Nigerian public university providing African field research access in sickle cell disease and sustainable agriculture for EU consortia.
Lagos State University Ojo (LASU) is a public university in Lagos, Nigeria, contributing African research expertise and local field capacity to international EU-funded research consortia. In H2020, LASU has operated exclusively as a third-party partner in MSCA-RISE staff exchange programs — meaning the university hosts visiting European researchers and sends its own researchers to partner institutions, rather than leading or managing projects directly. Their documented research contributions span two distinct domains: clinical and epidemiological research on sickle cell disease in African populations, and applied agricultural science using remote sensing and spectrophotometric methods. As a Nigerian institution, LASU provides European research teams with on-the-ground access to African patient cohorts, field data, and local scientific networks that would otherwise be difficult to reach.
ARISE (2019–2024) specifically targets sickle cell disease education and research capacity, with LASU contributing to stroke prevention, nephropathy, and population genetics work in African cohorts.
SUSTAINABLE (2021–2025) involves LASU in work related to sustainable agriculture, spectrophotometry-based analysis, and techno-economic modelling for agricultural applications.
SUSTAINABLE lists remote sensing as a core keyword, suggesting LASU researchers contribute satellite or sensor-based data collection and analysis relevant to agricultural or land-use contexts.
Both ARISE and SUSTAINABLE rely on MSCA-RISE exchange mechanisms where LASU's primary value is providing African institutional access, local cohorts, and field infrastructure to European-led consortia.
LASU's earliest H2020 engagement (2019) was firmly in the health and medical sciences — specifically sickle cell disease, a condition with disproportionately high prevalence in sub-Saharan Africa, and related topics like stroke prevention and nephropathy. By 2021, their second project shifted to an entirely different domain: sustainable agriculture, remote sensing, and spectrophotometry, with no thematic overlap with the earlier health focus. This suggests LASU is not a narrowly specialized institution but a broad university where different faculties independently pursue international collaborations — the sickle cell work likely coming from a medical or public health department, while the agricultural work reflects a separate engineering or natural sciences faculty.
LASU appears to be broadening its international research footprint beyond health sciences into applied environmental and agricultural technologies, suggesting future collaboration opportunities in precision agriculture or food security for African contexts.
LASU has never coordinated or formally led an H2020 project — both participations are as a third party, the most peripheral formal role available in EU projects. Despite this, they have connected with 36 unique partners across 18 countries, which is entirely a function of the large MSCA-RISE consortia they joined rather than a reflection of active hub-building by LASU itself. Working with LASU likely means engaging through a staff exchange arrangement: sending a researcher to Lagos or hosting a LASU researcher in Europe, rather than expecting project management or deliverable ownership.
LASU has touched 36 consortium partners across 18 countries through just two projects, reflecting the wide geographic spread typical of MSCA-RISE global exchange programs. Their network skews toward European academic institutions who sought African partners for field access and research capacity, rather than LASU actively recruiting partners.
LASU's core value proposition to European research consortia is access: access to Nigerian and West African patient populations (critically important for sickle cell research, which is near-impossible to conduct at scale in Europe), access to local agricultural field conditions, and access to early-career African researchers via MSCA exchange mechanisms. As one of Nigeria's largest public universities with a Lagos location, LASU offers institutional credibility and urban research infrastructure in a market of 220 million people. For consortia seeking to satisfy the "international dimension" requirement of MSCA-RISE, LASU is a proven and legitimate Nigerian partner.
