Funding opportunity description: Makerere University received special funding from the Government of the Republic of Uganda, to support high impact Research and Innovations that will accelerate national development. 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. Over the last three Financial Years (2019/2020, 2020/21 and 2021/2022), government appropriated 79 Billion Uganda Shillings to support this Fund. Between the two years, MakRIF has funded a total of 775 projects across all sectors critical for development. In the next Financial Year (2022/23), Makerere University expects to receive about 30 Billion Uganda shillings (about US$ 8.1 million) under the Government Research and Innovation Fund (RIF). Of this, at least 3 Billion Shillings will fund PhD research ideas that generate knowledge that addresses national development priorities. The Makerere University Research and Innovation Grants Management Committee (GMC) therefore announces the RIF Round 4, Track 2 (PhD Research Grants). Available funds are obligated for the Financial Year 2022/2023, with an expectation of actionable results that speak to the National Research and Innovation Agenda. The GMC therefore invites applications from PhD students with original research ideas that demonstrate a clear link to key thematic areas of the National Research and Innovation Agenda.
This is a closed call that is open to only PhD students. This funding call is specifically targeted to PhD students that are full time at Makerere University.
Grant amounts and estimated number of awards: The GMC estimates to award the following number and amount of PhD Research Grants:
Category
Amount per award
Approximate Number
Total amount
Category 1: Arts and Humanities
Up to 25,000,000/=
50*
1,250,000,000/=
Category 2: Sciences
Up to 35,000,000/=
50*
1,750,000,000/=
Total
100
3,000,000,000/=
*Note: The numbers shown are only indicative. The MakRIF GMC reserves the right to adjust the numbers based on the quality of the proposals submitted.
Applicants should take into consideration the following:
Given that the MakRIF funds are received on an annual basis, and are tied to a specific financial year, the current grant only commits to funding the awardee for a period of one year. This award therefore covers one financial year.
However, the MakRIF GMC is cognizant of the fact that PhD research often spreads over more than one year in which case it requires multi-year funding. Because of this reality, PhD students who are funded under this round will be eligible for extension funding in the following financial year. Second year funding will not be automatic but will be conditional to the following: 1) Availability of funds, 2) Showing cause as to which additional areas of research will be covered in the second year of funding, 3) Successful execution and completion of all the objectives for Year 1 funding, evidenced by full submission of the required deliverables; 4) Full technical and financial accountability for all the funds given to the researcher during the current year of funding. Students would have to apply for the follow-on funding through the next year’s PhD Research Grant call.
The GMC recognizes that the amounts indicated for this award may not be sufficient to cover all the necessary costs for a student’s project. In such cases, the award should be considered as a contribution and the students should mobilize additional funding to bridge the resource gaps.
The number of awards indicated are only estimated and the GMC retains the discretion to determine the amount and number of awards based on the actual funding that MakRIF funders will make available and the number of quality proposals submitted.
Scope and Technical Description of the Research and Innovation Grant
The GMC conducted a comprehensive stakeholder consultation to identify priority thematic areas of interest for national development. The GMC triangulated this information with that from the National Development Plan III, the Makerere University Strategic Plan and Research Agenda to develop an instructive MakRIF research agenda that responds to national development priorities. The RIF Round 4, Track 2 (PhD Research Grants) will therefore specifically target research and innovation projects that align with priority thematic issues in the MakRIF instructive Research Agenda under 14 thematic areas as follows:
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 for 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: Defence and security: Achieving sustainable peace and stability
Theme 10: Strengthening law, governance, human rights and international cooperation as prerequisites 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 catalyse business and enterprise
Theme 14: Energy and Minerals as drivers of rapid economic development
The Mak-RIF PhD Research 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 ideas that have clear potential for scalability to drive development.
Note: This grant covers the coasts of research. It does not cover payment of tuition or living stipends for the PhD students.
Eligibility
The PhD research grants will only be open to PhD students who have been approved for full registration at Makerere University. Students who have already received full scholarships under other award programs are not eligible to apply for these grants as this will constitute double funding. In line with this, PhD students who are members of academic faculty of Makerere University are not eligible since they are covered by the Staff Development Program. This funding is only open to Makerere University students. PhD students registered in other universities are not eligible for this funding. Further specifications on the awards are as follows:
Applicants must be at a stage where they have been approved for full registration as PhD students at Makerere University. Being at the stage of full registration means that they have developed a full research proposal that has been approved by the respective Higher Degrees Research Committee in their academic unit, and that they have been have been recommended for full registration OR are fully registered by Makerere University. Applicants will be required to provide evidence of one of the following: Minutes of the Higher Degrees Research Committee in their Academic college, showing approval of their research proposal, OR a full registration certificate.
Because the research funds are provided for one year funding cycles, PhD students with provisional registration will not be eligible for funding under this award since the time required for them to complete full proposal development and to start data collection is unlikely to fit within the financial year.
These grants are limited to PhD students who do not have prior funding for their studies or whose funding is inadequate to cover their research. Applicants in the latter category must make full disclosure of their other funding sources and what they cover.
Applicants should provide a letter of support from any one of the following: 1) The Head of their Department, or 2) The Dean of their School, or 3) the Principal of their College (Only one of these is sufficient).
Applicants should provide a letter of support from one of their Supervisors within Makerere University. The letter should clearly indicate that they do not have other funding that fully covers their research/training activities, or where such funding is available, they should indicate what aspects of the student’s study program it covers and the funding gap. The supporting Supervisor will be designated as a co-Investigator on the research project.
GRANT GUIDELINES
MakRIF PhD Research Grant applicants will submit a competitive project proposal for the available funding. The proposal ought to specify the objectives for the full research project. It should also indicate which of the full research objectives will be specifically met by the available funding for this financial year.
Students intending to apply for multi-year funding in the subsequent years will be required to indicate so. In such cases, the students should indicate which study objectives would be covered by the extension funding.
The research problem: The proposal should clearly articulate the knowledge gap that the researcher targets to address, and why it is important to address this knowledge gap. The research problem should be aligned to at least one theme in the MakRIF research agenda.
The proposed solution: PhD Researchers should present the proposed solution in form of the research focus for the current phase of the funding. They should clearly articulate the objectives of the planned research. Researchers should also describe the critical content of the solution (i.e., the ‘research methodology’). Researchers should defend the relevance of the proposed solution to addressing key development outcomes in the respective sector and its alignment to one or more thematic areas specified in this call. Researchers should also demonstrate that at least one objective of their research project is implementable within one (1) year and will result in tangible results within one year of execution.
Research projects that require multi-year implementation will only be considered if they can show actionable intermediate results or objectives attainable within 1 implementation year, since funding will be on a yearly basis. Apart from a summary of the proposed approach, researchers will provide a more detailed description of their technical approach (research methodology) to enable a robust assessment of the rigor of the proposed methodology.
Outputs, outcomes and impact: Researchers should articulate the overall scientific outputs, outcomes and anticipated impact of the PhD research project. They should state the primary (Direct) and secondary (Indirect) beneficiaries of the planned research project. They should state the anticipated outputs (the outputs of the activities of the entire project as well as the specific milestones to be attained with the one-year funding) and the outcomes (both the outcomes of the entire project and those for the current funding phase). Researchers should also state the anticipated impact of the the project (Note: Impact might not be achievable in one or even a few years in which case the current phase only contributes to it). Since this funding is specific to the current financial year, projects must demonstrate clearly the deliverables they expect within one year, matching the level of investment made and attainable in the 1-year timeframe. Multi-year projects should show clearly what will be achieved in the current year of funding as well as what would be achieved overall when the full PhD research is completed in the subsequent years.
Translation and dissemination for impact: Since this fund is aimed at supporting government and its partners to improve service delivery and to accelerate development, researchers should show a clear plan for disseminating their findings to audiences critical for policy and program change so as to achieve impact at scale. This will include a clear description of the knowledge translation and dissemination plan to stakeholders in the relevant sectors including the knowledge products anticipated to arise from the study (e.g., publications, policy briefs, knowledge briefs, etc.). Innovation-based projects should articulate a scaling strategy, including linkage to scaling partners within the industry (for commercially viable enterprises), or within the relevant public sectors (for innovations targeted to the public) or within relevant implementing agencies (for social enterprises). Innovations targeting commercial interest should demonstrate the anticipated commercial potential, anticipated demand, anticipated patents/copy-rights/industrial design claims/trademarks if applicable and the path to commercialization. Innovations targeting social impact (social innovations) should elucidate the path to wide scale community uptake.
Ethical implications: The implications of the research to human subjects, animal subjects and the environment should be articulated where necessary including how key ethical or environmental concerns arising from the study will be addressed. It is anticipated that at the time of full registration, projects requiring ethical approval will have already obtained that approval from their respective ethics committees.
Budget: Researchers will prepare a summary budget for the one-year phase of their project as well as a detailed budget. Budgets should be submitted in the official currency (Uganda Shillings). Because these are university funds, academic units (Departments, Schools and Colleges) will not charge institutional overheads to any of the research funds. Budgets should not spread beyond one Financial Year. Even if the projects to be funded under this mechanism are multi-year, researchers should provide a budget for only one Financial Year. The budgets will include the following sections:
1.0 Personnel costs
2.0 Travel
3.0 Supplies and services
4.0 Equipment
5.0 Program activity costs
6.0 Dissemination
Under Personnel costs, applicants should not budget for ‘Salaries’ for staff who are paid a salary by Makerere University or another Government of Uganda institution (whether on permanent or contract terms) as this would constitute double payment from government funds. However, such researchers can budget for ‘activity-based’ time input or ‘level-of-effort-based’ costs for their additional time input into the project in form of allowances. The latter should be justified by specifying the extra-time demands from the project for each individual involved.
Researchers can budget for salaries for critical project staff that are not paid by Makerere or the Government of Uganda e.g., Project Coordinators, Administrative Assistants, Research Officers etc. Regular Personnel costs excluding field research assistants should not exceed 33% of the budget. Field research assistants (or Data collectors) if needed should not be included under ‘Personnel costs’ but should instead be included under ‘Program Activity Costs’. All salaries and all repetitive allowances will be subject to mandatory statutory deductions at source, to pay the relevant taxes. Because these funds are earmarked to support actual research, PhD students cannot budget for a monthly stipend under this award.
In addition to the summary budget, research teams will be required to attach a detailed budget (As an MS Excel attachment) that breaks down all expenditure line items, inclusive of a budget justification that explains the rationale behind the different budget items. The total budget in the budget summary should exactly match that in the detailed breakdown. You should budget within the category that your project was funded in RIF-1. Budgeting in another category will lead to disqualification. The total budget should not exceed the highest amount indicated for the respective funding category in which your project lies. Exceeding the indicated category maximum can result in disqualification.
PhD Researchers can also budget for Tuition.
Workplan: Researchers will provide a list of key milestones for the project clearly demonstrating the deliverables expected at each point during the extension phase of the project. These milestones will be used as the basis for tracking implementation of activities towards project goals and outputs. Given the one-year time-frame for the awards, it will be important that researchers commit to a clear time-bound set of deliverables all achievable within one year for the main deliverable targeted during the current period of funding. Failure to articulate a one (1) year plan will imply inability to utilize the grant funds within one (1) year
GRANT PROCESS
Submission of applications: Submission of the applications will be online at http://rif.mak.ac.ug/portal All submissions must be online and must be made within the stipulated period. To access the application form, the PhD Research Fund applicant will be required to create a MakRIF account. In your account, select the appropriate funding opportunity and fill out the application form.
Rules governing applications: All applications should be written in English. All applications should be submitted via the online portal mentioned above. Complete applications must be submitted not later than 11.59pm East African Time on the closing date. No submissions after closure of applications will be accepted. Any attempt at solicitation of acceptance beyond this date will not be entertained. The Grants Committee bears no responsibility for submissions that are not completed in time and incomplete submissions will not be considered. If none of the submitted applications meets the requirements to receive a grant, the call may be reopened at the sole discretion of the Grants Management Committee. An individual researcher should not submit more than ONE application.
Participants agree to assume any and all risks, and to waive claims against Makerere University and the Grants Management Committee for any injury, death, damage, or loss of property, revenue, or profits, whether direct, indirect, or consequential, arising from their participation in this grant implementation.
Evaluation and selection of projects: Applications will be reviewed by the GMC. Submission of an application does not mean the project must be funded. The GMC will evaluate five main aspects of the project:
The alignment of the proposed research to national priorities as stipulated in the MakRIF research agenda
Clear articulation of the knowledge gap and how the planned research will contribute to building new knowledge
Quality of the proposal in terms of the relevance and innovativeness of the proposed solution, the planned activities and the articulation of a sound methodology
Clear stipulation of outputs and outcomes and feasibility of tangible achievements within one year of funding
Potential impact and transformativeness of the proposed research idea
Submission of a realistic budget
Notification of successful applicants: Successful applicants will be informed by email to their designated point of contact.
Grant timeline:
Milestone
Date
Issuance of RFA
Thur 29th Sept 2022 (Closed to PhD students only)
Closing date for applications
Sunday 23rd Oct 2022
Selection
Monday 24th October 2022 to Friday 18th November 2022
Award notification
Friday 18th November 2022
Induction
Tuesday 22nd November 2022
To submit application, please create an account on https://rif.mak.ac.ug/portal and login to start the application process.
In many parts of sub-Saharan Africa, schools do not operate in stable environments; they operate in uncertainty. A school year might begin with optimism and structure, only to be interrupted by floods, conflict, or a public health emergency. Yet across Global Partnership for Education (GPE) partner countries in Africa, something more complex is unfolding than repeated disruption. Education systems are not just reacting, they are adapting, improvising, and, in some cases, transforming.
In this blog, we share key insights from a desk review report that examined how GPE partner countries in Africa understand and operationalize education system resilience, the types of disruptions they face, and the strategies they use to sustain learning. Drawing on education policy documents and a wide range of academic and grey literature, the report offers a unique cross-country perspective on what it takes to keep education systems functioning amid constant change.
This is where education system resilience (ESR) becomes more than a technical concept. It becomes a lens for understanding how learning continues against the odds and why it sometimes does not.
Resilience looks different depending on where you stand
One of the most striking insights from the study is that there is no single, shared definition of resilience. Instead, countries interpret it through their lived realities.
In countries frequently hit by climate disasters, resilience often looks like preparedness—building safer schools, integrating disaster risk reduction into curricula, and training teachers to respond to emergencies. In places recovering from epidemics, it shows up as the ability to switch quickly to radio, print, or digital learning when classrooms close.
In conflict-affected settings, resilience takes on a different meaning altogether. It becomes deeply local. Communities step in where formal systems falter, organizing learning spaces, mobilizing volunteer teachers, and keeping education going even when the state cannot. In these contexts, resilience is less about systems “bouncing back” and more about communities holding things together.
This diversity of perspectives challenges any one-size-fits-all approach. It also raises an important question: if resilience looks different everywhere, how do we design policies that truly respond to context?
Disruption is rarely singular – it’s layered
Another key insight is that education systems are not dealing with isolated shocks, but overlapping crises.
A drought does not just damage school infrastructure; it affects livelihoods, pushes children into labour, and increases dropout rates. Conflict not only closes schools; it displaces families, strains host communities, and disrupts entire education systems across borders. Public health crises like COVID-19 expose digital divides and deepen existing inequalities.
For example, countries like Somalia, Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Djibouti face droughts and erratic rainfall, causing school closures, food insecurity, displacement, and psychosocial stress, particularly among rural and pastoral communities.
What emerges is a picture of a “polycrisis” in which climate, conflict, poverty, and health emergencies interact and reinforce one another. The result is not just a temporary interruption, but a cumulative erosion of learning outcomes, system capacity, and equity. Moreover, it is the most vulnerable learners, such as girls, children with disabilities, and those in rural or conflict-affected areas who bear the greatest burden.
If disruption is inevitable, then the real question becomes: can learning continue?
Across GPE partner countries, some of the most promising practices focus on this very challenge. During COVID-19, countries rapidly expanded distance learning through radio, television, and online platforms. While access was uneven, these efforts marked a shift toward more flexible education systems. Countries like Madagascar and the Gambia also use distance learning tools to support learning continuity in the face of adverse climatic events. But resilience is not just about technology. It is also about teachers: how prepared they are to adapt, support learners through uncertainty, and shift between teaching modalities. It is about curricula that reflect real-world risks, from climate change to conflict, and it is about planning, having contingency systems in place before a crisis hits.
In this sense, resilience is less about responding to emergencies and more about embedding flexibility into the system itself.
Communities and equity are at the heart of resilience
One of the quieter but still powerful themes emerging from the study is the role of communities.
In fragile and conflict-affected contexts, community actors, including parents, local leaders, and civil society, are often the backbone of education continuity. They manage schools, mobilize resources, and create informal systems of support when formal structures break down. In Liberia, community participation and local leadership both played a key role in restoring educational services following conflict, the Ebola outbreak, and repeated infrastructural shocks.
Even in more stable settings, community engagement strengthens accountability, supports vulnerable learners, and anchors education systems in local realities. Yet, this role is not always formally recognized or supported in policy. Bridging this gap could be key to building more grounded and sustainable resilience strategies. At the same time, it is precisely where policy recognition matters most. When communities are formally supported, as seen in Sierra Leone’s re-entry programs for pregnant girls, targeted policies can transform informal resilience into lasting systems change.
Resilience is often framed in terms of systems, policies, infrastructure, and planning. However, the study makes it clear that resilience is also about considering who gets left behind.
Gender inequality, poverty, and marginalization consistently shape who can continue learning during disruptions. Girls face increased risks of early marriage and dropout. Children from poorer households struggle with access to remote learning, while learners with disabilities are often excluded.
Sierra Leone’s approach illustrates this broader challenge, beyond re-entry programs for pregnant girls, the country has pursued targeted policies for social protection measures and inclusive education initiatives.
So why does it matter?
Without resilience, progress in education remains fragile. Years of investment in access and quality can be undone by a single crisis. In regions where disruptions are frequent, the cost of not building resilience is simply too high.
The study also offers a more hopeful perspective. Across GPE partner countries in Africa, there is clear momentum and meaningful efforts to integrate resilience into planning, invest in adaptive systems, and learn from past crises.
What is emerging is not a perfect model, but a growing body of practice. One that shows resilience is possible when it is context-driven, inclusive, and embedded across the system.
Looking ahead: from coping to transformation
If there is one takeaway from this study, it is that resilience cannot remain a reactive agenda. Too often, systems are designed to cope with the last crisis rather than prepare for the next.
Looking ahead, the challenge—and opportunity—is to shift from short-term responses to long-term transformation. This means embedding resilience into the core of education planning, not as an add-on, but as a guiding principle. It means investing not only in infrastructure and technology, but also in people, teachers, communities, and learners, who ultimately carry systems through disruption. It means prioritizing equity so that resilience efforts do not reinforce existing gaps but instead close them.
There is no single pathway to building resilient education systems. However, the experiences across GPE partner countries in Africa show that progress is possible when solutions are grounded in context, informed by evidence, and driven by collaboration.
Makerere University has stepped up efforts to strengthen its scholarly publishing ecosystem following a Journal Editors’ Workshop held on April 23, 2026, in the Smart Room, College of Humanities and Social Sciences (CHUSS), aimed at improving journal quality, increasing research visibility, and enhancing the university’s global rankings.
The workshop, organized by Makerere University Press (Mak Press), brought together journal editors from colleges, schools, and institutes across the university to discuss publication standards, consistency in journal production, international indexing requirements, governance, and sustainability of academic journals.
Speaking at the event on behalf of the Deputy Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs, Prof. Julius Kikooma, Director of Graduate Training (DGT) and Chairperson of the Technical and Quality Assurance Committee of Mak Press, said the workshop forms part of the university’s deliberate strategy to restore Makerere’s historic place as a continental hub of intellectual production.
He said Makerere had long been recognized as Africa’s leading center for scholarship, especially in the post-independence period when renowned academics and political intellectuals across the continent sought to publish their work through the university.
Prof. Kikooma Julius addresses participants at the workshop on 23rd April 2026.
“Makerere was once the place where Africa’s leading scholars wanted to publish. We are now working to revive that tradition by ensuring our home-based journals meet international standards and become the first choice for our researchers,” Prof. Kikooma said.
He noted that although the university continues to produce world-class researchers, much of their best work is published outside Makerere, benefiting external institutions in rankings and global visibility.
“Management has realized that there has been a missed opportunity. The research is done here, the scholars are nurtured here, but the visibility and ranking benefits have often gone elsewhere because we lacked strong publishing outlets of our own,” he said.
Prof. Kikooma emphasized that global university rankings heavily depend on publications in indexed journals, making the strengthening of Makerere’s home-based journals critical to its ambition of becoming a truly research-led institution.
Participants included CHUSS Deputy Principal-Prof. Eric Awich Ochen (5th R) and CHUSS Fmr. Principal-Prof. Josephine Ahikire (2nd R).
He also pointed to mindset as one of the biggest barriers. “Many academics have been inducted into believing that their best ideas are not for home consumption. We must change that mindset and build confidence in our own journals because strong societies use their own research outputs to solve real problems,” he added.
He further encouraged journal editors to make publications more responsive to society by introducing special issues that address pressing national and regional challenges.
Prof. William Tayeebwa, the Chief Managing Editor of Makerere University Press, said the workshop was intended to assess the progress of journals across colleges while equipping editors with the tools needed to meet international publishing standards.
“Our main goal was to engage editors on whether they are producing journals consistently. If they say they are biannual, are they really publishing twice a year? If not, they need to make realistic decisions and strengthen their workflow,” he said.
Prof. William Tayeebwa.
He explained that the workshop brought together editors from established journals, newly formed journals, and colleges that are yet to establish journals.
Prof. Tayeebwa revealed that one of the major gaps identified was that some colleges still do not have academic journals.
“Why would an entire college not have a journal? That was one of the major concerns. We are engaging prolific scholars in those colleges to understand what is holding them back,” he said.
He also noted that many journal editors were depending on Mak Press for support that should ordinarily come from their colleges, prompting the need for stronger institutional buy-in and sustainability mechanisms.
Mak Press, he said, is helping journals secure International Standard Serial Numbers (ISSN), assign Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs), and prepare for international indexing.
Some of the journal editors from colleges, schools, and institutes in attendance at the workshop.
He described ISSN as a critical identifier for journals. “If a journal does not have an ISSN, it cannot be discovered online and may not even be recognized by quality assurance systems. It is like a vehicle without a registration number plate,” he explained.
Prof. Tayeebwa said while research quality at Makerere is already strong, the university must significantly improve publication output.
“For a university of this size, publishing only a few dozen articles annually is not enough. With over 600 PhD students, master’s students, and staff, Makerere should be producing more than 1,000 journal articles every year,” he said.
He also called for stronger support for graduate students to co-publish with supervisors, noting that publication is already a graduation requirement for PhD students.
The Director, Institute of Gender and Development Studies Prof. Ruth Nsibirano, said the workshop demonstrates the university’s commitment to ensuring that knowledge generated at Makerere reaches the global academic community.
Her institute is currently developing the Makerere Gender and Development Journal, with its inaugural issue expected in early 2027.
Prof. Ruth Nsibirano.
“We do not believe the Global South should remain only consumers of knowledge. We have a lot of knowledge to generate and share with the world,” Prof. Nsibirano said.
She explained that the journal will focus on gender, social transformation, and development while providing a platform for research that reflects African realities and perspectives.
According to Prof. Nsibirano, the workshop also promotes collaboration among scholars across disciplines.
“It improves the way we interact as scholars. We can co-publish, co-author, and also know what is being published in other journals under Makerere Press. That strengthens research and institutional visibility,” she said.
She added that the main challenge affecting many journals had not necessarily been structural gaps, but reduced motivation, which caused some long-established journals to become dormant.
With renewed management support, stronger editorial coordination, and a push for international standards, Makerere University leaders believe the institution’s journals can once again become leading platforms for African scholarship and significantly contribute to the university’s competitiveness on the global stage.
Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC), The Netherlands, The University of Glasgow, Scotland, UK, Makerere University (Mak), College of Veterinary Medicine, Animal Resources and Biosecurity (COVAB) and College of Computing and Information Science Kampala, Uganda.
Makerere University (Mak) in collaboration with The Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC) and The University of Glasgow, Scotland, UK invites applications for two PhD positions. The PhD position is under our four (4) year (2026-2030) funded project by Global Health EDCTP3 Joint Undertaking and implemented through EU Funding & Tenders Portal under project name: Digital Dashboards in Diagnostic Innovations (DiDiDi) involving 16 research partner institutions from 6 countries, including LUMC, The University of Glasgow and Makerere University.
Project background
Digital Dashboards in Diagnostic Innovations (DiDiDi) focuses on developing secure digital dashboards to understand disease prevalence and to target new interventions for the treatment of these poverty related helminth infections. Schistosomiasis and soil‑transmitted helminth infections remain major public health challenges in Uganda and other endemic regions. Accurate and scalable diagnostic tools are essential for targeted treatment, monitoring of control programs, and progress towards elimination. The project has a specific focus on government and regional health surveillance systems, meteorological data collection and predictive models.
PhD Positions
PhD Position 1: Field-evaluation of diagnostic innovations for schistosomiasis and Soil‑Transmitted Helminth infections in Uganda
Within the DiDiDi consortium, this PhD project specifically contributes high‑quality field and clinical validation data to support the development and evaluation of digital diagnostic dashboards. The goal for the PhD is to collect and analyse clinical and field data in Uganda and to validate conventional diagnostic approaches against innovative digital diagnostics and environmental risk factors. The work will contribute to a better understanding of infection dynamics and to the development of improved diagnostic and surveillance strategies in endemic settings in low‑ and middle‑income countries (LMICs) to conduct doctoral research on the diagnosis of schistosomiasis and soil‑transmitted helminth (STH) infections in endemic settings.
PhD Position 2: Developing Machine Learning for Microscope Decision Support for Schistosomiasis and Soil‑Transmitted Helminth infections in Uganda
Within the DiDiDi consortium, this PhD project specifically contributes high‑quality field and clinical validation data to support the development and evaluation of digital diagnostic dashboards. As part of this programme, we are further developing low-cost automated microscopy that can be readily deployed in community settings. The goal for the PhD is to develop computationally low-resource mobile phone-based machine learning and AI algorithms to analyse field data. The work will involve the opportunity to collaborate with industrial partnerships based in Uganda and Europe. The overall aim of the project will be to contribute to a better understanding of infection dynamics and the development of improved diagnostic and surveillance strategies in endemic settings in low‑ and middle‑income countries (LMICs).
Application Process
Interested candidates should submit:
A motivation letter describing research interests and suitability for the project;
Curriculum vitae.
Only apply for one PhD track
Following a first selection round, potential candidates will be asked for:
Copies of academic transcripts and degree certificates;
Names and contact details of at least two academic referees.
A first round of interviews is likely to take place in Kampala on May 17th or 18th.
Submission Process
Submit your application to the project contact person at Makerere University, Associate Professor Lawrence Mugisha via email: mugishalaw@gmail.com not later than 7th May, 2026. For PhD 1, copy in E.A.van_Lieshout@lumc.nl while for PhD 2 copy in jon.cooper@glasgow.ac.uk
Only shortlisted candidates will be notified for the 1st phase of the interview.
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