The KNUST Central laboratory is a shared research facility that brings state-of-the-art equipment to the doorsteps of scientists of varied background. It includes the main Central laboratory, a Green House, and three satellite laboratories at the Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, School of Medical Sciences, and Faculty of Agriculture.
The laboratory’s expertise and support are available to universities, government and other research organizations. Beyond making available state-of-the-art equipment, user-friendly facilities and services, the laboratory enables education, method development, and new application developments designed to meet your rapidly evolving needs.
We share one passion – improving people’s lives – through our research, finding solutions to the many challenges plaguing our people. Our vow is to provide you quality and consistency that will help you carry out cutting-edge research.
Brief History
In line with positioning KNUST as a premier centre of excellence in Africa for teaching and research in science and technology for development,University Management initiated the process for the establishment of a shared laboratory facility for use in both basic and applied sciences.
Prior to this, the University had instituted a comprehensive action plan to retool its teaching and research laboratories to meet international standards. This begun in 2004/05 academic year with the Late Professor Kwesi Akwansah Andam who retooled the teaching laboratories at the Department of Telecommunication Engineering at the cost of €2 million. In 2006, Mechanical Engineering was next to receive similar support to a tune of €1 million.
After 2 years, the consensus was that at this rate, it may take at least 20 years to bring all the laboratories to acceptable standards. So the University in 2008 initiated a long-term budget plan with a German financial institution to refurbish all the laboratories in the College of Science. This was a €5 million project which was paid over three years, during the tenure of Professor Kwesi Kwarfo Adarkwa as Vice Chancellor.
Having bought into the Vice Chancellor’s vision, Dr. Kwaku Frimpong (CEO of Champion Divine Clinic, Ghana) partnered the University, in the construction of the main block of the Central Laboratory, which is named after his company. This is what we have today as the KNUST Central Laboratory situated in “Champion Divine Building” – a shared facility that allows for the common use of expensive and complex cutting-edge research instrumentation by our students and faculty as well as researchers at home and abroad