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2nd Research Management Workshop for Departmental Chairs

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The Second Research Management Workshop for Department Chairs organized by the Office of the Deputy Vice Chancellor Academic Affairs (DVCAA) and the Directorate of Research and Graduate Training (DRGT) was held on Friday, 16th August 2019 at the Grand Global Hotel, Makerere, with participants drawn from five colleges. These included the; College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences (CAES), College of Business and Management Sciences (CoBAMS), College of Engineering, Design, Art and Technology (CEDAT), College of Natural Sciences (CoNAS) and the College of Veterinary Medicine, Animal Resources and Biosecurity (CoVAB). This workshop was the third in the series of trainings supported by IREX's University Administration Support Program funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York.

Presenting the Rationale of the workshop, the DVCAA, Dr. Umar Kakumba acknowledged that with more than 60% of Academic Staff as PhD holders, Makerere University had made fundamental strides in developing its Human Resources capacity. He nevertheless called for the breakdown of discipline-specific silos so as to increase interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary networks within the University.

Dr. Kakumba advised the Chairs to quickly realign their research priorities so as to make the most of the newly awarded Government Research and Innovation Fund. “The Vice Chancellor has set up a Grants Management Committee that is already having a series of meetings and soon the funding calls will come out.”

Prof. Barnabas Nawangwe (Right) delivers his keynote address as Dr. Umar Kakumba, Prof. Buyinza Mukadasi, Dr. Justine Namaalwa, Prof. Philip Kwesiga and other HoDs listen

Continuing from where the DVCAA had left off, the Vice Chancellor in his Keynote address shared that Makerere University had received the special funding from Government to support Research and Innovation that will inform National Development Priorities.

“The Government is committed to giving us at least UGX 30billion every year in recognition that Universities are the repositories of knowledge and we are living in a Knowledge Economy. The Ugandan Economy is not going to transform into Middle Income status unless we at Makerere University do our part” said the Vice Chancellor.

Prof. Buyinza Mukadasi delivers his presentation on Research Ethics, Integrity Governance and the Role of the Central Research Office

Prof. Nawangwe urged Department Chairs to lead by example through; motivating their colleagues, maintaining high moral standards, setting priorities for themselves and those they lead as well as looking beyond themselves to the needs of others.  

Delivering a presentation on Research Ethics, Integrity, Governance and the role of the Central Research Office , the Director DRGT, Prof. Buyinza Mukadasi noted that the onus was upon all researchers in the institution to perform research that is ethical and avoid all pitfalls associated with plagiarism.

The DVCAA-Dr. Umar Kakumba (Left) flanked by Dr. David Owiny, Dr. Roy William Mayega and Prof. John Mayega delivers the closing remarks

He also urged Chairs to ensure that Departmental Staff are shielded from publishing in journals with little or no impact on their h-index. “Before you submit your work to any journal, I urge you to first of all check if it is listed on Beall’s list of potential predatory publishers. This will safeguard your hard work against misuse and not contributing your reputation as a good researcher.”

Departmental Chairs received a wealth of knowledge on the topics of; Effective Research Leadership, Incentivising Research, Research Funding, Establishing and Managing Grants as well as Knowledge Transfer. The topics were presented by David Guwatudde, Prof. Tonny Oyana, Dr. Charles Masembe, Dr. Roy mayega and Prof. John Muyonga respectively.

Article by Public Relations Office

 

Mark Wamai

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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.

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Call for Application: 2025 SNRM session 4 Summer School

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Participants in focused group discussions. Leiden-Delft-Erasmus East Africa Research Network (LEARN) in collaboration with the Urban Action Lab at Makerere University a workshop to deliberate strategies for mitigating the impacts of climate change in urban centres in the East African Region, Theme: “Resilient Urban Futures: Adapting Livelihoods to Climate Change”, 4th-5th September 2024, School of Public Health Auditorium, Kampala Uganda.

Context:
Natural resources in Africa are being depleted at an alarming rate due to several factors, including unsustainable human activities, climate change, and population growth. A primary condition of sustainable development is to ensure that the pressures do not exceed the environmental limits, and that demand for the resources does not exceed levels that can be sustainably provided by nature. Therefore, there is a pressing need for transformative, systems-thinking approaches and tools that can tackle the diverse challenges facing these systems. In Africa, this need is compounded by a lack of data and monitoring, which significantly hinders sustainable decision-making.

Investing in young scientists who are committed to take lead in sustainable management of Africa’s natural resources is very important. Capacity building of young scientists will enhance their knowledge and skill on sustainable natural resources and their involvement for implementation of the sustainable development goals (SDG’s) in Africa. To this effect, SNRM summer schools have been implemented in three sessions in 2019, 2020, and 2022 with support from Volkswagen Foundation; to build a critical mass of skilled and competent young natural resource scientists in Africa through training, capacity building and mentorship. Session 4 (2025) will target competent young scientists (MSc and PhD students) in Africa and Germany to further develop their knowledge and skills in systems thinking, advanced data collection and analysis, and application of emerging digital technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), internet of things (IoT), and embracing transdisciplinary approaches. In addition, we include an ideation workshop where students can work on real problems to come up with solutions for sustainable transformations in natural resource use.

Organizers: Leibniz Universität – Hannover (Germany), University of Antananarivo, University of Abomey Calavi (Benin), Makerere University (Uganda), University of Ghana (Ghana), University of Parakou (Benin), The Technical University of Kenya, with financial support from the Volkswagen Foundation (Germany).

Venue and dates: Nairobi, Kenya, 16-28 November 2025

Target: MSc and PhD students, early in the program of less than 35 years of age from any university/research institution in either sub-Saharan Africa or Germany with an interest in natural resources management.

Participants and Scholarships: The course is fully funded and open to 20 MSc and PhD students from Africa, and 5 from Germany. Funding will cover the costs of air ticket, accommodation, meals, visa, and transportation. However, participants will cover the cost of their travel health insurance.

Topics

SNRM Summer School Session 4: Transformative pathways in biodiversity management and conservation.
This summer school is designed to deliver four modules over a two-week period. The modules are designed to enable the students to acquire new ways of designing data collection protocols and analysis for transformative sustainable natural resources management.

Module 4.1: Data collection I
Skills in data collection for a transformative and sustainable management of natural resources (water, wildlife, forest, land, livestock, crops) monitoring and data collection techniques; remote monitoring tools, earth observation system data, e.g. satellite data sources, LIDAR, and UAV aerial images. Collect and analyse In-situ data on biotic and abiotic parameters, map and analyse data using R or Google Earth Engine, field data collection and retrieving data from online databases.

Module 4.2 Data management and processing
Introduction to tools and methods of managing large and diverse data sets of natural resources such as time series, spatial, directional, and multivariate data. Practicals will include data storage, organization and conversion into various formats using databases such as PostgreSQL and statistical programming software such as R and Python; scripts.

Module 4.3 Ecological monitoring, modelling and management
This module aims to teach participants how to anticipate and validate trends that can be observed in various ecosystems. Lectures include ecological monitoring and its design; population monitoring studies; metrics in population monitoring; methods for monitoring and assessing marine ecosystems; human ecology to socio-ecological systems; climate change impact of ecosystems; suitability assessments; overview of the principles underlying wildlife monitoring and prediction systems for climate change adaptation. Practicals will include field data collection (individual and group); ecological data analysis using R or PAST; modelling and experiencing the behaviour of complex systems using Vensim.

Module 4.4 Natural habitat restoration ideation lab
This module is designed to spur students’ innovation and creativity, and to help students comprehensively identify interdependencies across the 17 SDG goals. Participants will be trained on ideation processes for solutions and intervention for transformative natural resource management. They will work collaboratively in small groups on case studies and develop pathways of transformative sustainable natural resource management. Examples of projects include forest (mangrove) ecosystem and habitat restoration, improved technologies for agricultural production, nature-based solutions for improving water quality, and reversing land degradation.

Language: The course will be delivered in English. Participants are expected to be fluent in writing and speaking the English language.

How to apply

Applicants are kindly requested to fill in the application form available from https://snrmafrica.com/ and submit the following documents in English through the system.

  • a curriculum vitae (maximum 2 pages)
  • a letter of motivation (maximum 1 page)
  • a confirmation of university enrolment
  • a reference letter from the academic supervisor
  • project summary of MSc/ PhD project (1 page including objectives, methodology
    and key findings or expected outcomes).

Important dates
Application deadline: 30th June 2025.
Announcement of accepted applicants: 15th August 2025.
Confirmation of attendance by selected participants: 12th Sept 2025.
Summer school held: 16 – 28 Nov 2025.

Further information is available from

The secretariat info@snrmafrica.com
Dr Lydia Olaka lydiaolaka@tukenya.ac.ke
Prof. Dr. Hartmut Stuetzel stuetzel@gem.uni-hannover.de

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