Our Partners

Partnerships: An Investment in the Future

AfricaArray owes much of its growth and success to its partners across industry, academia and government. Their support takes many forms: Some underwrite grants and contracts; others contribute equipment, offer technical assistance, or provide access to data sets or research sites; still others supervise students, provide student scholarships or work with student interns.

Partners benefit as well: They acquire new knowledge and data; they share in the development of new technologies and techniques; and they build relationships with the next generation of African geoscientists.

AfricaArray is actively seeking new partners in and outside of Africa to help expand its observatory network and broaden its educational and research programs.

Requirements to become a partner are minimal: An organization must have some link to Africa’s natural resource sector through training, research, exploration, production, management or the environment; and an organization must be willing to engage in a Memorandum of Understanding or negotiate a contract that sets the terms of the partnership.

Co-Directors Paul Dirks (paul.dirks@wits.ac.za) and Andy Nyblade (aan2@psu.edu) can provide more information for partners in determining how their organizations can help advance the goals of AfricaArray.

Founding Partners

AfricaArray was established through a partnership of three organizations: The University of the Witwatersrand ( Johannesburg, South Africa), the Council for Geoscience ( Pretoria, South Africa), and The Pennsylvania State University ( University Park, Pa., U.S.). The three provided $1.7M to launch AfricaArray in 2004 and continue to support it through financial and in-kind contributions of equipment and technical assistance, administration of educational programmes, stipends for graduate students, and sponsoring of research projects.

Sponsoring Partners

AfricaArray owes much of its continued growth and success to its long-term relationships with sponsoring partners. The value of these relationships flows both ways. With additional resources, AfricaArray can expand its research programme and observatory network into new areas and can broaden its educational and research focus to other fields besides geophysics.

Sponsoring partners gain, too. They have increased access to advanced technical data and research results. They can help shape education and training programmes to meet their needs. And through internships and collaborative research projects, they can identify the next generation of well-trained and talented African geoscientists.

There are many opportunities to become involved with AfricaArray as a sponsoring partner from funding research projects to in-kind contributions of equipment and technical assistance. Requirements to become a sponsoring partner are few and the application process is short and uncomplicated. Application and details are provided in the Opportunities for Partnership section.

AfricaArray is proud that the opportunities for and the number of sponsoring partners continue to grow. See our Current Partners page for a list of Sponsoring Partners.

Affiliated Partners

AfricaArray also depends upon many affiliated partners to help with its education and research programmes. These partners help promote AfricaArray often through in-kind support. They may help to establish and operate one or more geophysical observatories, provide technical or logistical support, or supervise graduate and postdoctoral students. They also may provide research or short-term training opportunities for students.

The requirements to become an affiliated partner are few; the application materials can be found in the Opportunities for Partnership section.

Current Partners

Founding Partners

Council for Geoscience (South Africa)
The Pennsylvania State University
University of the Witwatersrand

Sponsoring Partners

Industry

African Rainbow Minerals
Anglo American
AngloGold Ashanti
Anglo Platinum
BHP Billiton
British Petroleum
De Beers
Chevron
ExxonMobil
Great Northern
Halliburton
Integrated Seismic Systems International, Ltd. (ISSI)
London Bullion Market Association
Marathon Oil
Maseno Seismological Laboratory Centre (Kenya)
Mineral Education Trust Fund ( South Africa)
Schlumberger
Shell
The Society of Exploration Geophysicists Foundation (SEG)
Sonangol
Rio Tinto
Total, and The Total Professors Association

Government

Belgium Technical Cooperation Agency
Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (South Africa)
Department of Minerals and Energy (South Africa)
Department of Science and Technology (South Africa)
National Nuclear Security Administration, Department of Energy (US)
National Science Foundation (US)
National Research Foundation (South Africa)
Royal Museum for Central Africa (Belgium)
SERVIR – Africa

Universities

International Institute for Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation (ITC), Enschede (Netherlands)
Jackson School of Geosciences, The University of Texas at Austin
The Pennsylvania State University
University of the Witwatersrand

Affiliated Partners

Academic Institutions in Africa

Addis Ababa University (Ethiopia)
Agostinho Neto University (Angola)
Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (Ghana)
Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (Nigeria)
National University of Science and Technology (Zimbabwe)
Obafemi Awolowo University (Nigeria)
University of Botswana (Botswana)
University of Yaounde (Cameroon)
University of Lubumbashi (DRC)
University of Nairobi (Kenya)
University of Antananarivo (Madagascar)
University of Namibia (Namibia)
University of Lagos (Nigeria)
University of Ibadan (Nigeria)
University of Cape Town (South Africa)
University of Dar es Salaam (Tanzania)
University of Zimbabwe (Zimbabwe)

Academic Institutions Outside of Africa

Arizona State University (USA)
Carnegie Institute, Washington (USA)
Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies (Ireland)
Geoforschungszentrum (Germany)
Incorporated Research Institute for Seismology (USA)
International Institute for Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation (ITC), Enschede (Netherlands)
Jackson School of Geosciences, The University of Texas at Austin (USA)
James Cook University (Australia)
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) (USA)
North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University (USA)
Royal Museum for Central Africa (Belgium)
State University of New York, Stony Brook (USA)
Uppsala University (Sweden)
University of Lisbon (Portugal)

Government Agencies in Africa

Centre de Recherche en Science Naturalles (CRSN) (Democratic Republic of Congo)
Centre for Geodesy and Geodynamics (CGG), National Space Research & Development Agency (Nigeria)
Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Division of Mining Technology (South Africa)
Geological Survey of Algeria
Geological Survey of Botswana
Geological Survey of Malawi
Geological Survey of Namibia
Geological Survey of Nigeria
Geological Survey of Rwanda
Geological Survey of Tanzania
Geological Survey and Mines, Uganda
Geological Survey of Zambia
Geological Survey of Zimbabwe
Institut de Recherches Geologiques et Minieres (IGRM) (Cameroon)
Institute of Scientific and Technological Research (IRST) (Rwanda)
Komati Basin water authority, Swaziland
National Centre of Documentation and Scientific Research (Comoros)
National Director of Geology – Maputo, Mozambique
National Research Institute of Astronomy and Geophysics (Egypt)
Petroleum Development Corporation (Tanzania)

Government Agencies Outside of Africa

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (USA)

Academic and Industry Societies

Geological Society of South Africa
International Association of Seismology and Physics of the Earth’s Interior (IASPEI)
South African Geophysical Association
Society for Exploration Geophysicists
Society of Petroleum Engineers

Opportunities for Partnership

Organizations in academia, government or industry are welcome to apply to become sponsoring partners or affiliated partners in AfricaArray.

The requirements for partnership are minimal: An institution must be interested in promoting the goals of AfricaArray and should have some link to the geosciences in Africa through training, research, exploration, production, or management of natural resources or the environment. Partner institutions also should be in a position to provide some level of support/benefit to AfricaArray.

Affiliated partners should be willing to sign the annexure to the Memorandum of Understanding provided on the link below. Sponsoring partners are encouraged to work with the co-Directors to negotiate a contract or grant agreement, or to provide a written statement of collaboration.

Memorandum of Understanding

The application process is short and uncomplicated. Interested organizations should:

Send a letter to the AfricaArray co-Directors (Profs. Andy Nyblade, aan2@psu.edu; Raymond Durrheim, Raymond.Durrheim@wits.ac.za) explaining the linkages between the institution and building capacity for Africa’s natural resource sector. The letter should also describe the role the institution can play in advancing the goals of AfricaArray.
Fill out and return the form to appoint an institutional representative to AfricaArray.
Download Form pdf)

Once membership has been approved by the executive officers, the annexure to the general MOU must be signed and returned.

For more information, please contact Profs.Raymond Durrheim and Andy Nyblade.

Prof. Andy Nyblade

Mailing address:
Department of Geosciences
Pennsylvania State University
University Park, PA 16802 U.S.A.

Telephone: (814) 863-8341
Fax: (814) 863-7823
Email: andy@geosc.psu.edu

Prof. Raymond Durrheim

Mailing address:
School of Geosciences
University of the Witwatersrand
Private Bag 3 Wits 2050
South Africa

Telephone: +27 11 717-6547
Fax: +27 11 717-6579
Email: Raymond.Durrheim @wits.ac.z a