Research
Mak-RIF Round 4 Call For Applications
Published
3 years agoon

Makerere University Research and Innovations Fund: Request for Applications (RFA) Supported by the Government of the Republic of Uganda
Round 4, Track 1: New Research & Innovation Agenda-based Proposals Financial Year 2022/2023
SECTION A: BACKGROUND
A1. Funding opportunity description
Makerere University received special funding from the Government of the Republic of Uganda, to support high impact Research and Innovations. The Financial Year 2022/23 will be the fourth year of this fund’s availability. The fund illustrates the increasing importance that the Government attaches to Research and Innovation as a driver of socio-economic transformation. The objective of the fund is to increase the local generation of translatable research and scalable innovations that address key gaps required to drive Uganda’s development agenda. The fund is therefore aimed at complementing available funding to address unfunded priorities critical to accelerating development. Over the last three Financial Years (2019/2020, 2020/21 and 2021/2022), government appropriated 79 Billion Uganda Shillings. Between the three years, MakRIF has funded a total of 775 projects across all sectors critical for development, of which 204 have been completed. In the next Financial Year (2022/23), Makerere University expects to receive about 30 Billion Uganda shillings (about US$ 8,100,000) under the Government Research and Innovation Fund (RIF). Of this, at least 6 Billion Shillings will fund new ideas that respond to a widely consultative Research Agenda focused on national priorities while the rest will fund continuing projects from previous financial years, extension of multi-year projects, needs based priorities, and commercialization/scaling of prior funded projects. The Makerere University Research and Innovation Grants Management Committee (GMC) therefore announces the RIF Round 4, Track 1 (New Research & Innovation Agenda-Based Grants). Available funds are obligated for the Financial Year 2022/2023. The GMC therefore invites applications with original ideas that demonstrate a clear link to key thematic areas of the National Research and Innovation Agenda.
A2. Research for Economic Development
To transition to middle-income status, low-income countries must increasingly invest in research and innovations that provide solutions to persistent development challenges. Universities should be at the fore-front of driving this research agenda. The Government of Uganda is currently implementing the 3rd National Development Plan (NDP) (2020/21 – 2024/25). However, the NDP and sector specific plans require research to fill evidence gaps. The main objective of the RIF is to support R&I initiatives that contribute to better delivery of National Development initiatives in all sectors critical to the economy.
A3. Scope and Technical Description of the Research and Innovation Grant
The RIF GMC’s terms of reference include development of an instructive research agenda as the basis for identifying funding priorities. The GMC conducted a comprehensive stakeholder consultation to identify priority thematic areas of interest for national development. These consultations included meetings with representatives from key government sectors, semi-autonomous government agencies, the private-for-profit sector and civil society. The GMC triangulated this information with that from the National Development Plan III, the Makerere University Strategic Plan and Research Agenda and the critical areas spelled out in the National Budget for FY2022/2023. The RIF Round 4, Track 1 (Research & Innovation Agenda-Based Grants) will therefore specifically target research and innovation projects that align with priority thematic issues in the instructive Research Agenda that arose from these consultations. Research and Innovation ideas are therefore sought in the following thematic areas:
Theme 1: Transforming the agricultural sector to drive development
Theme 2: Achieving Sustainable health as a means to sustainable development
Theme 3: Re-imagining Education to unlock capacity for economic development
Theme 4: Water, sanitation and the environment: A pre-requisite to sustainable development
Theme 5: Harnessing the social sector, culture and arts to drive development
Theme 6: Harnessing tourism, wildlife and heritage to drive development
Theme 7: Sustainable Planning, finance and monitoring as catalysts for growth
Theme 8: Leveraging public service and local administration for efficient service delivery
Theme 9: Defense and security: Achieving sustainable peace and stability
Theme 10: Strengthening law, governance, human rights and international cooperation as pre-requisites for development
Theme 11: Harnessing Information and Communication Technology to drive development
Theme 12: Works, manufacturing, science and technology as tools to accelerate development
Theme 13: Solutions to catalyze business and enterprise
Theme 14: Energy and Minerals as drivers of rapid economic development
The Government Research & Innovation (R&I) Grants will cover all technical disciplines in Makerere University as long as the research questions align with the instructive research agenda themes above. Particular attention will be paid to unfunded priorities, those for which funding has been inadequate, or for which available funding only covers one or a few of the components needed to inform development initiatives in a holistic way. This grant is not primarily meant to supplement existing research projects that already have funding from other sources. However, researchers can apply on the platform of existing projects if they provide a strong justification that there are important funding gaps in the current research project and the added deliverables expected from the additional support to the existing research effort. This grant also emphasizes a multi-sectoral approach. Research groups are therefore encouraged to work with other sectors that complement their technical focus.
A4. Categories and size of grants to be issued:
Grants will be issued in the following categories:
Categories | Amount (UgX) | Approximate No. of Projects* | Res. | Innov. | Total |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Cat 1 | Up to 200,000,000 | Approx. 20 | 10 | 10 | 2,000,000,000 |
Cat 2 | Up to 100,000,000 | Approx. 34 | 17 | 17 | 3,400,000,000 |
Cat 3 | Up to 50,000,000 | Approx. 22 | 11 | 11 | 1,100,000,000 |
Approx. 76 | 38 | 38 | 6,500,000,000 |
Res= primarily research/research ecosystem-based; Innov= primarily Innovation-based
Note:
- The R&I Grants Management Committee reserves the right to determine/change the number and size of awards based on prevailing circumstances informed by demand, quality of applications, availability of funds and level of utilization of funds by grantees. 50% of all awards will go to research or ecosystem strengthening projects while 50% will go innovation-based projects.
- **Experience from earlier RIF calls showed that most applicants (Over 50%) target Category 1 which creates a lot of competition and many otherwise good proposals being un-funded. Applicants for RIF-4 are encouraged to consider all categories.
- *** Junior Faculty Researchers are STRONGLY encouraged to apply. (Junior Faculty are not defined by age, but by rank and research experience. They are specifically defined as researchers at the rank of Lecturer or below and researchers with less than 5 years of experience in research/innovation or less than 2 years as independent researchers/innovators, or have never been PIs for a research/innovation project greater than US$ 100,000 (or 365 Million Uganda Shillings).
Grant timeline
Milestone | Dates |
---|---|
1. Issuance of RFA (Soft launch) | Wednesday 22nd June 2022 |
2. Researcher sensitization meeting | Thur 30th June 2022 [Meeting details] |
3. Q&A period | Tuesday 28th June 2022 to Tuesday 5th July 2022 |
4. Posting of FAQs | Wednesday 6th July 2022 |
5. Researcher Support Webinar | Friday 8th July 2022 |
6. Closing date for applications | Friday 22nd July 2022 |
7. Selection – stage 1 | Monday 25th July to Friday 29th July 2022 |
8. Selection – stage 2 | Monday 1st August to Sunday 28th August 2022 |
9. Selection – stage 3 | Monday 29th August to Thursday 1st September 2022 |
10. Award notification | Friday 2nd September 2022 |
11. Induction | Tuesday 6th September 2022 |
Please below for the detailed Call For Applications and Circular.
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Business & Management
From risk to resilience: Increasing insurance uptake among farmers in rural Uganda
Published
1 week agoon
May 30, 2025By
Mak Editor
By Dr. Aisha Nanyiti
Poor households in low-income countries face numerous risks, from extreme weather events to illness and crop failure. With limited savings and assets, even small shocks can have devastating consequences on welfare. While formal insurance products can potentially help mitigate these risks, their uptake remains remarkably low among rural smallholder farmers, who instead primarily rely on informal risk-sharing networks. This pattern persists despite evidence suggesting that informal insurance mechanisms provide incomplete coverage against shocks. These shocks translate into shortfalls in income and consumption (Karlan et al. 2014, Morduch 1999).
Studying the impact of insurance on farmers’ economic behaviour
In Nanyiti and Pamuk (2025), we focus on smallholder farmers in rural Uganda and examine how different insurance arrangements affect their economic behaviour and decision-making. Uganda provides an ideal setting to explore these questions, as only 1% of adults have formal insurance coverage, despite 67% of households depending on agriculture for their livelihoods. By comparing behaviour under formal insurance (provided by registered companies) versus informal insurance (peer-to-peer transfers), we gain insights into why formal insurance uptake remains low and how farmers respond to different risk management options.
Using a real effort task experiment, we investigate whether the incentives created by these different insurance arrangements influence productivity and risk management decisions. Our findings reveal important behavioural responses that help explain observed patterns in insurance uptake and suggest potential approaches for improving the design and adoption of formal insurance products. We find that farmers exerted less effort under informal insurance but not under formal insurance coverage, and increased their level of formal insurance coverage after experiencing a bad outcome.
Dr. Aisha Nanyiti is a Lecturer at the School of Economics, College of Business and Management Sciences, Makerere University
General
Directorate of Graduate Equips Schools and Colleges with Training in Philosophy of Methods
Published
2 weeks agoon
May 22, 2025By
Mak Editor
By Moses Lutaaya
The Directorate of Graduate Training at Makerere University has equipped several Senior ranking lecturers with expert knowledge in a Training of Trainers’ workshop on “Philosophy of Methods”.
In his remarks at the opening of a 3-day training workshop at Level4 Conference Hall – Senate Building, the Director of Graduate Training Prof. Julius Kikooma said, “The teaching of Philosophy of Methods gives all participants the fundamentals to extend knowledge to other learners, hence its importance in upholding the Makerere University values.”
Kikooma urged and challenged the participants to also attend and actively participate in the follow up of learners’ training of students, stating that the PhD students need support as the directorate continues to coordinate the curriculum of PhD by-research that was approved by the senate recently.
“To holistically implement the senate approved PhD curriculum, we are coordinating capacity building trainings of all stake holders in a structured approach with the different units of the University. Many more trainings including Training of Trainers in advanced research methods course are on the way.”
He further urged the participants to be intentional in their teaching profession and in whatever they were doing, adding “Apart from focusing on practices as teachers and researchers, we can engage in wider philosophical debates in our research areas so that we are relevant in the society and in the empowerment of PhD research students.”
The participants for the Philosophy of Methods training were from College of Humanities and Social Sciences, College of Education and External Studies, Makerere University Business School among others.
During the same training, Dr. Dickson Kanakulya stressed the need to train senior lecturers in the Philosophy of Methods, saying, “The biggest connection is that societal problems require concrete research to find solutions. Our challenge in Africa is that we employ a short barrow approach to find solutions to problems. This cannot work. We need consistent researchers to solve problems. Lasting solutions to societal issues can only be got through training such as Philosophy of Methods, where researchers come up with new models for societal solutions.”

Dr. Kanakulya said that Makerere University remains the biggest research University in Africa and philosophy of Methods helps to come up with good research tools that produce good research outputs. “Research has shown that the higher the number of PhD researchers in any given country, the higher the levels of development of that country e.g. the USA, China etc., adding that research is not limited to only medicinal or agricultural related issues.”
He said philosophy of methods, encourages philosophical creativity in research, “It is meant to bring out philosophical generation of concepts, theories and ideas. It is meant to encourage students to question the existing philosophical assumptions and status quo in a given field of knowledge such that new philosophical concepts are created.”
For successful rollout of government programs like the National Development Plan 4, Dr. Kanakulya said that Philosophy of Methods training needs to be integrated into such systems. “Philosophy of Methods focuses on ethical thinking aspects. For example, for a better rollout of the Parish Development Model, we need implementers to be ethical.” He added.
Prof. Sulait Tumwiine, the associate Dean of Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research at MUBS said, “This is a discussion where new ideas are shared to guide and gauge applicability in the current knowledge diversity coupled with lots of technological development including Artificial Intelligence and Chat GPT.”
He added, “As professors of Universities, we need to understand how we leverage on what comes up so that it does not take our space, but also appreciate how we can support growth of knowledge. The Philosophy of Methods training is the answer.”
Dr. Jim Spire Ssentongo highlighted that Philosophy uses more of the critical mind than Science. He added that philosophy is more of speculation of the mind.
“Sustainability of philosophy Education encourages us to continue training. Philosophy being the oldest discipline retained special status in the academia as a pinnacle of pursuit of knowledge. All disciplines have major elements of philosophy citing examples in the philosophy of Mathematics and Physics.
Dr. Spire added, “If you do not understand philosophy, you cannot deeply investigate anything because philosophy is the reality of understanding everything. Philosophy is the basis of understanding what knowledge is and how it is arrived at.”
Also participating in the workshop was Prof. Joseph Ntaayi from MUBS, in his remarks he said PhD students need the philosophy of methods training to understand how to best to create knowledge. He added that ontological and epistemological questions that lead to good research design methods can only be answered by this training.
Dr. Robert Kakuru, a Lecturer in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences said that the Philosophy of Methods training is needed by every graduate student as well as supervisors to critically determine the choice of methods to use in academic research. For example, “If one wants to use a questionnaire as an interview approach, one should understand, why that approach and yet without this training, the why cannot be answered.” He added.
The Philosophy of Methods training was organized by Directorate of Graduate Training with funding support from the Consortium for Advanced Research Training in Africa (CARTA).
Research
Uganda’s National ID Delivers $1.35 for Every $1 Invested
Published
3 weeks agoon
May 19, 2025
KAMPALA – The National Digital ID (NID) has significantly transformed Stella Nakazibwe’s role as a SACCO Administrator. “In my day-to-day work, I use my National ID to carry out financial transactions in the bank. Without it, I can’t access funds,” she says, her voice filled with a quiet confidence. “Now, I also use it to register for my school. You can’t sit for ICPAU papers without registering, and a National ID is essential.”
Nakazibwe’s story represents the promise of Uganda’s ambitious National ID system, launched in 2014 with the aim of streamlining government services, enhancing security, and boosting financial inclusion, with 97 percent believing it is essential.
A sound national ID system should meet key principles of inclusion, design, and governance, according to the World Bank. However, a 2017 study by the US government’s Center for Digital Development, formerly USAID, found that many digital ID systems are fragmented and focused on short-term goals, lacking clear evidence of their long-term social and economic benefits.
Ugandan law requires all citizens aged 16 and above to obtain a National ID linked to their demographic and biometric data. To support this, the National Identification and Registration Authority (NIRA) launched a mass registration campaign nationwide, followed by smaller drives to capture more people. The requirement for SIM card registration further boosted this effort, making telecom companies major users of the National ID database.
But a new study, “Understanding the Benefits, Costs, and Challenges of the National Identification System in Uganda,” published in Digital Society, reveals a more nuanced picture, stressing both the successes and the persistent challenges in ensuring that the National ID truly benefits all Ugandans.
The research, led by Roy William Mayega from Makerere University School of Public Health’s Resilient Africa Network (MakSPH-RAN), surveyed nearly 3,000 Ugandans and analyzed government data to assess the system’s impact. Other researchers were Dr. Dorothy Okello, Christine Muhumuza, Nathan Tumuhamye, Julius Ssentongo, Dr. Allen Kabagenyi Mulerwa, Brandon Kwesiga, Dr. Agnes Nyabigambo, Anthony Ssebagereka, and Professor William Bazeyo.

The findings confirm that the National ID has been a worthwhile investment for the government. The study estimates that for every US$1 invested in the NID system, the return on investment is US$1.35. These savings stem from reduced fraud in social programs and more efficient management of public funds.
But beyond the numbers, the research also illuminates the human experiences behind the National ID. For many, like Nakazibwe, the ID has unlocked opportunities previously out of reach. It has become a key to accessing mobile money services, opening bank accounts, and participating more fully in the formal economy.
However, the research also shows that not everyone is benefiting equally. The study found that while 94% of Ugandans sought to register for an NID, nearly one in five still don’t have one. And those who are most likely to be left behind are often the most vulnerable.
“We found that reasons for not having a National ID were more prevalent in the lowest wealth quintile,” explains Mayega. “This suggests that the poorest Ugandans face greater hurdles in accessing the system, whether it’s due to challenges in navigating the registration process or the cost of transportation. Illiteracy was also a key contributor.”
The most common reasons for not having a National ID included incomplete registration (33.7%), not registering (21.2%), lost IDs (19.9%), failure to collect IDs (9.4%), and slow processing (7.7%). Women were more likely to mention long queues and registration costs, while men cited ID loss and non-citizenship. Urban residents more often pointed to lost IDs and slow processes, while rural participants highlighted limited registration time.

The study also uncovered concerns about data privacy and the potential for misuse of personal information. Many Ugandans express concerns about the potential use of their National IDs for surveillance or fraudulent activities. These anxieties point to the need for greater transparency and robust data protection measures.
From the study, the common National ID errors included misspelled names (45.0%), incorrect or missing dates of birth (16.6%), unclear fingerprints (8.9%), and improper signatures (3.6%). Of the 169 participants with errors, only 28.5% attempted corrections, and just a third succeeded, often after waiting an average of six months. Most (77.1%) described the correction process as difficult, with transport costs from 0 to 400,000 shillings and other related expenses around 525,000 shillings (US\$ 145.8).
To ensure that the National ID lives up to its full potential, the researchers recommend a series of concrete steps: launching targeted registration drives to reach those who have been left behind, simplifying the registration process, strengthening data protection measures, and expanding the use of National IDs in government programs.
“It’s crucial that the government addresses these concerns and builds trust in the system,” says the Executive Director of the Africa Freedom of Information Centre (AFIC), Gilbert Sendugwa.
In Uganda, a National ID is more than just identification—it’s a key to accessing rights and services, Sendugwa explains.
“However, the issue of data security persists. For example, a woman in Ntungamo District faced legal trouble after her stolen ID was misused to secure a Parish Development Model loan before tighter controls were in place. The government must do more to teach people to protect their IDs and reassure them that their data is used to empower, not control, them,” he says.

Of the participants with National IDs, 7.7% (186 people) reported they had lost them, with higher rates among women (9.1%), urban residents (9.7%), and those in the lowest wealth quintile (9.3%). However, only 28.5% of those who lost their IDs attempted to replace (8.6%) or recover (19.9%) them, with mixed success. While 75% of those seeking replacements succeeded, only 45.4% of those trying to recover lost IDs managed to do so. About half of those attempting replacements described the process as difficult, with some waiting over three months.
Millions of Ugandans risk being excluded from essential services without national digital IDs, according to the Collaboration on International ICT for East and Southern Africa (CIPESA). Vulnerable groups like older persons in poverty and those with disabilities, who often struggle to reach NIRA offices for enrollment, face the greatest challenges. Without IDs, they are unable to access senior citizens’ grants, healthcare, land titles, social security benefits, driving permits, SIM card registration, bank accounts, passports, and voter registration.
“Uganda’s digital ID system needs to ensure the necessary safeguards for both data protection and access to essential services; otherwise, it risks not only entrenching exclusion and inequality but also increasing concerns about personal data privacy and protections. Gaps in solid data protection can result in discrimination, profiling, surveillance of data subjects, and identity theft,” says Juliet Nanfuka, a digital rights advocate and communications officer at CIPESA.

Uganda’s experience with the National ID system provides helpful lessons for other African countries aiming to leverage the power of digital identification. As NIRA prepares for a nationwide mass ID renewal and registration campaign on May 27, 2025, the redesigned IDs are expected to feature enhanced security technologies like Multiple Laser Images (MLI), Machine-Readable Zones (MRZ), QR codes, and 2D barcodes. These upgrades are intended to improve identity verification and expand access to digital services.
Researchers argue that by addressing citizen concerns, ensuring equitable access, and genuinely listening to the voices of its people, Uganda can transform the National ID from a mere card into a critical lifeline for all.
Davidson Ndyabahika is a Health and Science Communication Specialist, School of Public Health, Makerere University
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