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.”

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. 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.

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