Meet Katundu Imasiku, a PhD Candidate at ACEESD who won a research grant

31-05-2021

Katundu Imasiku, a PhD Candidate specializing in Renewable Energy is poised to receive a grant he won to find out how renewable energy can be used to produce food. The grant worth R12-million (about 862 million RWF) over a period of 2 years, is awarded by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) to a consortium of 16 African Research Universities Alliance (ARUA) universities.
The grant is hosted by the Centre of Excellence (CoE) in Energy at Stellenbosch University.
The consortium awardee Universities are from Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda. Each of these universities gave a pitch of the area of interest but falling under the umbrella of Food-Water-Energy nexus projects.

Katundu Imasiku

For Rwanda, Katundu’s selected pitch is “Food-Energy-Water Project for Sustainable Agriculture in Rwanda”. This project involves using solar energy (renewable energy resource) to harvest the water resource and use it for growing agricultural crops.
“My motivation to pitch on behalf of the African Centre of Excellence in Energy for Sustainable development (ACEESD) and UR in 2018 was not just to try to make the ACEESD gain recognition but to also contribute to providing the sustainable agricultural solutions in Rwanda”, Imasiku said.
Apart from creating opportunities for collaborative research projects to address actual problems in the Food, Water & Energy sector in Rwanda, the grant will offer scholarships for trainings/capacity building at Certificate, Masters, PhD and Postdoc levels to mostly UR staff and UR students, through the Stellenbosch University African Doctoral Academy.
It is expected that the fund will enhance agricultural system and crop yield in Rwanda, Explore sustainable agriculture solutions using solar energy, Increase food-water-energy nexus visibility through publications, and increase food-water-energy nexus visibility through publications among other expectations.