The Rector of the University of Kinshasa (UNIKIN), Prof. Dr. JM Kayembe, received this Monday, March 20, 2023, a delegation from Karolinska Institutet (KI), a medical university based in Stockholm, Sweden, accompanied by the team from the UNIKIN School of Public Health (ESP).

Karolinska Institutet is one of the most important medical research centers and university clusters in Europe. It awards the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine every year. It combines a university and a university training hospital. It organizes several specialized training programs and doctoral projects conducted in English. The collaboration between ESP and KI began in 2020, within the framework of the SDGCap project “Developing capacity for successful multisectoral and innovative work to strengthen the 2030 Agenda and sustainable health in fragile settings”.

The current visit is part of a logic of strengthening collaboration between the two academic institutions, UNIKIN and KI in order to highlight and support UNIKIN in its role and its active participation as Leader of the academic sector in the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the DRC. The Rector of the University of Kinshasa (UNIKIN), Prof. Dr. JM Kayembe, noted on this occasion the multidisciplinarity in human resources and organized training that UNIKIN boasts as a strength that could help it better play this role.

Subsequently, the Swedish team worked in a workshop with a team of UNIKIN professors. These exchanges and discussions aimed to reflect on mechanisms of the establishment of a Center of Excellence for Sustainable Development and capacity building in human resources (100 PhDs) over a period of 10 years with the collaboration of KI. During these meetings, the Secretary General for Research of UNIKIN, Professor Dr. Tshimpi, who chaired the workshop, emphasized the effort in Innovation and Research that UNIKIN has already undertaken and wishes to continue through the results of this Swedish collaboration.