TWINNING between Institutions in developed and less developed countries: an ideal way to set-up an astrophysics program

Abstract

It is very difficult to start from scratch a new Astrophysics program in a country with very little or no researchers in the field. In 2007, we began to set-up an Astrophysics program by TWINNING the Université de Ouagadougou with the Université de Montréal in Canada, the Université de Provence in France and the University of Cape Town in South Africa. Already, courses are given at the undergraduate and Master levels and a teaching Observatory has been built. A 1m research telescope was also moved from the La Silla Observatory in Chile to Burkina Faso and the infrastructure is being built at the moment on mount Djaogari in the north-eastern part of the country. In the meantime, 6 students are doing their PhD in Astrophysics overseas (Canada, France and South Africa) and will become the core of the research group at the Université de Ouagadougou. An engineer is also doing his PhD in Astronomical Instrumentation to help with the maintenance of the equipment on the Research Telescope.