Portrait of a UK–Africa Capacity Building Initiative Consortium 2015–2022: the Cameroon, Ghana, South Africa and United Kingdom Materials Initiative (CaGSUMI) for developing materials for solar cells

The CaGSUMI consortium was funded by the Royal Society-Department for International Development (later the Foreign, Commonwealth and the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom. The project was used to cement an emergent UK-Africa network in the areas of materials chemistry related to renewable energy generation with both thin films and nanomaterials. The consortium's outputs led to numerous publications of African science in international journals, a number of graduated PhDs who went on to permanent academic positions and prestigious fellowships, the establishment of a capacity-building plan relevant to the chemistry departments in each of the African countries, and the installation of a number of first-in-kind pieces of kit for African laboratories that will keep them on a competitive footing at an international level for the next decade and more.