Research
Makerere Hosts CARTA’s 11th Cohort of Doctoral Fellows
On Monday, March 3, 2025, Makerere University hosted the launch of the 11th cohort of the Consortium for Advanced Research Training in Africa (CARTA) doctoral fellowship. The new cohort comprises 11 females and nine males, drawn from eight partner universities across nine African countries. For the next four years, the group will undergo advanced training through the consortium’s collaborative efforts to strengthen research capacity across the continent.
CARTA, formed in 2008, is a network of eight African partner universities, four research institutes, and eight international collaborators, dedicated to strengthening doctoral training and institutional research capacity in Africa. The consortium is co-led by the African Population and Health Research Center (APHRC), based in Nairobi, Kenya, and the University of Witwatersrand in South Africa. Makerere University is a key partner, leading the consortium’s The Emerging and Re-emerging Infectious Diseases (TERID) East Africa Research Hub.
Among its key interventions, the consortium facilitates targeted and structured training and mentorship aimed at strengthening university-wide research systems. One such initiative is the doctoral fellowship programme’s Joint Advanced Seminars (JAS) started in 2011. JAS is a sequence of four annual seminars designed to support doctoral students registered in different CARTA partner institutions to progress seamlessly through their PhD journeys.
Now, since its inception over a decade ago, the consortium has supported many early career researchers across its partner institutions in Africa, admitting at least 265 doctoral Fellows and graduating over 183 of them. In turn, the Fellows have gone on to contribute to over 4,000 peer-reviewed research publications and secured more than $43 million in research grant awards, applying the skills gained through the intensive CARTA four-year programme.
Of the 183 CARTA graduates, Makerere University has had its fair share, with 25 PhD graduates supported through the consortium. One of them, Dr. Kato Charles Drago of the 3rd CARTA doctoral fellowship cohort who completed his PhD in clinical immunology and molecular genetics at Makerere University in 2016, is currently a Lecturer and Head, Department of Biotechnical and Diagnostic Sciences, and the Principal Investigator for the TERID Research Hub at Makerere University, where he is leading the efforts to improve disease diagnosis, treatment, and research capacity development within the region.
The ongoing Joint Advanced Seminar One (JAS 1) for the 11th cohort of the CARTA doctoral fellowship, launched last week at Makerere University School of Public Health’s (MakSPH) Resilient Africa Network in Kololo, Kampala, Uganda, runs for three weeks until March 21. Dr. John Bosco Isunju, CARTA Board member and institutional focal person at Makerere University noted that JAS 1 is designed to build critical thinking, technical skills, and core research competencies, critical for exposing the Fellows to key theories, seminal readings, and interdisciplinary research methods to interrogate public and population health.
“For our Fellows, you are joining the best consortium on the continent, to give you the best skills and make you change agents in your institutions. That is really CARTA’s vision. To create a critical mass that will go back and transform the situation in your institutions. What you are going to get here is the skills to write grants and attract resources, and skills to network and make partnerships. The first partners are the colleagues you have around you,” Dr Isunju said.
He revealed that the emergence of COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the 10th cohort, whose JAS 1 training was prematurely concluded in 2020. Since then, no new cohort of CARTA doctoral fellows had been admitted until now. “It has been a long struggle, but thanks to our dedicated partners worldwide who recognize the need and the gap, we are finally here,” Isunju shared.
The current 11th cohort was possible with support from the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) and the Oak Foundation (OAK), selected from a competitive pool of more than 150 eligible applicants from CARTA partner institutions.
Notably, for the first time, the consortium is having two PhD Fellows coming from Somali National University (SNU), that is: Ms. Amina Hassan Husien and Mr. Gallad Dahir Hassan. The two students will be hosted at Makerere University for their doctoral studies, to aid with capacity development and mentorship. Their research focus will be around maternal and reproductive health, and vaccine-preventable disease surveillance, respectively.
Expressing optimism, Gallad said the fellowship will equip them with the requisite skills to conduct policy-relevant research, ultimately enabling them (the Fellows) make meaningful impact in their home institutions and contribute to Africa’s research and development agenda.
“My research is in disease surveillance system especially vaccines preventable diseases. I want to fill the gap in reporting from the community level. I appreciate CARTA for providing us with this invaluable opportunity and Prof. Rhoda Wanyenze for her efforts to secure the two positions for Somalia National University to be mentored at Makerere University.” He said.
For her part, officiating the launch of the 11th cohort of the CARTA doctoral fellowship, Makerere University School of Public Health Dean, Prof. Rhoda Wanyenze, expressed gratitude for the support to help the Fellows through their PhD journeys. However, she challenged the Fellows to look beyond simply earning their PhD qualifications and instead focus on making meaningful contributions that improve lives and impact communities.
“I know each of you has likely defined what success looks like at the end of this programme or even 10 years from now. But I urge you to go beyond personal achievement and add to that impacting others, shaping the world around you, starting with Africa, and speaking for something you are really passionate about,” Prof. Rhoda Wanyenze emphasized.
She also noted that the 11th cohort is unique, because they are starting their PhD journey amid major global changes. While these shifts may pose a challenge, she said they also present an opportunity to rethink how health systems are structured, financed, and coordinated, to enhance the promotion of global health equity and access to critical services.
The CARTA doctoral fellowship supports PhD students at partner institutions through the Joint Advanced Seminars (JAS), in addition to offering stipend, research funding, essential equipment and software, and coverage for tuition, medical insurance, and travel. Fellows also receive mentorship, supervisory support, networking opportunities, and training in grant writing and research dissemination, including support for presentations at international conferences. The fellowship is open to staff from CARTA partner institutions.
Dr. Florah Karimi, the CARTA Program Manager for Institutionalization and Scientific Quality and the Head of Research and Capacity Strengthening at APHRC, Kenya, stated that CARTA’s structured doctoral model has transformed PhD education in African universities, integrating mentorship and interdisciplinary approach to training to produce scholars who are well equipped for global academic and policy engagement.
“CARTA has grown, and we now consider ourselves a proven concept. We deeply appreciate the support from our partner institutions, which have been instrumental in shaping what CARTA is all about. As more institutions come on board, we have reached a point where this is no longer just about us. We are influencing our universities, shaping individual careers, and now, we must extend that impact to other institutions,” Dr. Karimi noted passionately.
Uganda must strengthen the systems that move university research beyond prototypes and publications into policies, public services, products and enterprises that improve people’s lives, Hon. Eng. Jonard Asiimwe Akiiki, Minister in charge of Science, Technology and Innovation in the Office of the President (STI-OP), has said.
He made the call during a visit to Makerere University School of Public Health on Wednesday, 16 September 2026, as part of his wider engagement with Makerere University’s research and innovation ecosystem. Accompanied by University Management, led by Vice-Chancellor Prof. Barnabas Nawangwe, the Minister met researchers presenting work across major public health priorities before touring the School’s new building.
Hon. Eng. Asiimwe linked the challenge to Uganda’s Tenfold Growth Strategy, which targets expanding the country’s GDP from nearly USD 50 billion in 2023 to USD 500 billion by 2040. He argued that science, technology and innovation must help deliver that ambition by raising productivity, improving public services and creating viable enterprises.
“The Tenfold Growth Strategy will not be achieved by one particular project alone,” he stated. “It will be achieved when science, technology and innovation repeatedly raise the productivity and incomes of millions of ordinary people.”
The work presented at MakSPH showed how public health research can contribute to that ambition by shaping clinical guidance and national policy, strengthening systems that improve services and protect population health, and advancing technologies towards wider testing and adoption.
One such example was the PURPOSE 1 study, a 2022–2024 trial that evaluated Gilead Sciences’ twice-yearly injectable lenacapavir for HIV prevention among adolescent girls and young women. Prof. Noah Kiwanuka served as Site Principal Investigator for MakSPH’s work at Makerere-Kalangala site through the UVRI-IAVI collaboration. The trial recorded no HIV infections among participants who received lenacapavir, contributing evidence that informed regulatory decisions and WHO’s 2025 recommendation of the drug as an additional HIV prevention option.
In maternal and newborn health, MakSPH’s Centre of Excellence for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health recently partnered with St. Francis Hospital Nsambya to establish Uganda’s first human milk bank and generate evidence on the safe use of pasteurised donor milk. The work has now contributed to Uganda’s first National Donor Human Milk Guidelines and provides a model that other hospitals could adopt.
The exhibition also showed how university expertise can strengthen national systems. Through the Monitoring and Evaluation Technical Support (METS) Programme, MakSPH worked with the Ministry of Health for more than 15 years to develop and support platforms for health reporting, disease surveillance and programme management. The U.S. CDC funded the programme through PEPFAR, providing US$103.8 million across three five-year grants. In March 2026, MakSPH transitioned 16 digital health systems developed through METS, together with their supporting infrastructure, to Ministry of Health stewardship.
Makerere University School of Public Health Dean Prof. Rhoda Wanyenze said the School embeds teaching and research within communities, health facilities and public institutions through its “Public Health School Without Walls” model, designing research around the problems it must address and the value it can create.
“For us, translation is not alien. It is where we start when designing our research,” Prof. Wanyenze noted. “We examine what drives ill health and what we can do to solve the problem. As we consider translation and commercialisation, we must define how scientific impact grows into societal impact and track that contribution through health outcomes and economic growth.”
That approach informs VectorCam, an artificial intelligence-enabled smartphone tool that MakSPH is evaluating in Mayuge and Adjumani districts. It enables community health workers to identify mosquitoes by species, sex and feeding status, generating faster data for malaria-control decisions. Prof. Peter Waiswa serves as Uganda Principal Investigator for the Gates Foundation-funded project, which MakSPH implements with Johns Hopkins University. The partners plan to extend it to 22 districts and assess its performance under routine conditions in 12.
Watch how VectorCam uses a smartphone and artificial intelligence to identify mosquitoes and strengthen malaria surveillance:
The School’s national survey work also demonstrates local capacity to generate evidence for policy. Uganda launched the 2024–2025 Uganda Population-based HIV Impact Assessment (UPHIA) in May 2025 with support from the U.S. Government and technical leadership from MakSPH. The Ministry of Health expects to release the findings on 1 October 2026, providing updated evidence on HIV prevalence, new infections, viral suppression, service coverage and associated risk behaviours to guide the country’s future HIV response.
The School also led Performance Monitoring for Action (PMA) Uganda, a nationally representative platform that generated recurring evidence on contraceptive use, access and service quality. Working with the Ministry of Health and other partners, it enabled Uganda to track change, identify persistent gaps and guide family-planning policy and investment.
This combination of evidence generation and local capacity gives practical expression to Makerere University’s Strategic Plan 2025–2030, launched in July 2026, which seeks to build a sustainable, research-led and responsive university. During a visit to MakSPH on 18 June 2026, Prof. Barnabas Nawangwe described the School as a model of that institutional direction.
“I think the School of Public Health is the perfect example of what a research-led unit should be,” Prof. Nawangwe said. “You are really showing the way for the rest of the University and what we should be as a research-led university.”
The work supports priorities under Uganda’s Fourth National Development Plan (NDP IV), including stronger health research, innovation and uptake of locally generated solutions. Speaking at a public dialogue on health financing jointly organised by MakSPH and partners in April 2026, Prof. Nawangwe said Makerere attracts more than UGX 1 trillion into Uganda annually through research and urged the Government to increase support for the University’s national role.
Today, the Government allocates about UGX 25 billion annually through theMakerere University Research and Innovations Fund (Mak-RIF) to support research and innovation across Makerere. Beyond Mak-RIF, it recently contributed UGX 14 billion to the construction of the new MakSPH building. Work began in 2020 and remains on course for completion in December 2026.
The facility will expand space for teaching, research, laboratories and collaboration. The School’s next infrastructure priority is a specialised environmental health laboratory to investigate health risks associated with air, water, food and other environmental exposures.
Through STI-OP, the Government also supports the NUTRIMEAL Project. Dr Barbara Eva Kirunda leads the project, which brings together MakSPH and Makerere University’s School of Food Technology, Nutrition and Bioengineering to develop a non-dairy probiotic beverage from locally available finger millet and beetroot for people living with HIV. The team will test its safety and effects on immune and nutritional outcomes among 432 participants.
Hon. Eng. Asiimwe placed that support within a longer pathway from research to use. He said developing and testing an innovation represent only part of the journey and called for stronger systems to move viable innovations into policy, public services, products and enterprises.
“Every innovation should be able to name its user, define the problem it solves and show the value it creates,” he said. “We should move beyond saying, ‘We developed a prototype,’ to showing who uses it, who manufactures it, how it reaches the market and how it will grow.”
Reaching that point requires the capacity to generate and test evidence, alongside collaboration among universities, government and industry in validation, standards, intellectual property, financing, manufacturing, procurement and public trust.
Public health research creates value not only through commercial products but also evidence that changes policy, strengthens surveillance, improves clinical practice and guides national programmes. The challenge now is to move the strongest research into use and turn it into better services, greater productivity and healthier lives, all essential to Uganda’s tenfold growth ambition.
Agriculture & Environment
Makerere Hosts Inaugural Falling Walls Lab Competition as Innovators Pitch Solutions to National Challenges
Students and researchers from Makerere University and other institutions pitched 12 innovations addressing challenges in healthcare, clean energy, agriculture, waste management and community resilience during the inaugural Falling Walls Lab Kampala, held at the School of Public Health Auditorium, Makerere University.
The competition brought together emerging innovators to present solutions to practical challenges through a three minute pitch, followed by questions from a panel of judges.
Modelled on the Falling Walls format that originated in Berlin, the event required each participant to identify a “wall” a problem or barrier, and demonstrate how their innovation seeks to break it down.
Mudhasi wins with newborn jaundice screening device
Andrew Mudhasi of Makerere University emerged as the overall winner with a score of 90 per cent for a low cost medical device designed to improve newborn jaundice screening across different skin tones.
Mudhasi explained that the device uses optical sensor technology and a skin tone targeting algorithm to provide a rapid reading, with the aim of helping nurses and clinicians identify jaundice more efficiently.
During questions from the jury, Mudhasi said the device had not yet been tested on actual babies but had undergone laboratory testing using simulated skin tones.
He reported an accuracy rate of 94 per cent when the device was compared with laboratory spectrophotometers.
The innovation is intended initially for use in clinics and hospitals, with Mudhasi saying the team is also considering a version that could eventually allow mothers to screen babies at home.
Mudhasi’s innovation has previously received recognition at the African Business Concept Challenge and the iF Design Student Award, according to his presentation.
Rhonda’s innovation tackles diaper waste
Rhoda John of the University of Nairobi emerged in second place with 89.6 per cent for an innovation addressing the problem of used diaper waste.
Under the theme “Breaking the wall of diaper waste and drug soils,” Rhonda explained that her team extracts sodium polyacrylate, the absorbent polymer found in diapers, and replaces the sodium with potassium.
The resulting potassium based superabsorbent material is designed to act as a “water battery” in soil by absorbing and retaining water for plants during dry periods.
John said testing showed a 99 per cent increase in germination and a 23 per cent increase in drought resistance.
The innovation also seeks to reduce the amount of used diapers ending up in landfills and the environmental effects associated with their decomposition.
During the question and answer session, John explained that her team was working with government environmental officials in Nairobi on a pilot collection system to address the challenge of gathering used diapers at scale.
Mahera takes third place with herbal peptic ulcer treatment
Stuart Mahera of Makerere University finished third with 86.2 per cent for a herbal formulation targeting peptic ulcers.
Presenting under the theme “Breaking the wall of Nature and Modern Medicine,” Mahera argued that conventional treatment for peptic ulcers can involve multiple medicines and may be associated with side effects and antimicrobial resistance.
His proposed formulation, MARAC capsules, is intended as a monotherapy, combining properties required for peptic-ulcer treatment in a single capsule.
Mahera said his team had carried out quality control work, including characterisation and dose quantification, and had conducted preclinical trials on laboratory mice.
He also told the jury that an application had been submitted to the National Drug Authority as the team awaits the next stage of the regulatory process.
According to Mahera, the proposed seven day treatment would cost about Shs21,000, compared with the existing 14 day treatment approach.
Innovators present solutions to practical challenges
The remaining presentations covered a wide range of challenges.
Esther Nakungu of Utamu University presented Agri-Track, a digital record keeping solution intended to improve visibility, accountability and management of farm operations and financial information.
Dr. Jimmy Chachiga, a Makerere University participant, presented a solar photovoltaic cooker with a heat storage system designed to provide a cleaner and more reliable cooking option during both sunny and non sunny periods.
His presentation focused on reducing dependence on biomass fuels and addressing the challenges associated with intermittent solar energy.
Abdul Noor Luttamaguzi, a PhD student and senior government fisheries officer, presented a mobile application aimed at helping fish farmers and extension officers report, track and manage disease outbreaks.
Henry Duke Tamale presented a herbal cream targeting antibiotic resistant biofilm infections associated with diabetic foot ulcers.
Marvin Seruwu proposed adapting existing near infrared brain monitoring technology to help detect extra-axial brain bleeds in health facilities where access to CT and MRI equipment is limited.
His proposal seeks to repurpose existing technology towards a diagnostic need that could be particularly important in settings where advanced imaging facilities are not readily available.
Kennedy Kisame presented a poultry alert and diagnosis system combining satellite weather information with computer vision disease detection. The proposed system could be accessed through a smartphone application, SMS or USSD, making it potentially usable by farmers with limited internet access.
Frank Atwiine proposed a solar powered mobile diagnostic van designed to bring ultrasound and other diagnostic services closer to rural communities.
Johnson Makmot, a software and blockchain developer, presented a platform that combines GPS tracking and blockchain-based tokens to incentivise and verify plastic-waste collection in Kampala.
Dr. Nelson Ndugu, from a partner university, presented an artificial intelligence tool designed to translate agricultural research publications into local Ugandan languages and generate voice notes for radio-based extension delivery.
The final presentation came from Dr. Juliet Akola, a Ugandan post doctoral researcher at Mangosuthu University of Technology in South Africa.
Akola presented a community digital resilience initiative focused on mapping risks in Kampala’s informal settlements, including flooding, fire, poor sanitation, waste management and inadequate infrastructure.
Her proposal seeks to combine local community knowledge with geographical information systems and link identified risks to action plans involving municipalities and other stakeholders.
Nawangwe calls for more investment in innovation
Closing the event, Prof. Nawangwe congratulated all the participants and described their presentations as an important beginning for Makerere University, Uganda and the wider region.
Drawing on his experience attending the Falling Walls conference in Berlin, the Vice Chancellor said initiatives of this nature are important because innovation will play a major role in determining the future of countries.
He encouraged participants to make their pitches more precise by clearly identifying the problem they are addressing, explaining their proposed solution and demonstrating what they have already achieved.
Prof. Nawangwe also welcomed the participation of innovators from other universities and countries, noting that the Kampala event had attracted participants beyond Makerere.
He thanked the Africa Office of the Falling Walls Foundation for its role in bringing the initiative to Makerere and encouraged continued support for innovation.
The Vice Chancellor further linked innovation to Uganda’s growing youth population and the need to develop home-grown solutions to address challenges such as youth unemployment.
The inaugural Falling Walls Lab Kampala ultimately provided a platform for innovators to move ideas beyond the classroom and laboratory and demonstrate how research, technology and creativity can be applied to challenges affecting communities.
| Position | Winner | Institution | Score |
| 1st | Andrew Mudhasi | Makerere University | 90% |
| 2nd | Rhoda John | University of Nairobi | 89.6% |
| 3rd | Stuart Mahera | Makerere University | 86.2% |
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