General
Strengthening Grants Management Through Institutional Collaboration and Capacity Building
As the funding to the higher education sector keeps on reducing due to competing priorities, universities are implored to come up with structures and strategies to attract and win research grants.
Key findings indicate that universities with institutionalized grant management offices, strong and coordinated research teams are better positioned to effectively compete for grants.
Makerere University, in partnership with Northwestern University, is spearheading the E-SMAC G11 Grants Administration and Management workshop from 14th to 17th July 2025, aimed at strengthening grant management offices and systems among the participating universities and entities.
It is envisioned that through this capacity building approach, the workshop which brings onboard over 130 participants from different universities and entities, will address the knowledge and skills gaps among faculty, grant managers, administrators and support staff.
The participating universities and entities include: Makerere University, Uganda Christian University – Mukono, Soroti University, Gulu University, Clarke International University, King Ceasor University, Kyambogo University, Muni University, Mother Kevin University, Uganda Martyrs’ University-Nkozi, Ernest Cook University, Mbarara University of Science and Technology, University of Kisubi, Kabale University, Busitema University, BRAC University, Infectious Diseases Institute, Ministry of Health, and among others.
According to Prof. Sylvia Antonia Nakimera Nannyonga-Tamusuza, the Head of the Grants Administration and Management Support Unit (GAMSU) at Makerere University, the workshop provides a platform to: build faculty, grant managers and administrators capacity in grant writing and management, foster cross-functional collaboration across departments, strengthen understanding of budget creation, biosketch and funder systems, encourage mentorship and peer to peer learning, and lay a foundation for regular support.
The training tackles four broader themes namely Grants Introduction and Systems, Proposal Development, Capacity Building, and Outcomes and Forward Planning. It covers vital areas such as grant writing, budgeting, funder systems, compliance, and overall grant administration. It features practical sessions, mentorship opportunities, and collaborative learning, with the goal of strengthening pre-award and post-award grant management and improving research productivity and compliance.
The training workshop is part of the Expanded Strengthening of Makerere University’s Research Administration Capacity (E-SMAC) program, which focuses on enhancing research administrative systems and staff capacity at Makerere University and its partner institutions. The program being implemented from July 2024 to December 2025 is funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID).
Opening the workshop, the Acting Deputy Vice Chancellor (Finance and Administration) at Makerere University, Prof. Winston Tumps Ireeta urged universities to institutionalize grant management offices and policies as well as strengthening research systems through collaborations.
Sharing his experience, Prof. Ireeta informed the participants that he was involved in the strategic discussion that led to the establishment of GAMSU at Makerere University. “We observed that Makerere University School of Public Health had established a grants office, which was instrumental in attracting and winning funds for research. We were inspired by this best practice. Thus, a comprehensive policy was developed to streamline and strengthen grants management across all colleges at the University,” he said.
Prof. Ireeta noted that Makerere University commits to being a research-driven institution, a strategic direction, that needs a strong funding base. ‘Research grants are therefore a key resource,” he said.
Stressing the importance of adhering to the technical details in the grants management processes, Prof. Ireeta appealed to the participants to be active listeners and maximally utilize the moment to learn from the experienced facilitators.
In the same vein, Prof. Nannyonga-Tamusuza, applauded the University Council and Management for the strategic direction undertaken to elevate GAMSU from a Unit to a Directorate. This points to the central role of the grants office in the life cycle of Makerere University. She pointed out that GAMSU reports to the Vice Chancellor through the Deputy Vice Chancellor (Finance and Administration).
Established by the University Council in 2020, GAMSU is a central office at Makerere University. It provides professional and coordinated services across the entire grant life-cycle-from identifying funding and developing proposals to ensuring compliance, project execution, financial oversight, and institutional capacity building. GAMSU works closely with academic and administrative staff to support competitive, well-managed and accountable research.
Focusing on the training workshop, Prof. Nannyonga-Tamusuza called upon the participants to utilize the golden opportunity to deepen their understanding of grants management in advancing research. She acknowledged the role of this collaboration in fostering mutual learning and the sharing of best practices, noting that such initiatives were key in ensuring that research conducted by universities aligns with global standards. She encouraged participants to engage fully in the workshop, collaborate with their peers, and build lasting connections to foster continuous learning.
The Administrative Director of the Havey Institute for Global Health at Northwestern University, Ms. Kate Klein, noted that grants administration goes beyond securing funding. She explained that grant administration is about building strong, sustainable systems that support researchers, facilitate collaboration, and ultimately contribute to solving global challenges.
She urged participants to critically analyze their current systems and identify areas where improvements could be made. By doing so, they would be better positioned to manage grants effectively and maximize their impact.
“Collaborating and learning from one another is essential,” Ms. Klein stated. “When grants administration is effectively managed, it becomes a powerful catalyst for driving impactful change in research, ultimately advancing global initiatives that address the world’s most pressing challenges.”
Presenting the existing support systems and Principal Investigator (PI) agreements at Makerere University, Prof. Nannyonga-Tamusuza pointed out the critical role of GAMSU in maximizing Makerere University’s access to grants. This is particularly important in the context of limited financial resources, where GAMSU ensures that the university effectively leverages available funding opportunities.
Prof. Nannyonga-Tamusuza explained that GAMSU ensures research projects align with the priorities of funders and comply with both institutional and external regulations. She emphasized that this alignment is essential for securing and managing grants successfully. She stated that oversight offered by GAMSU, helps streamline the process for researchers. She pointed out that grant management is a collaborative process, involving multiple stakeholders across the university, which ensures that the necessary expertise and support are in place to manage grants effectively.
Underscoring the importance of grant negotiations, particularly with sub-award grants, Prof. Nannyonga-Tamusuza clarified that such negotiations are most successful when managed at the institutional level, where GAMSU oversees the entire lifecycle of a grant-from identifying funding opportunities to post-award activities.
Ms. Harriet Nambooze, the Project Coordinator at Makerere University School of Health Sciences, provided participants with a detailed guide on navigating the National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant application process. She introduced essential tools such as Grants.gov, Bureau Commons, and the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE), which are critical for submitting NIH funding applications.
Ms. Nambooze stressed the importance of accurately setting up roles, including Principal Investigator (PI), Systems Administrator (SA), and Administrative Official (AO), as well as ensuring that profiles are up-to-date across various systems like e-recommends and login.gov.
She highlighted the necessity of adhering to NIH’s strict submission deadlines and maintaining efficient account management to facilitate timely applications. To avoid potential delays, Ms. Nambooze recommended that institutions should appoint multiple System Administrators, to increase the chances of successful grant submissions.
Presenting to the participants, Mr. Mordecai Tayebwa shared a detailed, step-by-step guide to starting a new grant application. He explained the key elements of the grant process, including the necessity of including a budget, adhering to specific formatting guidelines, and uploading required documents, such as the foreign justification for international projects.
He emphatically pointed out the need of thoroughly verifying the application before submission to ascertain that all required documents are included. This step is crucial to avoid errors that could delay or jeopardize the submission.
The first day of the workshop set a strong foundation for enhancing grant administration capacity among the participating universities. Participants were equipped with knowledge and skills in grant systems at the national and global levels.
Day two, will focus on topics such as reading funding opportunity announcements, tailoring writing, budget development and justification, sub-contract management, sub-recipient monitoring, and Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs).
On Day three, the participants will gain a deeper understanding of the Grants Office, financial management, internal controls and reporting, peer review process overview and project closeout.
On Day four, the participants will witness the launch of the MakGAP (Makerere University Grants Professional Initiative), listen to a keynote speech on grants management from the Vice Chancellor of Makerere University, Prof. Barnabas Nawangwe, as well as presentations on professional growth through MakGAP, CRA Exam, and Global Research Administration Networks, and professional recognition of research managers and administrators in Africa and post evaluation.
Professor Lillian Tibatemwa-Ekirikubinza, Professor Maria Goretti Musoke, Professor Mary Okwakol, Dr. Ruth Muwazi, Professor Grace Bantebya, Ms. Catherine Kanabahita, Prof. Gorettie Nabanoga, among others are some of the notable alumnae of Higher Education Resource Services (HERS) that have gone on to blaze a trail of firsts for women leaders in higher education. Founded in 1972, the Denver, Colorado-based HERS has for the last 50 years been at the forefront of working for inclusive and equitable leadership in higher education by nurturing and empowering women leaders.
Following their own participation in a HERS academy, Dr. Naomi Lumutenga and Prof. Margaret Khaitsa in 2014 co-founded Higher Education Resource Services–East Africa (HERS-EA), as an educational non-profit organization to advance women leadership management in the region. On Tuesday 8th July 2025 the HERS-EA co-founders accompanied a delegation that paid a courtesy call on the Acting (Ag.) Deputy Vice Chancellor (Academic Affairs), Prof. Buyinza Mukadasi ahead of the HERS-EA Eighth Academy due to be hosted by Kabale University from 14th to 18th July 2025.
The delegation included Prof. Marlene Rebori-Professor and Community Development Specialist at the University of Nevada, and Dr. Soraya Beukes-Chairperson of HERS‑South Africa (HERS-SA) and Lecturer in Law, Community Engagement, and Social Justice at Cape Peninsula University of Technology and the Dullah Omar Institute, University of the Western Cape.
In attendance were the Chief Gender Mainstreaming Officer-Dr. Euzobia Mugisha Baine, Dean of Students-Dr. Winifred Kabumbuli, Ag. Director Graduate Training-Assoc. Prof. Julius Kikooma, Ag. Director Research Innovation and Partnerships-Assoc. Prof. Robert Wamala, Head Advancement Office-Mr. Awel Uwihanganye, and staff from the Vice Chancellor’s Office.
Welcoming the delegation, Prof. Buyinza Mukadasi expressed the University Top Management’s appreciation of the work HERS and HERS-EA do to improve the gender terrain, especially with regard to leadership in academics and research. “We are happy that you have sustained this interest in collaborating with us.”
He added that the bringing on board of facilitators from other HERS networks and partner institutions not only enriches the content but also underlines the value that the HERS-EA attaches to mentoring and inspiring more future women leaders in the region.
Making a presentation on behalf of the delegation, the Executive Director-Dr. Naomi Lumutenga sincerely appreciated the Vice Chancellor, Prof. Barnabas Nawangwe, who during his term as Deputy Vice Chancellor (Finance and Administration) offered unwavering support that enabled HERS-EA to get off to a flying start. This support, she added, has continued to-date.
The presentation titled “Gender inequality in leadership in Higher Education: a pervasive problem!” was a summary of a study undertaken in partnership with the Gender Mainstreaming Directorate (GMD) and the Makerere University School of Public Health (MakSPH) across seven regional Universities. Published in 2024, the study observed that only two institutions had female Chancellors/Rectors, while only one had a female DVCAA and two had a female DVCFA.
Furthermore, the study reported some pipeline issues limiting women’s participation in leadership such as the PhD requirement for promotion, few universities running PhD programmes in some countries, further exacerbated by age caps on PhD scholarships. Career and socio-cultural issues identified included; demands on graduate women to get married and have children early, the tough work-life balance of raising children versus pursuing a career, and the subtle yet perverse finding that women were comfortable being led by men, an extrapolation beyond marriage of the need for women to submit to their husbands.
Findings classified under institutional culture and implementation noted that policies targeting recruitment of female graduates were either nonexistent or not institutionalized in regional universities. This was in addition to reported favoring of male leaders and their leadership style, insubordination of female leaders by their male colleagues, the need for women to work extra hard to be accepted as leaders, and the elephant in the room, sexual harassment.
Additional qualitative responses from the seventy-seven respondents identified networking issues such as absent or limited platforms for women to coalesce and encourage each other, as well as limited institutional exchange and learning opportunities. Under measurement and accountability issues, the study observed that policies despite existing in several institutions are not fully implemented, while the 30% gender rule only exists on paper in several countries. Finally, the study observed that the lack of a monitoring and evaluation frameworks for gender policies limits the generation of actionable data on women’s participation in research, funding and research outputs.
As gloomy a picture as the study findings painted, Dr. Lumutenga shared that collaboration with HERS-EA avails opportunities at both individual and institutional levels. At individual level, HERS-EA provides access to; formal and informal mentors at national, South-South and North-South levels, training and career opportunities, negotiated payment terms for webinars, review and tracking of alumni leadership projects with a view of turning them into grants, additional supervisors or advisors for research undertakings, leadership training, and ongoing workshops on grant writing, research and publishing.
At institutional level, HERS-EA facilitates student and faculty exchange between universities and links senior administrators to mentorship opportunities. In addition, HERS-EA fosters access to specialist academic institutions such as the Ethiopian Academy of Science and their regional networks, as well as to a pool of external examiners for PhDs.
Concluding the presentation, Dr. Lumutenga expressed the HERS-EA’s willingness to present study findings to the University Council and/or Senate so as to help the aspirations to empower more women leaders gain more traction. Supplementing the presentation, Prof. Margaret Khaitsa- Professor at Mississippi State University and Chairperson HERS-EA Board said preparations were underway to hold a conference for academy alumni to touch base and network. She added that HERS-EA had also held talks with the Makerere University Press (MakPress) to produce a journal of research work conducted by alumni.
Discussions on the way forward proposed that:
- Whereas their participation has been largely virtual, more female staff from Makerere should be facilitated to participate in HERS-EA academies as residents by incorporating the activity in the Gender Mainstreaming Directorate (GMD)’s annual budget.
- GMD may work with the Directorate of Graduate Training to develop a foundational crosscutting course for PhD students to better appreciate the gaps in women leadership and empowerment beyond the Advanced Gender Research Methodology.
- GMD may work with academic units to conduct more seminars and trainings on gender mainstreaming and leadership especially for entry-level positions with a view of building a critical mass for the next mid to long-term period.
- Makerere’s existing MoUs with partners such as Michigan State University (MSU) should be leveraged to link Emerging/Early-Career researchers/administrators, students and other special categories to professional mentors in relevant disciplines.
- HERS-EA’s milestones and achievements should be disseminated and popularized more so as to appraise future leaders of the limitless possibilities that exist. Existing platforms such as Annual Doctoral Seminars should particularly be taken advantage of.
- More South-South collaborations should be forged and encouraged so as to secure more of Africa’s Intellectual Property on the continent.
- More men should be brought on board as champions of the targets being set to empower more women leaders in society.
- A HERS-EA alumni network should be founded with an annual gathering to share best practices and explore how to further goals of the programme.
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