabi University, the main public university in the country. This capacity building is working on structuring the graduate schools and developing the Centre for University Teaching of Marien N’Gouabi University.

Expertise France is also supporting the École Nationale Supérieure of the Republic of the Congo through several operations:

• Support for evaluating training and improving the occupational repositories, skills, evaluation and training, including an appropriate use of information and communication technologies for education (ICTE) 
• Capacity building for the teaching and management teams
• Capacity building for high-level teaching-research (doctoral students) 
• Upgrading of three laboratories: physical sciences, life and Earth sciences, educational sciences.

The project includes the allocation of several scholarships to ENS doctoral students in order to support research on problems related to educational sciences in the Congolese education system. This research is carried out under the joint supervision of the National Institute of Teaching and Education (INSPE) of the Academy of Nice which is hosting five ENS doctoral students and assisting them with their research.

The AMES project is supporting higher education in the Congo through several thematic areas, including the exploitation of natural resources and the protection of the environment.

In this context, the AMES project will lead to the construction of a Multiservice Centre for the Exploitation of Bioresources (CMVB) at Marien N’Gouabi University. This centre will host vocational training in chemical engineering and offer services to companies (training, provision of facilities). The training provided includes an awareness-raising component on the protection of the environment and exploitation of natural resources.

Expertise France is involved in the Multiservice Centre for the Exploitation of Bioresources by:

• Financing and supervising the construction of the premises housing the centre (about 1,000 m² on 2,500 m² of land allocated by the university)
• Participating in the acquisition of the equipment required for the training
• Supporting the administrative and financial management of the centre when it opens
• Improving the quality of the training and research for the exploitation of bioresources.

The Multiservice Centre for the Exploitation of Bioresources will include laboratories for control analyses (physicochemical, microbiological and sensory), a room for documentation and technological and regulatory monitoring, as well as adjoining premises for utilities and storage.

As with the doctoral students supported at the ENS, the capacity building for the teaching staff of Marien N’Gouabi University and the future CMVB is primarily based on assisting five teacher-researchers with the preparation of their doctorates in the field of process engineering (physicochemical engineering) whose theses focus on the exploitation of bioresources. This component to strengthen research is implemented with the support of the Agro Institute which is hosting and assisting the Congolese doctoral students with their research.