Reinforcing research capacity for Africa
Research capacity strengthening activities have been at the heart of all the Unit’s training, career development and capacity building efforts in the science sector since its inception in 1988. An established research infrastructure across the Unit’s three research sites in Entebbe, Masaka and Kyamulibwa, as well as support systems embedded in its research platforms provides a quality learning environment.
Our training programme provides the best talent in Africa and beyond with a comprehensive learning experience that includes: hands-on supervision and mentorship opportunities, and access to accomplished senior academics from the Unit, LSHTM, other partner universities and collaborative networks. This is complemented with generic skills training in communication, teamwork, project management, leadership, grant writing and peer review for holistic talent building.
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- 67 of the 82 graduate PhDs trained by the Unit were working in influential positions at key research/academic institutions by 2022.
- Our post graduate training programme successfully enrolled 42 doctoral and 45 postgraduate students at key national, regional and international universities.
- 70% of students that were enrolled full-time in our post graduate programme successfully completed their training in 4 years.
- Our elite doctoral programme supported 11 (4 female) competitively awarded postdoctoral fellowships, 8 of which were successfully completed with 6 being awarded LSHTM titles at research fellow and assistant professorship levels.
- Our short courses, open to the public built capacity of over 1200 trainees from research organizations in common capacity gaps.
- The Unit launched a new Clinical Research Facility in Entebbe, which will offer an exceptional environment for clinical research training and studies including early-phase clinical trials and other experimental medicine research projects.
- Our training laboratory in Entebbe was furnished to support practical trainings for postgraduate degree students, Master’s projects, full-time students, and for courses such as Immunology in the Tropics and yellow fever diagnostics.
- Our immersive training programmes enrolled and built capacity of 18 post doctorate fellows, 54 PhDs, 19 MScs and 23 masters students.
- The Unit collaborated with UVRI, MUII and Action on Disability and Development International (ADD) on a special initiative for interns with disabilities, and initiated 9 new graduates with disabilities into science and research support careers.
Building healthier communities through accessible and useable science
The Unit is committed to the conduct of high impact research that leads to the development of policies and practices to improve health in communities. Our Knowledge Transfer and Exchange (KTE) goal is an environment where diverse stakeholders in health can access Unit science presented in a user-friendly manner for practical and impactful application.
The KTE framework highlights the dynamic and interactive processes embedded at the Unit through which we ensure that our engagement with other researchers, policymakers, industry, business and society our research has a positive impact.
KTE processes at the Unit are coordinated by the knowledge exchange, engagement and communications hub hosted in the communications and engagement department.