2ND CARTA VICE CHANCELLOR'S MEETING CARTA 2ND VICE CHANCELLORS MEETING REPORT | Page 7

© Consortium for Advanced Research Training in Africa (CARTA) & University of Nairobi (UoN)
Executive Summary
The Consortium for Advanced Research Training in Africa (CARTA) is a south-south partnership with
a south-north collaboration jointly led by the African Population and Health Research Center
(APHRC), Kenya, and the University of Witwatersrand (Wits), South Africa. The consortium is built on
a merit driven system that ensures transparency and accountability to its members. It was formed with
a mandate of establishing a vibrant African academy able to lead world-class multidisciplinary research
that impacts on population and health.
CARTA was formed in 2008 out of the realization that individual African universities lack the human
and financial resources and infrastructural capacity to tackle the challenges of doctoral training on the
continent. CARTA offers a well thought-out approach to rebuild and to strengthen the capacity of
African universities to produce world-class researchers, research leaders, and scholars.
Since 2008, CARTA has been pursuing the goal of re-launching African universities as central actors in
the production of rigorous high-quality research for Africa’s development. The African-led nature of
CARTA and its focus on sustainable, measurable changes in research capacity and output are in
tandem with the current emphasis on home grown and intellectually sound solutions to the problem
of sustainable capacity for research for health and development in Africa.
CARTA’s high-level goal is to establish a vibrant African academy able to lead world-class
multidisciplinary research that impacts positively on public and population health through: a),
strengthening doctoral training in Africa to enhance the local production of well-trained researchers
and scholars; and b), improving the institutional capacity of participating African universities to
support high-quality research by improving research infrastructure, strengthening research project
development and grant-writing skills, enhancing research management and administration, and
establishing appropriate policies and incentives.
To achieve the objectives of CARTA, the collaboration of partner institutions is crucial. In this way,
the buy-in at the highest level, usually the Vice Chancellors of Universities and their equivalents in
research institutions, is critical. It is against this backdrop that CARTA organized the 2 nd Vice
Chancellor’s meeting.
The University of Nairobi (UoN) and CARTA were proud to host the two day 2 nd Vice Chancellor’s
meeting from 10-11 July 2017 at the UoN Towers, Main Campus. The participants for this meeting
were largely Vice Chancellors from member Universities, Heads of partner institutions, and Northern
Partner Representatives.
Purpose of the meeting
The meeting aimed to provide a forum for Vice Chancellors and Heads of CARTA partner institutions
to deliberate on the progress and future directions of CARTA and contribute to a position paper on
Research funding landscape and doctoral training in Africa . The specific objectives for the meeting
were:
CARTA’s 2 nd Vice Chancellor’s Meeting –Report of meeting proceedings – July 10-11, 2017
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