© Consortium for Advanced Research Training in Africa( CARTA) & University of Nairobi( UoN)
250,000,000M, which increased overtime to the tune of KES 497,000,000M by 2015 / 2016 fiscal year.
How can African Governments commit to research funding?
African Governments must identify which development partners can be approached to support research and development activities in Universities. Perhaps there is need to build on the capacity of African institutions as well for effective management of research funds.
So what is the starting point? The beginning is to inject money in the research institutions in respective African countries like the NRF and NACOSTI for Kenya. After obtaining research funds, there is need to resolve the costs for normal operations of Universities so that research funds are purely dedicated to research. It is also important for African Universities to come up with innovative ways of creating income and attracting funding through competitive grants.
The role of government in funding research
The private sector can fund research in public universities but it can never be enough, the government has a big role to play. It is important to note that the government funding is sometimes not applied on a competitive basis, which is a challenge to public universities funding.
In 2013, Asia was number one in driving growth for global research and development. The Asian countries are at the forefront in supporting research activities and their research and innovation sectors have been catapulting the economic growth rates of the countries to a high over the years.
African universities must therefore frame a narrative that will create the imperative for governments to realize it is their role to fund research and development in the African continent. Firstly, the narrative must be right to see inclusive development and addressing of challenges such as unemployment, the economy must be grown in an inclusive way with high quality skills by universities. The training should also be geared towards attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals( SDGs).
Secondly, African universities should create relations with big development partners like the World Bank and the African Development Bank who are big supporters to research funding through bilateral collaborations. In doing this, universities should bring government on the table and discuss on how to collectively benefit from development partners. If all the monies universities get would be aggregated, there would be creation of social impact and economies of scale. It was also suggested that those who have been in academia before and are now in high positions in the civil service should be approached to discuss research funding at higher levels.
The group noted that other than Rwanda, it is hard to think of other African governments supporting research funding in public universities. Universities must strive to get buy-in from the leaders at higher levels of governments for them to lobby for more funding for research. Governments therefore play a critical role in supporting funding for public universities.
The role of regional networks and consortia in the whole process of supporting research funding in public universities cannot be overemphasized. The investment by regional networks for specific institutions will go a long way in transforming them to drive research. The group suggested that national research funds be consolidated in a consortium and then the universities bid for it on a competitive basis. Collaborations among institutions are also highly encouraged to increase the research funding received. The capacity to manage the research funding processes must however be developed in universities and incentives set aside for research staff. The group also noted that the
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CARTA’ s 2 nd Vice Chancellor’ s Meeting – Report of meeting proceedings – July 10-11, 2017