New AU grant award set to boost cross-continental collaboration and strengthen African research output

The Africa University Clinical Research Unit has won an award  for the Research Management Programme (ReMPro) from the African Academy of Sciences (AAS)  whose aim is to  transform research management at institutional level . This is to be done by zoning in on  four key interconnected strands in the research process which are: institutional leadership, sustainability, standards and the  development of  individual capacity of research management.

Mrs. Mandla Tirivavi Research Coordinator of the AU CRC, represented Africa University in the development of the application for the grant that was a collaboration between the university and four other persons  from the University of Zimbabwe-College of Health Sciences (UZ-CHS), Midlands State University (MSU), Bindura University of Science Education (BUSE) and the National University of Science and Technology (NUST), all serving as research administrators/managers in their respective institutions. 

The winning proposal titled , “Developing Monitoring and Evaluation Systems and Skills for Grants Management in 5 Zimbabwean Universities”, aspires to develop  monitoring & evaluation tools that will facilitate the tracking and reporting of grants management functions at local institutions.. 

The Zimbabwe team of researchers have been partnered with researchers from the University of London (London School of Economics and Political Science and SOAS University of London) where exchange visits for sharing knowledge, the enhancing of  skills in research management and the development of research management tools shall be explored.

The African Academy of Sciences (The AAS) is a non-aligned, non-political, not-for-profit pan African organization whose vision is to see transformed lives on the African continent through science. Its tripartite mandate is recognizing excellence through The AAS’ highly prestigious fellowship and award schemes, providing advisory and think tank functions for shaping Africa’s Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) strategies and policies and implementing key Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) programmes addressing Africa’s developmental challenges.

The STI that the Academy supports focuses on five strategic focus areas: Environment and climate change, health and wellbeing, natural sciences, policy and governance and social sciences and humanities.