GOAL AND VISION

The LAFMAAL FOUNDATION is committed to creating equal opportunities in higher education across the continent. Having started our work in West Africa we have been supporting young STEM female scientists in African universities and colleges since 2018. The scientists are part of the LAFMAAL programme up to the point of obtaining a doctorate. As the beneficiaries of the programme, the foundation offers the young scientists networking opportunities with international universities and companies across Africa and with Germany. Additionally, the foundation promotes social commitment of the young scientists. Over the next few years, we will continue to use our strategy and growing network to ensure that young women can make meaningful contributions to research, science, business and society through their outstanding research results and thereby positively influencing the development of the entire African continent.

Our passion:
“To refine a rough diamond into an excellent diamond”
Dr.-Ing. Michel A. Aliman

STRUCTURE

The LAFMAAL FOUNDATION cooperates with African and, currently, with German universities. An agreement of a joint partnership was signed between:

• the polytechnic doctoral college of the INP-HB (Institut National Polytechnique Félix Houphouët-Boigny) / Côte d’Ivoire, and
• the University of Wuppertal (BUW) / Germany
• as well as with the University of Aalen / Germany

Furthermore,

• the University of Stuttgart / Germany

participates within the framework of an industrial partnership of the company Festo (Germany) with LAFMAAL.

The INP-HB Center of Excellence, recognized by the World Bank and the West African Union, is a strategic partner university of our foundation in Africa. At this center, as well as in colleges or universities in other African countries, female doctoral students are selected by a respective selection committee. A characteristic feature of INP-HB is that it has a doctoral school, where doctoral students from more than 15 nations complete their doctorates. Scientific seminars and workshops take place regularly in cooperation with our foundation.

In 2018, the Bergische Universität Wuppertal was the first German university to sign a cooperation agreement with INP-HB.

Network initiator Dr.-Ing. Michel A. Aliman is a former dean and university lecturer at INP-HB, as well as a former visiting professor at the Bergische Universität Wuppertal. Currently he is Principal Scientist at ZEISS.