Milestone 2: Improved Research Collaboration and Practice

Capacity of interuniversity and interdisciplinary research teams have been strengthened leading to quality research output with societal impact in selected sectors

An interuniversity (all universities involved) research team will be established and will conduct interdisciplinary research in the fields of infectious diseases and nutrition. At this stage, research topics are not defined. This has been an explicit choice, as going through the process to identifying a shared research topic involving different stakeholders (e.g. community service office), will provide important lessons learned on how to formulate interuniversity research with the desired societal impact. In total three PhD scholarships will be attached to this interuniversity team (at least one of the candidates should be female). 

A series of fixed interuniversity competitive funds will be made available yearly for both operational research and mobility. The aim of these operational research and mobility funds are to support ongoing home-grown PhD students. The interuniversity team will produce guidelines and regulations for participation of the PhD scholarship/faculty in the annual open calls for both funding opportunities. Funding can only be granted when destined to be used for an interuniversity collaboration, and when used in the framework of PhD/MSc research or other small research projects on topics in the field of infectious diseases and nutrition. Selection of the winning grants is based on clear pre-set criteria by a committee represented by all involved universities. Every year a public event is organized to disseminate the research results (students/staff will receive training on communication skills (see Milestone 1). Given the pioneering nature of this interuniversity research team, the process of the funding opportunities and the research output will be critically revaluated. 

Increased capacity of MSc and PhD students, and Staff exposed to quality research

A set of courses will be worked out including basic PhD courses (linking to Milestone 1) as well as specialized courses. Yearly, a short evaluation will be conducted to assess the needs of the courses, and adaptations will be made were necessary. Courses will be open to all PhD/MSc students and staff of the participating universities. Proposed courses include (non-exhaustive): academic writing and presentation skills, research ethics and integrity, good clinical (laboratory) practices, basic statistics/study design (clinical trials; surveys), data management and setup of a data management plan (UGent), grant writing linked to calls (e.g. VLIR-UOS SI/Teams). To ensure female students and staff are represented in these trainings we will actively scout for candidates with the support of the gender office.

Systems and procedures supporting interuniversity research collaborations put in place

A documentary analysis will be conducted to assess the evidence on how interuniversity collaboration can improve quality of research output and capacity building. In addition to the review of international literature, the review will assess available guidelines and policies in Ethiopia, including career development plans, incentives for academic staff, policy on publication fee payments (impact on choice of journal), policy on research ethics in Ethiopia universities. An analysis of a sample of published biomedical research output in Ethiopia will be reviewed in detail to assess (i) institutions involved, (ii) characteristics of researchers (e.g. gender), (iii) quality of research output, (iv) perceived scientific impact and (v) funding sources. The documentary analysis will build on previous research in nutrition.  It is anticipated that this analysis will form the basis to develop an institutional policy on interuniversity and interdisciplinary research policy, at all involved universities. To enhance efficient use of the available resources and expertise, a detailed inventory of the laboratories of all partner universities will be done and made available online in an easily adaptable system, with indication of place and responsible. Finally, a female students/staff program will be developed in close collaboration with the respective gender offices, which will be complementary to the scouting of female students/staff.