Collaborations

IFBT offers outstanding educational and research opportunities for basic and advanced studies in the fields of Food Science and Technology, Nutrition and Dietetics, and Coffee Technology. The Institute has successfully promoted the culture of research and innovation among the staff and students. Recently, some academic staff and graduate students have won research grants from the National Research Fund and CoimbriaFellowship, among other funding agencies. The Institute, through the University, has also established international collaboration with the Technical University of Applied Science (TUAS), Germany, on Coffee Technology research. The Institute has also established collaboration with National Tsing Hua University (NTHU) in Taiwan for staff and student exchange activities in the field of Food Toxicology. The Institute has also hosted several exchange international students from Germany, Scotland, Britain, and other countries. This has greatly helped the students to interact and share ideas to promote education, culture, and networking.

Other collaborations within the institute led by some of our staff members include the following:

• ‘Right Coffee: Development of sustainable, inclusive, and innovative coffee value chain’ project. In collaboration with CELIM and funded by ASCI – Italian Development Agency.
• DAAD Regional/In-country scholarship for MSc Food Science and Technology programme at DeKUT.
• ‘Strengthening the technological and agro-enterprise capacity of small-holder coffee farmers of Kenya on coffee cascara residues value addition opportunities for sustainable income and livelihood’ project. Funded by GIZ- Coffee Innovation Fund.
• ‘ARABIKA: Action to Relaunch Agriculture and Branding Internationalization of Kenyan Coffee, in and out of Africa’ project. In collaboration with CEFA and funded by ASCI – Italian Development Agency.
• ‘Social and behaviour change communication strategies to enhance maternal and child nutrition in informal settlements in Nyeri County of Kenya: a feasibility study’ project in collaboration with Agha Khan and Oxford University.
• ‘Exploring community-based approaches for improving lactation and optimizing the nutritional status of lactating women and their infants in informal settlements in Kenya’ project. In collaboration with the Family Larsson-Rosenquist Foundation, the International Society for Research in Human Milk and Lactation, and Jimma University, Ethiopia.
• ‘Integrated chia and Oyster mushroom system for Sustainable food value chain in Africa’ project. It is funded by the Food Systems and Climate (FOSC) ERA-NET Cofund, Federal Office for Agriculture and Food (BLE), Germany. The consortium comprises partners from Kenya, Egypt, Morocco, Algeria, Hungary and Germany.

The University, through the Institute, has collaborated with several stakeholders to support her training initiatives. For instance, Just Fair Organization, in collaboration with Othaya Coffee Cooperative Society (Nyeri), has sponsored several students in the Certificate in Coffee Technology and Quality Management programme. The Institute has also played an active role in Nyeri County through participation in the Coffee Sub-sector Task Force and the Agricultural sector Development Support Program. The Institute also offers consultancy and short courses to coffee farmers within Nyeri County. DeKUT has a fully equipped modern coffee cupping laboratory developed through collaboration with the African Wildlife Foundation and Starbucks Ltd, a leading organization in specialty coffee. The Institute has two qualified cuppers who offer advisory services to farmers on coffee quality.