Tipping Points 34 - Meet the JWO Top Three скачать в хорошем качестве

Tipping Points 34 - Meet the JWO Top Three

Three researchers from across Africa have been announced as the finalists for the 2025 Jennifer Ward Oppenheimer Research Grant, to continue their ground-breaking work. The grant of $150,000 (USD) will be awarded to one successful applicant and will support a research programme of up to three years. Science communication specialist Robert Inglis from Jive Media Africa engages with the top three contenders to delve into their proposed research and how it will provide solutions to some of Africa’s most pressing problems. Dr Beatrice T. Nganso "Building an interactive African platform of plant-pollinator networks to assess network resilience and strengthen biodiversity conservation, food security, and livelihoods." In a time of mounting environmental crises, Dr Beatrice Tchuidjang Nganso is focused on something deceptively small, but vital to life as we know it: insect pollinators. From wild bees to butterflies, these unsung heroes are responsible for fertilising crops and maintaining ecosystems, yet their relationships with native plants across Africa remain poorly understood. Nganso’s research tackles this gap head-on. Her project, AfriPollNet, aims to build the first open-access database mapping plant-pollinator interactions in Africa, starting in Kenya, Ethiopia, and Burkina Faso. With pollinators under pressure from habitat loss, pesticide use, and climate change, this research could be pivotal in safeguarding biodiversity and food security for millions of people. Read more here: https://jworesearchgrant.org/dr-beatr... Dr Levy Otwoma "Empowering Marine and National Conservation Initiatives for Protection, Awareness, and Transparent Engagement in Africa (EMANCIPATE)." For Kenyan marine biologist Dr Levy Otwoma, the future of conservation lies in something invisible to the eye but rich with possibility: the genetic code floating in seawater. At a time when coastal ecosystems are collapsing and extinction rates are accelerating, Otwoma is leading a bold effort to empower African nations to take marine biodiversity monitoring into their own hands. His project, EMANCIPATE, will use cutting-edge third-generation DNA sequencing to analyse environmental DNA (eDNA) collected from seawater and sediment, providing a low-cost, highly accurate tool to detect fish biodiversity without ever catching a fish. Read more here: https://jworesearchgrant.org/dr-levy-... Dr Nompumelelo Catherine Baso-Mdiza "Strengthening Freshwater Food Webs for Climate Resilience and Invasive Species Management in Sub-Saharan Africa." Invasive species. Climate change. On their own, each poses a serious threat to Africa’s freshwater ecosystems. Together, they could be disastrous. Dr Nompumelelo Catherine Baso-Mdiza is working to ensure that doesn’t happen. A freshwater ecologist and data scientist, her research explores how these two pressures are disrupting the complex food webs in Africa’s rivers, lakes, and dams, and what can be done to restore balance before it’s too late. Read more here: https://jworesearchgrant.org/dr-nompu...