The Swedish Embassy in Cambodia signed a memorandum of understanding with the Royal University of Phnom Penh (RUPP) to fund a high-quality training and research institute on Wednesday 16th January 2019.
This fund provides $10 million for a four-year pilot phase. This agreement aims to strengthen RUPP’s information and communications technology (ICT) foundation and to support scientific research and postgraduate training at the Faculty of Science and Engineering.
Funding a high-quality research and training is very necessary for Cambodia’s development as Anna Maria Oltorp, head of the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency’s (Sida) said:
“Scientific research is one of the cornerstones for sustainable development and as Cambodia aims to become a middle-income country, there is an urgent need to strengthen research capacity and create a funding system for research in-country. We see this pilot phase as the start of long-term cooperation that will support building research capacity in a number of scientific areas with relevance for the country’s development.”
She added more that, “Sida will invest in research equipment and reliable ICT resources for the university, while PhD students will be trained in cooperation with Swedish partners”
Why RUPP?
Established for four decades since 1960, RUPP has been the oldest and largest public university in Cambodia. There are five faculties and 20,000 students enrolled across a diverse range of undergraduate and postgraduate programmes.
According to Embassy of Sweden in Phnom Penh’s Facebook, Sweden had cooperated with RUPP for over 10 years, supporting training and research in Chemistry, Physics and Mathematics, and that the upcoming pilot research cooperation programme expands it to the entire Faculty of Sciences and the Engineering.
RUPP and Sida agree that the fund would make RUPP a national flagship university in teaching, research and community services.
According to Dr. Chet Chealy, Rector of RUPP “Our goal is to make RUPP a national flagship university in teaching, research and community services. We are very happy with the support of Sweden to improve ICT systems and build research capacity in the areas of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics”
