Lead City University Secures Grant for Climate Adaptation Resilience Project
Lead City University in Ibadan has been awarded a CA$325,876 grant as part of the Pioneering Climate Adaptation Resilience (CLARE) project, funded by the UK's Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office (UK-FCDO) and the International Development Research Centre (IDRC).
Chris Oyeoku Okafor 
Lead City University has been awarded a grant of CA$325,876 for the Pioneering Climate Adaptation Resilience (CLARE) project, part of a larger CA$5 million fund designated for 16 institutions across Africa. This funding, provided by the UK's Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office (UK-FCDO) and the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), supports climate resilience initiatives in Africa.
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The CLARE project, titled "A Pan-African and Trans-disciplinary Lens on the Margins: Tackling the Risks of Extreme Events (PALM-TREEs)," aims to enhance the global visibility and impact of Lead City University's faculty members. This initiative focuses on understanding climate risks and fostering inclusive adaptation policies through indigenous knowledge and social identity dynamics.
The project will span six countries—Nigeria, South Africa, Ghana, Cameroon, Kenya, and DR Congo—and involve 16 institutions across Africa and the UK. The University of Cape Town leads the consortium, with Prof. Abiodun Babatunde at the helm.
Key partners include the University of Cape Town, International Water Management Institute (IWMI), Lead City University, University of Lagos, University of Oxford, UK Met Office, University of Nairobi, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Nigerian Institute for Social and Economic Research (NISER), and University of Yaoundé.
The project will address several interconnected work packages, including the social impacts of climate extremes, physical impacts of extreme events, climate-resilient solutions, and capacity strengthening.
Prof. Grace Oloukoi, Dean of the Faculty of Environmental Design and Management at Lead City University, played a pivotal role in securing the grant and will serve as the focal lead for gender and social inclusion. She is collaborating with Prof. Mayowa Fasona from the University of Lagos and Prof. Andrew Onwuemele from NISER.
The PALM-TREEs project aims to understand the dimensions of climate risks affecting marginalized communities and develop inclusive adaptation policies that consider the unique challenges faced by vulnerable populations, including the homeless, elderly, children, women, immigrants, and the physically challenged. Additionally, the project supports early career scientists (ECS) with doctoral and postdoctoral research opportunities.
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The project began implementation recently and is set to run for 42 months, concluding in January 2027.
