Impacts

With the support of ARES, the University of Burundi took on a major challenge: creating the country’s first multidisciplinary doctoral school, combining the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, and life sciences. This ambitious project, launched in 2017, aimed to meet the urgent need for high-level research that is locally rooted and globally connected.

In just a few years, the doctoral school has become a true engine of academic transformation. Thanks to complementary ARES projects—Institutional Support, PFS, and others—26 PhD candidates received structured support in Belgium, with an exceptional return rate of nearly 80%. This momentum was further strengthened by strategic synergy with other actors, notably VLIR-UOS, expanding the impact at the regional level.

Five years after its creation, the school welcomed 250 doctoral students from Burundi, the DRC, Ghana, Chad, and Belgium. Over 200 international supervisors, from 60 universities and laboratories across five continents, actively contributed to their training. The result of these collaborations? Over 90 scientific publications, 15 defended theses, and 60 more in progress.

Today, the Doctoral School of the University of Burundi is a driving force for doctoral education in East Africa and a recognized academic player at both regional and international levels.

In Vietnam, a project led by Professor Marc Muller (ULiège), in partnership with the Vietnam National University (VNU-BIOL), UMONS, UNamur, and several Belgian experts, revealed the therapeutic potential of medicinal plants used for centuries in traditional medicine. The country is home to over 12,000 plant species, nearly 4,000 of which are used for medicinal purposes—a rich heritage still largely underutilized.

Working closely with traditional healers and Vietnamese researchers, the team identified promising new species, standardized extraction methods, scientifically validated the properties of certain plants (anti-inflammatory, anticancer, antifungal), and developed a dedicated database for their sustainable medical and commercial use.
 

Tangible Outcomes on Multiple Levels

• Scientific: 12 international publications, validation of the effectiveness of numerous plants, standardization of extraction processes.
• Social: Strengthened dialogue between science and traditional medicine, responsiveness to local community needs, involvement of traditional practitioners.
• Economic: Initial opportunities for commercial valorization, support for the emergence of a local phytotherapy sector, and the launch of a full value chain study (2024–2029).

Three Vietnamese PhD candidates also defended their theses in co-supervision with Belgian universities, strengthening local expertise in this strategic field for health and innovation.

Although the project concluded in 2022, a new phase began in 2024, focusing on exploring economic opportunities and building a sustainable sector around medicinal plants—fully aligned with Sustainable Development Goal 3 (Good Health and Well-being).

LEARN MORE: Read the article (fr) on MOOVE.

In Madagascar, two research projects on sea cucumbers led to the creation of an innovative start-up, Indian Ocean Trepang (IOT), which transforms scientific discoveries into sustainable economic opportunities. IOT now works with five villages and 180 fishing families, providing additional income to around 600 people, most of which is invested in children’s education. By adding value to a highly sought-after marine resource in China, the project also helps restore women’s central role in the local economy.

Another major success: Gildas Todinanahary, a PhD student involved in the project, is now Director of the Toliara Fisheries Institute—a testament to how research can also shape local development leaders.

LEARN MORE: Read the article (fr) on MOOVE.

In Figuig, eastern Morocco, a project led by ULB, Mohammed I University, and several Moroccan and Belgian partners is transforming date palm waste into compost enriched with mycorrhizae. This innovative process helps restore degraded soils, combat palm tree diseases, and provide sustainable solutions to drought, which is worsening due to climate change.

The project brings together a wide range of stakeholders—researchers, local authorities, businesses, associations, women, and youth—around a shared goal: strengthening the resilience of oases through a circular and sustainable agricultural sector.
 

Multiple Impacts

• Scientific: Development of innovative compost, control of date palm pathogens, and response to desertification challenges.
  Social: Job creation for youth and women, reduction of internal migration, local anchoring of skills, and training of a new generation of engaged researchers.
  Economic: Revitalization of the date palm sector, a key economic pillar for over 1.4 million people in oasis regions, representing up to 60% of their income.

This integrated model, combining agronomic innovation, social inclusion, and ecological transition, is now being rolled out in other regions and could help structure a strategic green sector at the national level.

LEARN MORE: Discover more about the project.

Research projects conducted in Madagascar and Burkina Faso have shed light on the ethical challenges related to the use of traditional medicine in the discovery of new drugs. In close collaboration with local communities and academic institutions, these initiatives explored the ethical, cultural, and scientific dimensions of using biological resources and indigenous knowledge.

This approach aligns with the World Health Organization’s recommendations, which have encouraged the integration of traditional medicine into health systems since 1978. However, field experience revealed a more complex reality.

The projects highlighted practices of appropriation, often led by Western companies, that marginalize original knowledge holders, reproduce economic inequalities, and reinforce a hierarchy between scientific and traditional knowledge systems.

Beyond biopiracy, the one-way integration of traditional medicine into the biomedical model leads to epistemic injustices, by delegitimizing culturally rooted healthcare systems.

Concrete Impact: Rethinking Research Practices

These projects led to:

1. Promoting equitable partnerships with communities, including formal recognition and benefit-sharing;
2. Challenging existing integration approaches, by valuing the coexistence of knowledge systems on equal footing;
3. Adopting a reflective and critical stance to avoid extractive logics still present in some research frameworks.

By offering a critical lens on power dynamics between scientific and traditional knowledge, these projects have helped foster fairer, more collaborative research that respects the diversity of knowledge systems.