MRP Training.

Ms. Juliette Biao Koudenoukpo, UN Environment Director and Regional Representative for Africa is a national of Benin. Ms. Koudenoukpo has a wealth of experience in international development assistance and 27 years of experience in environmental projects and programmes management. She has worked with a wide range of international organizations, including UNDP and IUCN, Stockholm Environment Institute, World Resource Institute, Nature Conservancy, and leading international institutions working in the area of environment, addressing sustainable development and poverty reduction. She has been involved in multi-country project design, development, management and resource mobilization in numerous countries within Western, Southern, Eastern, and Central Africa. From 2007 to 2008 she held the position of Minister of Environment and Nature Protection for the Benin government. She also used to be Acting Minister of Family and the Child. Before joining UN Environment in September 2015, Ms. Koudenoukpo, was with Canadian Crossroads International (CCI) where she was the Director of Programmes, and with Canadian Center for International Studies and Cooperation where she was the Regional Director for Africa.

Ms. Koudenoukpo holds a MSc. degree in Forestry Economics, a PhD. degree in Public Policy and Administration, and an expert diploma in Renewable Energy.

Dr Peter Sheard is the co-owner and founder of Trend 2000 Ltd. He has a first degree in Economics and Materials Technology and a PhD in Corrosion of Polymer Composites. Peter has published over 40 articles in journals, conferences, seminars and books. Since 1988 Peter has initiated and managed over 50 multi-national development consortia within various national and international initiatives concerning the selection, design and processing of polymeric composite materials and construction industry applications. Peter has been regularly assisting universities and SMEs across Europe with innovation planning and training/mentoring for the development of proposals under the European Commission Framework Programmes and Structural Funds across a wide range of technical and scientific disciplines. During the last 15 years Peter has developed and delivered in excess of 150 training events to universities, RTO’s and enterprises across the EU and Associated Countries. Peter has been instrumental in providing focused training on preparing for and writing applications for H2020 funding across all subject areas including Engineering, Life Sciences and Social Sciences. He has developed and delivered specialist training programmes for preparation of project budgets, effective administration and management, development of leadership skills, motivation and communication techniques. He works with a wide range of international universities to assist with training and mentoring proposal writers as well as undertaking pre-evaluations of proposals to improve their quality prior to submission.

He has also spun out and operated several manufacturing SMEs set up to exploit the results of international research. Peter is regularly contracted by funding agencies to work as an evaluator in the H2020, Eurostars, Czech and Danish National programmes. He also acts as a Reviewer of funded projects. He has completed assignments within the SME programme and is also retained as the Project Technical Advisor on 10 projects within the Nano Materials, Factories of the Future and Energy Efficient Buildings programmes.

Adedoyin Adeleke, PhD is the Founder-cum- Executive Director of the Green Growth Africa (formerly, International Support Network for African Development, ISNAD-Africa) in Ibadan, Nigeria and Research Fellow within the UNESCO Chair in Energy for Sustainable Development at the Department of Energy, Politecnico di Milano, Milan, Italy. Adeleke holds a PhD in Energy and Nuclear Science and Technology from the Politecnico di Milano with a focus on energy access for sustainable development in developing countries. Among other initiatives for green growth, Adedoyin initiated the Mentoring for Research Programme through which Dr. Adeleke and his team has established technical and thematic mentoring relationships between 160 experts on diverse green growth disciplines from 40 countries and 173 graduate students in 57 Universities across 26 African countries. Adedoyin also initiated the Environmental Education Programme which has empowered more than 3,200 secondary (high) school students on creativity and leadership for the environment. The initiative has resulted in the development of diverse youth-led innovative environmental solutions including technologies in five (5) African countries. Africa4Nature Health Initiative and EcoKnowledge Derivatives implemented as policy advocacy programmes initiated and led by Dr. Adeleke has reached more than 6.2 million people across Africa with more than 40 newspaper publications from reputable media organisations within and outside Africa. Adedoyin has recently developed Africa’s first digital networking and convergence platform to facilitate evidence-based policymaking for open, participatory and inclusive governance for greener Africa – Green Growth DigiHub, among other initiatives for green growth. As a researcher, Adedoyin employs system thinking to develop frameworks that integrate the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for policy coherence and simultaneous achievement of the goals with a focus on the context of emerging economies with diverse scientific publications to his credit.

Adedoyin Adeleke, PhD is the Founder-cum- Executive Director of the Green Growth Africa (formerly, International Support Network for African Development, ISNAD-Africa) in Ibadan, Nigeria and Research Fellow within the UNESCO Chair in Energy for Sustainable Development at the Department of Energy, Politecnico di Milano, Milan, Italy. Adeleke holds a PhD in Energy and Nuclear Science and Technology from the Politecnico di Milano with a focus on energy access for sustainable development in developing countries. Among other initiatives for green growth, Adedoyin initiated the Mentoring for Research Programme through which Dr. Adeleke and his team has established technical and thematic mentoring relationships between 160 experts on diverse green growth disciplines from 40 countries and 173 graduate students in 57 Universities across 26 African countries. Adedoyin also initiated the Environmental Education Programme which has empowered more than 3,200 secondary (high) school students on creativity and leadership for the environment. The initiative has resulted in the development of diverse youth-led innovative environmental solutions including technologies in five (5) African countries. Africa4Nature Health Initiative and EcoKnowledge Derivatives implemented as policy advocacy programmes initiated and led by Dr. Adeleke has reached more than 6.2 million people across Africa with more than 40 newspaper publications from reputable media organisations within and outside Africa. Adedoyin has recently developed Africa’s first digital networking and convergence platform to facilitate evidence-based policymaking for open, participatory and inclusive governance for greener Africa – Green Growth DigiHub, among other initiatives for green growth. As a researcher, Adedoyin employs system thinking to develop frameworks that integrate the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for policy coherence and simultaneous achievement of the goals with a focus on the context of emerging economies with diverse scientific publications to his credit.

Oluwadamilola Pikuda is currently pursuing her PhD in Chemical Engineering (with specialization in Green Nanotechnology), at the Biocolloids and Surfaces Laboratory, Department of Chemical Engineering, McGill University, Canada.

She obtained her Bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering from Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria and a Master’s degree in Chemical Engineering, at the Institute Center for Water and Environment (iWater), Masdar Institute of Science and Technology, UAE, where she worked on Semi-Conductor Thin Films for Solar Light Activated Glass.

She is a past recipient of several prestigious scholarships such as Carnegie Female Merit Award, USA (2009-2012), Federal Government Undergraduate Scholarship, Nigeria (2009-2012), Masdar Institute Scholarship, UAE (2015-2016), and currently McGill Engineering Doctoral Award, Canada (2017 – date).

Oluwadamilola’s research interests are photocatalysis, material science, sustainable environment and nanotechnology. Her present research is aimed at developing materials for cleaner and more sustainable environment through instant water filtration system to make portable water more accessible especially in sub-saharan Africa. She has presented her research work at different conferences across the globe, and published several peer-reviewed publications.

Oluwadamilola is also an active member of Nigeria Future Energy Group (NiFEG) which is a non-profit oriented organisation with a focus on providing expertise in the applied energy field. NiFEG promotes sustainability whilst proffering solutions to localized energy problems. Among the successful projects of the group is powering the Kanji and Wolfson lecture halls in Ahmadu Bello University,Nigeria using solar PV panels, as well as providing training sessions on PV panel installation to the university students.