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Sixth Call for Proposals of the RUFORUM Graduate Research Grants

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Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture (RUFORUM) announces the Sixth Call for Proposals of the RUFORUM Graduate Research Grants (GRG). Twenty six (26) projects will be selected for funding. The purpose of the Call is to support capacity building at graduate level and to link universities more closely with rural communities and with research, extension and development agencies. For further information please refer to the Competitive Grants Manual(http://repository.ruforum.org/documents/ruforum-competitive-grants-system-manual). The CGS Manual provides guidelines and other details on how to respond to Calls for proposals.
This is an open call for GRG participatory action research project proposals that are in line with the broad thematic area “Innovation for sustainable crop systems and/or livestock systems within value chains that improve smallholder incomes”. The proposals must show that they meet identified demand and research gaps within a selected value chain. Research that addresses key constraints within a commodity value chain will also be considered so long as the proposal clearly shows link to increasing agricultural productivity, nutrition, bio-fortification, postharvest handling and health of smallholder farming households. The lead applicant must be from a fully-paid up, eligible RUFORUM Member University. The funding for this Call excludes some of our members1. Universities not eligible for the award of grants are encouraged to participate by twinning with eligible member institutions.

TIME FRAME for Call ID RU/CGS/GRG/21/07/14

1. Deadline for Proposal submission to RUFORUM Secretariat by 12 February 2015
2. Compliance Review finalized and External Review returned by 15 April 2015
4. Secretariat to compile proposals for review by Technical Committee by 30th April, 2015
5. Technical Committee meeting to be held 4 – 5th May 2015
6. Results from the selection will be communicated to applicants by end of June 2015.

The following RUFORUM member universities are not eligible, because of funder restrictions to respond to this call: Africa University, Catholic University of Mozambique, Ndejje University, Universite’ Catholique de Bukavu, University of Gezira, Kordofan University, Uganda Christian University and Uganda Martyrs University.

THE RUFORUM GRADUATE RESEARCH GRANT (GRG) AWARD PROCESS SUMMARY OF GENERAL INFORMATION
For the preparation of submissions, all applicants should refer to the Competitive Grants System Manual (www.ruforum.org) and the Graduate Environmental and Agricultural Research guide (GEAR) http://repository.ruforum.org/documents/graduate-environmental-and-agricultural-research-gear-guide-effective-and-relevant

Calls for Proposals

Calls for proposals are posted on the RUFORUM website (www.ruforum.org) but are also sent via email to all the member universities. For the preparation of submissions all Applicants should refer to the Competitive Grants Manual and to GEAR
NON COMPLIANCE WITH THE GUIDELINES IN THE COMPETITIVE GRANTS MANUAL WILL LEAD TO DISQUALIFICATION.
Proposal submission
1. The grants are for up to a maximum of US$65,000 over 2 years with full funding for at least 2 M.Sc students in each project (and should include 4 undergraduate interns acting as their research assistants during one vacation). Pre-proposal (preparatory) grants are not funded.
2. The grants are to support mainly participatory action research and training of MSc students.
3. Each grant will have one Principal Investigator working in collaboration with other department/faculty/university members, partner institutions and the two graduate students who will form the core focus of the research.
4. The RUFORUM Technical Committee is responsible for selecting proposals and approving the grants after an external review process. Members of the Technical Committee are not eligible to apply as Principal Investigators but may participate as co-researchers/ supervisors. Technical Committee members will not participate in deliberations while proposals from their own institutions are being tabled.
5. Under the GRG, up to a maximum institutional administrative support fee of 5% is allowed.

Eligibility and Compliance:

  • The Principal Investigators (PI) must be Ph.D holders (or in exceptional cases, a full Professor without PhD) on full time employment in any one of the eligible RUFORUM member universities (see list attached to this Call).
  • Applicants may not participate if they have pending accounting of RUFORUM funds or projects. Applicants who do not currently hold a RUFORUM Grant may be considered on priority basis.
  • Proposals must be received by 12 February 2015 to be considered for the eligible/compliance check.
  •  All applications must be channelled through their respective University offices (usually the Deans or Principals). The Dean/ Principal is required to provide a signed covering letter (scanned copy) indicating that the proposals have undergone internal review and received approval within their respective institutions.
  • The research should as much as possible be participatory and demonstrate its relevance and/or response to demand. It must have a monitoring and evaluation component and a dissemination strategy for the results of the research. These must all be specific to the particular issues being researched by the MSc students. The research activities for each of the students must be separately and clearly specified.
  • There must be partnerships with at least one other institution (-including faculties and/or departments in your university, local, regional or international research institutes).
  • Partners may include private universities, government departments, local and international research centres, NGOs, community or farmer organisations, private sector, and development agencies or other relevant institutions. Letters from each partner, indicating their role, must be submitted.
  • Only proposals that comply with the budget limit and duration of the project and are achievable within the time limit will be considered.
  • The proposal should be no more than 10 pages (A4, 12-point Times New Roman, single spaced with 1 inch (2.54cm) margins on either side) and follow the proposal writing guidelines contained within the CGS Manual.

Proposal review process

Prior to submission, the Dean at respective Member University will be expected to ensure that proposals go through an internal university review. It is mandatory for the Dean to endorse submissions and upon receipt all applications will be subjected to a compliance review, and only proposals that pass the compliance check will be forwarded for external review, and Technical Committee selection.

The Internal Review

To help to ensure high quality of the proposals put forward for funding, each proposal must be internally reviewed by the submitting Department or Faculty, normally through faculty peer review teams. The university will be held to account for the quality of proposals being submitted including issues of IPR (see RUFORUM IPR policy at www.ruforum.org).

Compliance

Submitted proposals will be screened by the RUFORUM Secretariat to ensure that they adhere to the compliance criteria provided above and the guidelines in the CGS Manual. Non-compliant proposals will be rejected. Compliant proposals will be sent out by the Secretariat for external review.

The External Review Process

All proposals will be reviewed by at least two, and usually three external reviewers.
Criteria for external reviewers evaluating proposals:
1. Overall project design and quality, including write-up
2. Appropriateness/relevance and contribution to RUFORUM objectives
3. Participatory action research for development and/or link to enhancing agricultural productivity, health and nutrition
4. Graduate students research activities clearly defined
5. Feasibility: can the M.Sc students achieve this in the time available and is it of the expected standard for the level
6. Good conceptual framework and clearly defined hypotheses
7. Clear identification of achievable research issues, objectives and research methods
8. Evidence of a good understanding of the literature, rationale for the particular project and the theoretical basis for the research
9. Evidence of good understanding of the applicable research approach and methodology
10. Contribution to scientific knowledge and methods
11. Clear, simple, monitoring and evaluation incorporated in the project
12. Clearly outlined and achievable dissemination activities articulated
RUFORUM relies on the professional expertise, experience and judgment of the reviewers. The emphasis for the reviewers is on the technical soundness of the proposal and its contribution to RUFORUM’s goal of producing relevant, high quality graduate students.
Reviewers should be objectively critical while at the same time offering suggestions for improving the proposals, even for those being recommended for major revision or rejection. An important component of the process is the learning and feedback received by all who participate.
The reviewers will classify the proposals into:
A. Accept as presented
B. Accept with minor revisions
C. Accept with major revision
D. Reject
Criteria for selection and ranking by Technical Committee
1. Good external reviews
2. Clear articulation of problem/hypotheses and evidence of quality approach to research
3. Realistic timeline and budgets and achievable objectives (not over-ambitious)
4. Clearly defined role of the graduate students and relationship with client groups, supervisors and partners
5. Participatory, action oriented research for rural development will be prioritised and any pure science enquiry will require strong justification
6. Alignment with RUFORUM goals and core values

  • Proposals that are gender sensitive in their approach with recognition and steps to promote women or marginalised groups will receive some preference
  • Proposals that are inter-discliplinary will receive some preference as will relevance, potential for subsequent internships, promoting sustainability and/or scaling up, and bringing new dimensions (value addition).
  •  Response to demand by farmers/rural communities/governments/civil society
  • Partnership and the effective integration of partners in the process

7. Evidence of systems for internal monitoring and evaluation of the ongoing research
8. Clear Results Framework and accountability to RUFORUM on expenditures and results
9. Clearly outlined and achievable dissemination plan.

Grants awarded

Grant letters are prepared for each approved proposal and sent to the relevant Vice Chancellor, with a copy to the Dean and the Principal Investigator. The grant award letter specifies the amount of the grant, purpose and responsibility of the university in monitoring the use of the grant funds and reporting requirements. Funds are only disbursed after full commitment through signature by the respective University Senior Official. Grants awarded are published in the RUFORUM News and are posted in the RUFORUM website (www.ruforum.org).

Student mentorship

The RUFORUM Graduate Research Grants (GRG) are a capacity building effort designed to respond to the RUFORUM Theory of Change and Mission “to strengthen the capacities of universities to foster innovations responsive to demands of smallholder farmers through training of quality researchers, impact-oriented research and maintenance of collaborative working relations among researchers, farmers, national agricultural research institutions and governments”. The application should demonstrate capacity and commitment of the named co-investigators to mentor and supervise graduate students.

Proposal Submission

This Call will be sent to the Deans and Principals of respective Schools/Colleges at eligible Member Universities (and also to non-eligible universities for them to link with eligible universities). The Deans and Principals are requested to circulate to all lecturers in their Schools and Colleges. The Call will also be circulated through the RUFORUM website, other RUFORUM Partner websites such as AWARD & PAEPARD and through emails. All submissions will be made through an online application system. Details on the process of submission will be relayed to the respective Deans of Faculty at RUFORUM Member Universities by 12th January 2015 (that is one month prior to the deadline which is 12th February 2015)

Elias Tuhereze

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Special Exam Results -Diploma in Performing Arts 2025/26

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The results for the 2025/2026 special entry examination for the Diploma in Performing Arts held on Saturday 17th May, 2025. Candidates who scored a final mark of 50% and above passed the Examination and have been recommended to the university’s Admissions Committee for consideration.

Mak Editor

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Mature Age Scheme Exam Results for 2025/2026

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The Office of Academic Registrar, Makerere University has released full results for the Mature Age Entry Scheme Examinations for the Academic Year 2025/2026 held on Saturday 14th December, 2024.

The Candidates who scored a final mark of 50% and above passed the examination and have been recommended by the Pre-Entry & Mature Age Committee to the University’s Admissions Board for Consideration.

The Aptitude Exam  Results for 2025/2026 Academic Year released in February 2025 can be found here.

Mak Editor

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Directorate of Graduate Training Completes Training of First Cohort Training of Supervisors

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By Moses Lutaaya

The Directorate of Graduate Training (DGT) has in collaboration with Centre for Teaching and Learning completed the training of the first cohort of Graduate Supervisors.

Participants were academic staff from two colleges namely, College of Engineering, Art and Design (CEDAT) and the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences (CAES).

The three-day training that took place at the Telepresence Centre, Senate Building ended on Friday 20thJune 2025.

In his closing remarks to the participants, the Director of Graduate Training Prof. Julius Kikooma said, “This is the first cohort we are working together with the Center for Teaching and Learning to put together continuous professional development Program so that we are able to enforce the new teaching and learning policy.”

He said that before lecturers are allocated students for supervision, they must first go through this form of formal teaching and learning training to equip them thoroughly with certification required of supervision of graduate students.

“We are coming up with process to ensure that the certificates earned by participants allow you to supervise graduate students. This is the direction of the university and we must ensure that such trainings are concluded and completed successfully by all participants”, Prof. Kikooma.

Prof. Julius Kikooma – Director of Graduate Training

“We can only have you certified upon completing all the exercises in the training process. This is when you will be eligible to receive the work load for supervision”, He added.

“This training of Supervisors is going to be continuous so that all academic staff in colleges and schools are equipped. This first cohort is going to be our building block to the future trainings in the colleges.”

With such capacity building trainings, Prof. Kikooma said that the university is on the right path to achieving its targets in the new strategic plan of increasing the number of graduate students while progressively reducing the under graduate students.

He further hinted that, “We are in the process of writing a curriculum on this, which will be presented for approval before it is rolled out.”

He echoed all participants to share the knowledge they have acquired adding, “Share all you have learnt, do not keep it. Be open minded, have proper communication channels and the sky will be the limit for you.” 

Dr. Robinah N. Kulabako, The Head of Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at CEDAT welcomed the training adding, “This training is very pertinent. I have had the opportunity to supervise Masters and PhD students for over 15 years and I must say that the need to be subjected to this training cannot be over emphasized because there is need to learn, unlearn and relearn many aspects involved in the supervision process.”

She added, “We are moving towards knowledge-based supervision rather than experience-based supervision. This means we must be informed and equipped to be able to advise, guide and mentor to be able to lead a successful supervision journey for both supervisor and supervisee.”

Dr. Andrew Gilbert Were – a lecturer at CEDAT and a participant said, “It is important that all supervisors of graduate students receive this certification from Makerere University through a systematic training process that enables them to attain diverse skills to facilitate learning of graduate students from diverse cultures and with unique set of circumstances.”

“This training is long overdue. In fact, it was an oversight that we could be allowed to supervise students without undergoing supervisors’ training.”

Dr. Dorothy Ssebowa, The Director Centre for Teaching and Learning support- CEES said, “The training this time round has had a mix of early career professionals including Lecturers, Supervisors and Professors share experiences. We have learnt a lot more from experienced supervisors who have shared practices on how they have done supervision over the years.”

“The knowledge and experience-based approaches have made this collaboration very active, interactive and learner centered which has resulted into a collaborative learning from the interdisciplinarity of staff from CEDAT and CAES. The issue now is to continue with professional development across all levels.” She added.

The Makerere University Directorate of Graduate Training (DGT) in collaboration with the Centre for Teaching and Learning completed the training of the first cohort of Graduate Supervisors. This activity was supported by the iCARTA – Institutionalization of Advanced Research Training in Africa, a NORHED II Project at Makerere University.

Mak Editor

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