Dr Ricardo Soares de Oliveira, with Nikia Clarke, Harry Verhoeven, and Marian Urbina of OUCAN, award

Dr Ricardo Soares de Oliveira, in conjunction with Nikia Clarke, Harry Verhoeven, and Marian Urbina, has been awarded an ESRC Knowledge Exchange Small Grant for the Oxford University China-Africa Network (OUCAN) Global Connect Project on Chinese Investment and African Agency. The project will run from 1 July 2010 to 30 June 2011.

The Oxford University China-Africa Network (OUCAN) is a student-driven organisation that seeks to forge cross-disciplinary and trans-regional links between researchers, practitioners, and officials around the emerging phenomenon of Chinese engagement with the African continent. Past events have included a highly successful workshop on new research horizons held in Spring 2009, a regular seminar series that provides a forum for a variety of interdisciplinary issues, and a post-graduate study group for those engaged in China-Africa dissertation research. OUCAN works in tandem with a number of academic institutions and regional research organisations to ensure the cross-pollination of ideas that is essential to substantive work on emerging China-Africa relations.

OUCAN`s Global Connect Project is comprised of three initiatives: the establishment of a virtual community where members from all over the world can engage with each other and with new research on salient China-Africa issues; a two-day interactive workshop that brings together policy makers, researchers, and members of the business community, labour organizations, and donor agencies from China, Europe, and several African countries to participate in a variety of panel discussions and impact sessions; and the provision of workshop podcasts and impact reports for the use of workshop attendees upon return to their own organisations as well as for the purpose of dissemination to a number of other academic and non-academic organisations.

This three-tiered project offers a number of opportunities for essential knowledge transfer between the academic, policy, and industry sectors in the coming year. However, its greatest strength lies in the creation and maintenance of tools and relationships that will continue to facilitate knowledge transfer for the foreseeable future.

Nikia Clarke (http://oxford.academia.edu/NikiaClarke) and Harry Verhoeven (http://oxford.academia.edu/HarryVerhoeven) are DPhil Candidates in Politics. Marian Urbina is a DPhil Candidate in Social Policy.