Mike Dolan, a Research Fellow at the Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering, will undertake the gruelling journey in January to raise funds for The Gambia Solar Energy Project - an initiative that provides sustainable electricity to schools and communities.

The trip will see him travel up to 350 miles a day on his BMW R1200GSA, a bike similar to the one made famous by Ewan MacGregor on his televised Long Way Round adventure. He will travel through Europe before he hits the difficult conditions of West Africa while making his way to Sambel Kunda in The Gambia.

The Gambia Solar Energy Project team has already installed solar panels in five schools, and in a health clinic, enabling life-saving medicines and vaccines to be stored safely. It has also brought electricity to a clinic that cares for horses and donkeys - working animals that play a critical role in farming for the rural community.

Mike said: "Being able to help communities to generate their own electricity is a fantastic feeling, and the impact it has on people's day to day lives is tremendous. The schools we've worked with had very large class sizes, but with light they're able to teach in the evenings and stagger classes throughout the day. Electricity in the health clinic has also brought an end to the need to carry out emergency procedures by torch or candlelight.

"The funds we raise through the Mike’s Bike ride will help us continue this work with further solar panel installations. We also aim to develop a maintenance course, in collaboration with the Gambian Technical Training Institute, to support the communities in looking after the panels in the longer term and create jobs. The support we’ve received in The Gambia has been overwhelming, and it's hoped the Sambel Kunda project could become a blueprint for investment in solar panels in other rural areas."

Mike is being supported in his journey by colleagues and students at the University, as well as school pupils from Fintry Primary School, Stirling, where his wife Anna is the deputised headteacher. The Project was initially set up when the pupils asked the University to help bring electricity to their twin school in Sambel Kunda.

The children have played a key role in plotting Mike's route and setting up a blog for him to record details of his trip, as well as writing to their pen-friends at their twin school in Sambel Kunda.

Mike added: "The Project runs on modest funds but it has a huge impact. The Gambia’s Director of Energy said 'energy is life' - and that's really stuck with me. Electricity has an obvious impact on education and health, but also in terms of the life of the community. One area has a television so that the local children can watch educational material and it brings people together to watch films in the evenings. And in another, an entrepreneurial school is charging up mobile phones for a small fee - cash which is then ploughed back into the community.

"Equally, the Project has a huge impact on our students here in Strathclyde. They learn to think about resources and engineering in a completely different way. The experience of helping to develop sustainable power sources in The Gambia is something that stays with them forever."

In sub-Saharan Africa, it is estimated that more than half a billion people rely on fuelwood for energy, many of whom are exposed to the daily inhalation of carbon monoxide from indoor biomass pollution. Only 2% of The Gambia's total energy consumption is supplied in the form of electricity, while 80% relies on firewood.

Harnessing solar energy from the sun presents a more affordable and sustainable alternative to rural grid electrification. A decentralized, community based approach to the supply and use of this energy offers villages across the remote, rural floodplains a real opportunity to improve their own socio-economic welfare, and go some way to achieving wider development goals.

Supporters of Mike's Bike include the University's Department of Electronic & Electrical Engineering, the Faculty of Engineering, the Institute for Energy and Environment, and Motorrad Central.

Mike sets off on his bike on 8 January 2010. For more information or to support the project, please visit: www.strath.ac.uk/give2gambia