The Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development has revealed that students and lecturers from Mbarara University of Science and Technology (MUST) attracted most research grants in Uganda in 2022.
The revelation is contained in the Report on Public Debt, Grants, Guarantees and Other Liabilities for 2022/2023 published in March 2023, but was only made public in May 2023.
It should be noted that Section 44, Subsection (1), (2) and (3) of the Public Finance Management Act, 2015, gives powers to the Minister of Finance to receive grants on behalf of Government to be implemented by various Ministries, Departments, Agencies and Local Governments.
During the reporting period of 2021/2022, MDA&Local Governments received a total of US$16,518,082 (Shs61.866Bn) worth in grants, with Mbarara University commanding the lion share of 18 grants, out of the 40 grants captured by the Ministry of Finance.
The grants to Mbarara University amounted to US$1,594,241 (Shs5.962Bn), while the other University to declare its grants to Government was Soroti University that won two grants to a tune of US$9,887 (Shs37m).
The Ministry of Works and Transport won only one grant from the Korean International Corporation Agency amounting to US$7.5Mn (Shs28.090Bn), while the Ministry of Agriculture received one grant to a tune of US$5Mn (Shs18.726Bn).
The other entities that declared their grants to the Ministry of Finance included; Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development and Kampala Capital City Authority.
The development comes at the time Mbarara University recently announced that Prof. Obua Celestino and Dr. Angella Musiimenta had recently won 5–year D43 NIH grant entitled “Digital Mobile Technologies to Study Tuberculosis: A Multi–disciplinary Program”.
The project based at the University of Georgia, US, will be conducted with Makerere University aimed at developing a training program in digital mobile technology, artificial intelligence, and machine learning to strengthen tuberculosis (TB) and public health research capacity in Uganda.
During the graduation Ceremony in May 2023, Mbarara University rewarded the University’s top researchers led by Dr. Godfrey Zari Rukundo, who was awarded for producing 112 publications, Dr. Ngonzi Joseph 96 publications, Dr. Edgar Mulogo and Dr. Joel Bazira were also recognized with 88 and 83 publications respectively, while Prof Robert Bitariho and Assoc. Prof. Grace Kagoro had 65 and 54 publications respectively.
