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.
Makerere University and Northwestern University have built a strong partnership over the past decade through academic exchange, collaborative research, and capacity building initiatives. “Since 2020, the institutions have deepened their collaboration in research administration through the UASP fellowship, sharing best practices and co-developing of sustainable systems to strengthen research management,” said Prof. Sylvia Antonia Nakimera Nannyonga-Tamusuza, Head of Grants Administration and Management Support Unit (GAMSU) at Makerere University.
She informed the participants that Northwestern University has been instrumental in building the capacity of staff at Makerere University in grants writing, management and administration.
Prof. Nannyonga-Tamusuza testified that when she was appointed to head GAMSU, she received comprehensive training from Northwestern University, which enhanced her competences and expertise in the field. She acknowledged Kate Klein from Northwestern University for the mentorship that empowered her with valuable knowledge and skills. She reported that five (5) members of staff from Makerere University had been trained by Northwestern University in grants and research management.
Filled with joy, she introduced the team of experts from Northwestern University namely Kate Klein, Bethany Ekesa and Elizabeth Christian to Makerere University, and applauded them for accepting to be facilitators. Prof. Nannyonga-Tamusuza assured the workshop participants that the team from Northwestern University would not only train them, but would share best practices in grants management and administration as well as networking opportunities.
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. Mordecai Tayebwa is the Program Director and Principal Investigator of the E-SMAC program being implemented from July 2024 to December 2025. The program is funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID).
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.
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, 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.
Klein stated that grants administration and management require continuous learning, adaptability, and a strong foundation in regulatory and financial oversight.
“Collaborating and learning from one another is essential,” 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.”
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. She guided that a research grants administrator should be able to design monitoring frameworks, liaising with funders to address grant-specific issues, coordinating compliance, budgeting and reporting to ensure timely and effective implementation.
Presenting the Existing Support Systems and Principal Investigator (PI) agreements, 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.
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, eRA Commons, SAM.gov and the NATO Commercial and Government Entity (NCAGE), which are critical for applying and receiving an NIH award.
Nambooze stressed the importance of accurately setting up roles in the eRA Commons system, including Signing Official (SO), Principal Investigator (PI), Account Administrator (AA), and Administrative Official (AO), as well as ensuring that profiles are up-to-date across various systems.
She highlighted the necessity of adhering to NIH’s strict submission deadlines and maintaining active individual and institutional profiles to facilitate timely applications. She recommended that institutions should appoint multiple Signing Officials (SOs), to avoid any delays with the required submissions.
Presenting to the participants, 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 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,” he said.
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.
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.
Dr. James Magara, a futurist and Chairman of Yobel Biashara Initiative stood before an audience at Makerere University on September 30, 2026, and projected a map of the world. It was upside down.
He asked the room if anything was wrong, and as the audience hesitated, he revealed that “in 1569, the Flemish cartographer and geographer whose name was Gerardus Mercator, developed a map now known as the Mercator projection. It represented the curved shape of the Earth on a flat map.” He simplified it saying, the Mercator map accurately shows direction and local shape, but it distorts the size of places, especially those that are located near the poles. He pointed out that the map distorts the size of continents, making Greenland appear as large as Africa, when in reality, Africa is 14 times larger.
Fixing the map was easy and free, it took one vote, Dr Magara said, referencing the recent United Nations resolution that encouraged accurate area projections. Indeed fixing the map was easy but the actual material weight of this continent and its institutions that run within the world economy is why dialogues like this exist. “Until we (Africa) fund our own institutions ourselves, the continental agenda will keep belonging to whoever writes the check.”
This and more were part of Dr. Magara’s opening remarks while delivering a keynote at the YOBEL Biashara Conference 2026 hosted at Makerere University School of Public Health Auditorium.
The event, was co-hosted by the CASTLE Think Tank, YOBEL Biashara, and Makerere University under the theme: “Africa’s Agency in an Era of Geopolitical Change: Trade, Investment and Economic Transformation,” brought together a diverse assembly of policymakers, academics, and private sector leaders.
Representing Dr. Adam Mugume the Chief Guest who could not make it due to unavoidable circumstances, Ms. Doreen Katangaza, a researcher and economist at the Bank of Uganda (BoU) delivered his remarks while reflecting on Dr. Magara’s keynote.
She explained “what agency means in economic policy, is not isolation, it’s not withdrawal, but the capacity to choose, to negotiate, and to act.”
She emphasized that relying on external factors or rhetoric is insufficient for long-term transformation. Instead, she suggests that agency is defined by internal strength and the ability to act independently. As she states, “Africa’s agency will not only be secured by rhetoric. It will be built through capabilities. The capability to produce, the capability to finance development, capability to manage shocks and above all, capability to make choices based on our own long-term interests and people’s priorities.”
Ultimately, Ms. Katangaza aligned with all speakers mobilising for a holistic approach involving government, the private sector, and academia to build these foundations. She noted that the Bank of Uganda is committed to harmonising policies and payment systems to support this, but success depends on whether these ideas translate into tangible outcomes, such as stronger institutions and resilient economies, when stakeholders reconvene in the future.
She concluded by congratulating the YOBEL Biashara Initiative, CASTLE Think Tank, and Makerere University for organizing the forum “a platform for thoughtful discussion about Africa’s economic future.” She thanked all the speakers, all panelists, and participants for their valuable contribution and attention during her communication and entire event.
Cost of Institutional Dependence to the Continent
Dr. Magara’s address was his critique of the continent’s institutional funding. He pointed out that member states currently fund only 24% of the African Union’s own program budget. Charity begins at home, he stated. With 76% out of every dollar the African Union spends coming from partners outside the continent. He argued that this dependency is self-inflicted and fixable.
He advised that if we genuinely want a technology-creating continent, the work has to start in the primary school classroom, not in the university innovation hub. He added, while also highlighting that Africa’s research and development spending sits at 0.4 percent of GDP, far below the world average.
Dr. Magara also addressed the implementation gap that has affected the continent for decades. He suggested that the failure to execute on well-crafted strategies is not just a capacity problem, but a result of selfish interests within. Some people are benefiting from the way things are, he explained. So, if they change, they will lose the benefit.
As a futurist and leadership strategist, Dr. Magara used his keynote address to also dismantle some of the comfortable narratives often repeated in policy circles. He challenged the audience to reconsider the concept of agency, arguing that choice only becomes agency when backed by the capacity to act. He pushed back against the common narrative that Africa’s youth population is automatically a demographic dividend.
A youth bulge without a falling birth rate, without matching job creation is not a dividend, he warned. It is a dependency burden wearing dividends lobbying.
Dr. Magara said, “if you ask any panel anywhere on this continent why Africa has not industrialised, you will get the same three answers almost every single time. Not enough skills, not enough infrastructure, not enough finance. And all of this is true. All of it is real. None of it should be dismissed.” But none of those three answers explains a much stranger fact sitting right in front of us, “why have we been writing almost identical strategy documents, making almost identical recommendations for 30 years plus.”
He urged the room to be honest about the reality of the labor market, noting that every year, between 10 and 12 million Africans enter the labor market, while economies create roughly three million formal jobs. That gap cannot close itself, he stated. And it does not close by wishing it away in a policy document.
Engagement with Dr. Magara’s Keynote
The keynote featured significant engagement, primarily from Professor Pamela Mbabazi, Ms. Allen-Sophia Asiimwe, and Dr. Fred NK Muhumuza, who offered diverse perspectives that somewhat aligned with, and at certain points challenged his arguments.
Professor Pamela Mbabazi, Executive Chairperson of the National Planning Authority (NPA), offered a government perspective on the issues raised. She acknowledged the disconnect between some policy and deep thinking. Siding with Dr. Magara, there is a visible rush into making decisions without having deep thinking and engaging with amazing think tanks like YOBEL, CASTLE, she admitted.
She called for a more intentional approach to policymaking, urging think tanks to collaborate more closely with government bodies like the NPA. She explained that countries like China did not get to where they are by accident, they were intentional to include their think tanks into policy making and no decisions were made haphazardly.
Professor Mbabazi suggested that as a country and continent we can have our think tanks drive policy if we want to build a five-hundred-billion-dollar economy by 2040.
She concluded her submission joining Dr Magara in questioning whether Africa could credibly speak of strategic agency when the institutions through which agency is exercised remain substantially dependent on financing from elsewhere.
Allen Sophia Asiimwe the Deputy CEO/Chief of Programme at trademark Africa addressed the conference via zoom, and expressed she was happy “when Dr. Magara started off with a question on the size of Africa on the map and in reality, it matters.”
However, she challenged some of his assertions on financing. She requested to push back on this very strongly saying “If you look at how Africa is made up, a lot of our countries are still very poor,” arguing that the continent’s economic reality as of now requires external support.
With that said, she shifted the focus from external funding to internal inefficiencies, agreeing that Africa is sabotaging its own growth through non-tariff barriers, noting, “we are self-sabotaging. If we opened up for trade, if we allowed goods to cross the borders, we may actually make a big difference,” Ms. Asiimwe discussed.
Dr. Fred Muhumuza a prominent Ugandan development economist, senior lecturer, and policy advisor also engaged with the views on economic planning and indicators.
He agreed that think tanks are an issue, and that they must be embraced for the better. We must think about our problems, talk about them, and see what sense we make to ourselves.
Dr. Muhumuza questioned the premise that the source of financing is the primary issue, suggesting that the quality of the plan being financed is more critical.
Major General Gregory Mugisha Muntuyera, added his voice to Dr Magara’s arguing that beyond map size, Africa’s development is hindered not by a lack of potential, but by a mindset of dependency. Drawing a contrast to the conditioning of elephants in India mastered by small humans.
The General stated, “we have got the knowledge, we have got the qualifications, but we have been conditioned.”
He emphasized that true progress requires discipline for ” without this nothing is going to happen” regardless of how many conferences are held.
The Cost of a Broken System
Ms. Eseza Mulyagonja, a member of the YOBEL Biashara board, as one of the opening speakers, issued a strong reminder of the urgency required in addressing the continent’s challenges.
Ms. Mulyagonja shared a story so dear to her, of a young boy in a village who died after being bitten by a snake because he was not in school, for his fees were unpaid. She used this to illustrate the human cost of broken systems and advised that we do not have to wait for calamity to strike, since this is a story that is so common.
She said as a continent, we have got to confront these things saying if we do not bring these stories close to home, we will not be propelled to change the direction for the better.
MAKERERE-CASTLE-YOBEL A PARTNERSHIP FOR AFRICA’S TRANSFORMATION
Representing Professor Sarah Ssali, the First Deputy Vice Chancellor in charge of Academic Affairs, Professor Edward Bbaale the Principal College of Business and Management Sciences, emphasised the institution’s commitment to being an active partner in national and continental transformation acknowledging the global economic order is undergoing profound change, characterised by geopolitical realignment and an accelerating energy transition.
“These questions cannot be settled in just one conference. These are conversations that we’re going to have to continue even after here. So once again, I thank our chief guest, our keynote speaker, our discussants, our partners, the organizers, and every one of you who have made this time a meaningful time spent and made meaningful contributions to Africa’s future.
“The important question, therefore, is not simply how Africa will be affected by these changes, but how Africa will shape them”, Professor Bbaale remarked.
Crowning the remarks from the host institution, Makere University Chairperson of Council Dr. Lorna Magara appreciated everyone that was present for this noble conversation.
She said, “I trust that each of us leaves today with at least one idea that we are going to execute for the good of our continent.”
She proposed that the first item on the agenda of the YOBEL Biashara 2027 conference should be looking at the scorecard of what has been done to see that Africa increasingly moves from being a passive recipient of global economic decisions to becoming an active participant in shaping the rules, institutions, and partnerships that determine its development direction.
View Pictorial: https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjD6mhp
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