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Challenges and needs of African geoscience research

Nature Geoscience volume 18, pages 931–933 (2025)Cite this article

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A survey of geoscience researchers from across Africa highlights key challenges in conducting impactful research. Improved access to skills training can boost research success.

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Fig. 1: Rating of challenges to research success by survey respondents.
Fig. 2: Respondent rating of topics for potential training workshops.

Data availability

The raw survey data used for this article are provided in the following public data repository via Github at https://github.com/AmericanGeosciencesInstitute/UNESCO-Geo-Africa (ref. 10).

References

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by International Geoscience Programme (Project IGCP-766). We greatly acknowledge contributions of UNESCO and IUGS. We are grateful to the survey respondents who shared their perspectives and to the individuals and organizations that helped to distribute the survey.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geology and Geological Engineering, School of Earth Sciences and Engineering, Botswana International University of Science and Technology, Palapye, Botswana

    Asfawossen Asrat

  2. School of Earth Sciences, Addis Ababa University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

    Asfawossen Asrat

  3. American Geosciences Institute, Alexandria, VA, USA

    Christopher Keane

  4. ICTP-East African Institute for Fundamental Research, University of Rwanda, Kigali, Rwanda

    Catherine A. Meriaux

  5. UNESCO, Windhoek, Namibia

    Kombada Mhopjeni

  6. Independent researcher, Oakham, UK

    Edmund Nickless

  7. Research Ireland Centre for Applied Geosciences, Dublin, Ireland

    Maeve Boland

  8. Earth Sciences and Geoparks Section, UNESCO, Paris, France

    Ozlem Adiyaman Lopes

Authors
  1. Asfawossen Asrat
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  2. Christopher Keane
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  3. Catherine A. Meriaux
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  4. Kombada Mhopjeni
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  5. Edmund Nickless
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  6. Maeve Boland
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  7. Ozlem Adiyaman Lopes
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Asfawossen Asrat.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Nature Geoscience thanks Michelle North for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Asrat, A., Keane, C., A. Meriaux, C. et al. Challenges and needs of African geoscience research. Nat. Geosci. 18, 931–933 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-025-01808-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-025-01808-y

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