The UO’s Gabon-Oregon Center on March 22-24 co-hosted, with the Gabonese Minister of Higher Education, a conference in Libreville, Gabon entitled “The Restructuring of Scientific Research and New Partnerships”. This conference, which was opened by the Gabonese Prime Minister, was attended throughout by the Minister of Higher Education, the Director of the Eugene Branch of the Gabon-Oregon Center, Ambassador Eric Benjaminson, and the Director of the Libreville Branch of the GOC, Mr. Francis Bivigou.

A presentation on scientific partnerships was also given by ichthyologist Dr. Brian Sidlauskas from Oregon State University, who is the recipient of a GOC Seed Grant for a partnership on freshwater fisheries research in Gabon. The Conference opened with a description of the challenges facing Gabonese researchers and the promise of new international partnerships like that of the Gabon-Oregon Center, and then broke into individual workshops on various subjects under this broad theme. The workshop groups reported back to the plenary with numerous concrete suggestions for reorienting funding for Gabonese research and for building international collaborations.

TV program 7 Politiques interviewed extensively GOC leaders Francis Bivigou and Eric Benjaminson. Both discussed the many reasons to support scientific research in Gabon and Africa. (Original audio in French).