The Federal Ministry of Education & Research in Germany put out a call for the German-African Innovation Incentive Award (GAIIA)2020 and has awarded six scientists from Africa (Ghana, Morocco, South Africa, Tunis and Uganda) and their German cooperation partners. The projects are funded with prize money of € 150 000, and work on the projects started on 1 June 2020.

Professor Jochen Petersen from the Department of Chemical Engineering is one of the GAIIA awardees, together with his partner Professor Friedrich from RWTH Aachen University. Their project VaReeWA is the development of a combined thermal pre-treatment and hydrometallurgical process route for Value Recovery from e-Waste through small-scale recyclers in Africa. 

With the award, the Federal Ministry of Education & Research honours outstanding researchers from Africa who, based on their research achievements, develop innovative solutions that are adapted to the needs of the African continent and improve people's living conditions. German-African partnerships are an essential success factor in this context. The innovative projects develop sustainable solutions in the fields of health care, sustainable use of resources, renewable energies and communication technologies for the inclusion of deaf people.