Makerere University’s star has once again shone bright at the 2017-2018 Big Ideas Competition as Nine innovations made it to the list of the Seventy of the most promising ideas chosen to advance to the final round. The news which was revealed by the ResilientAfrica Network (RAN) Chief of Party and Deputy Vice Chancellor (Finance & Administration)-DVCFA, Prof. William Bazeyo, shows the advancing innovations falling in the categories of; Food Systems, Global Health and Scaling Up Big Ideas.
Moving forward, these students are supposed to complete and submit full proposals (10 pages) to the Big Ideas Team. The students will also closely work with Mentors allocated to them by the Big Ideas Team (some of which are RAN Staff who volunteer their time and expertise). These proposals will be evaluated to inform the list of actual winners who will be publicly announced. The winners will then receive a congratulatory email notification also requesting them to share Bank Account Details for the grant transfer.
“We are reaching out to the students who have not yet reached out to us so that we can further offer them support towards cleaning up and submitting their full proposals,” added Ms. Harriet Adong, RAN’s Communication Manager.
Please click here to access the full list of the Innovations advancing to the Final Round. The advancing Makerere Innovations along with a brief description of each category are listed below.
2017-2018 Big Ideas Finalist Summaries
FOOD SYSTEMS
The aim of this category is to encourage the development of innovative solutions or approaches that address challenges in food systems, or that will result in progress or changes to support food security, sustainability and/or justice and health in food systems, and/or equitable access to nutritious food. Proposals may be aimed at campus based program, local/domestic issues or international efforts.
Livestock Disease Diagnosis Kit (LIDDIA)
PesT Tester
Teleeka
TRAM project
GLOBAL HEALTH
The challenge for this category is to describe an action-oriented, inter-disciplinary project that would help alleviate a health concern among low-resource communities. Proposals submitted to this category should a) demonstrate an evidence of a widespread health concern faced by U.S. or international low-income populations or low-resource communities, and b) develop a system, plan, or technology that addresses this problem that is both culturally appropriate within the target communities, and appropriate for low-resource settings.
Coordinated Emergency Response System (CERS)
Ecosmart pads
LUMENDA
Oxygen Splitters
SCALING UP BIG IDEAS
The challenge for this category is for previous Big Ideas award winners to (1) highlight key achievements or progress made in implementing their original winning project idea, (2) document lessons learned in initial implementation, and (3) describe plans to revise their venture’s design or scale up their model. For the purposes of this category, Scaling Up is defined as reaching a new geographic area or underserved population, or adding to the scope and/or services of the original project in the same geographic area.
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.
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 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.