APPEAR

The AER-Phase II project set out to transform agroecology education and practice in Western Uganda by bridging academia, research, and farming communities. Through a participatory, multi-stakeholder approach, the project strengthened the MSc Agroecology programme at Mountains of the Moon University, enhanced action-oriented research, and empowered farmers as co-creators of knowledge.

APPEAR scholar Sona Balasanyan has published a new article in the international journal European Education. The paper examines how career centres in Armenian and Georgian universities, established within Bologna-inspired Europeanisation reforms, navigate complex governance structures inherited from the Soviet past.

Jessiecah Alunyu Apili commenced her PhD journey in January 2025 at the Institute of Development Research, BOKU University, Vienna. Her study spotlights the Governance of Natural Resources in a refugee hosting community in the Northwestern part of Uganda.

APPEAR scholar Iuliia Nosulia recently took part in the conference of the Austrian Society for Tropical Medicine, Parasitology and Migration Medicine Graz. She presented new molecular insights into the diversity of intestinal parasites in golden jackals from her PhD research in Armenia. Using DNA-based methods, this research provides the first confirmed records of several parasite species of veterinary and public health relevance, highlighting the importance of One Health surveillance at the wildlife–domestic animal–human interface.

Yekunoamlak Alemu is an OeAD alumnus, a senior staff member at Addis Ababa University, and a visiting scholar at the University of Klagenfurt. He was successful in the latest APPEAR Call and, since March 2025, has been implementing the project "Capacity Development of Trainers on Greening TVET in the Polytechnic Colleges of Ethiopia".

Sinara Navoyan recently completed her doctoral studies at the University of Vienna. Her research explores how international labour migration reshapes everyday life, gender roles, and power relations within rural Armenian households. Based on ethnographic fieldwork the study examines how khopan—seasonal circular migration from rural Armenia to Russia—sustains local livelihoods while transforming social and economic responsibilities among those who stay put, who are mostly women.