The Africa Program

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The Africa Program
Chalmers delegation - November 2025
Chalmers Vice President of Utilization, Innovation and lifelong learning with the Principal of UR-College of Science and Technology
Chalmers - Embassy of Rwanda in Sweden

Partnering for Sustainable Solutions and Global Impact; advancing innovation, research, and impact

The African continent represents a region with rapid economic development and population growth. By 2035, we will have more young Africans entering into the global workforce than the rest of the world combined. By 2050, more than one in four people globally will be African. This demographic change presents a once-in-a-generation opportunity to build a sustainable, innovation-driven economy by investing in high quality education and young people's skillset and talent.

The Africa Program provides a dedicated innovation arena and a node for Chalmers work with African and global partners, with focus on students and researchers as change makers, educators, innovators and entrepreneurs. Positioned to be a gateway to the African continent at large, it is strategically anchored in Kigali, Rwanda, which is emerging as a global hub for international partnerships, university collaborations and investment capital.

Rwanda specifically has emerged as one of Africa’s fastest growing economies, with a long-standing ambition to establish a knowledge economy. The University of Rwanda (UR) has been a strategic partner of Chalmers since 2019. This collaboration spans innovation, education, and research, with a strong focus on generating impact and advancing joint knowledge in sustainable energy, data science and responsible AI, and health technologies.

The program establishes testbeds for sustainability innovation within university settings, where industry and civil society partners join with talented African and Swedish students and researchers to produce the ideas, practical solutions and people who are tomorrow’s gamechangers and changemakers.   

The foundation for ongoing and future activities builds upon several existing initiatives.

Chalmers delegation at UniPod Rwanda
Chalmers delegation at UniPod Rwanda

ABOUT US 

The Africa Program strengthens innovation in education, research and utilization between Swedish and African universities, in partnership with stakeholders outside academia. The approach creates a model for actors to come together around challenge-driven education, research and utilization with university campuses as living labs. The partners create shared and inclusive innovation processes that leverage international partnerships to become builders of innovation ecosystems and the knowledge economies both in Sweden and on the African continent. 

We aim to build appealing, effective university ecosystems that can nurture innovation capabilities of Swedish and African students and researchers, for relevance, sustainability and impact. Currently, the University of Rwanda (UR) and Chalmers are creating an innovation ecosystem responsive to community needs. At the center of this effort is the UniPod Rwanda design and makerspace, working as a physical meeting place that links the two universities, the two countries, and a broad network of collaborators.

Our key fields are sustainable energy, data science and frugal AI, and health tech, which bring together a web of domestic and international stakeholders, such as industry partners and businesses, hospitals and clinics, foundations and international organisations, ecosystem enablers, universities, government, and urban and rural communities.

Mutual learning as Fuse meets Rwanda’s makerspace

Chalmers’ makerspace Fuse has a counterpart at the University of Rwanda, and a collaboration agreement between the two universities offers many opportunities to exchange ideas and learn from each other. Recently, a group of students and staff visited the newly established UniPod Rwanda. They encountered a number of challenges relating to the working environment, but also returned with a strong sense of entrepreneurial spirit and creative thinking.

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Contact

Helene Ahlborg

  • Head of Unit, Envi­ron­men­tal Systems Analysis, Envi­ron­men­tal and Energy Sciences
To personal page

Maria Saline

  • Project Leader, University Executive Office, Chalmers Operations Support
To personal page

Peace Iraguha

Academic Collaboration and Partnership Coordinator

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