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Conference on the Optimization of Third-Party Funding Management at East African Universities
Image: Erick Ronoh / Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT).EANLA a DAAD-funded project pursues the goal of imparting and building up the competencies needed to manage third-party funds. Special attention is paid to research funds at universities and research institutions. The addressees of the various network activities are researchers and financial administrators in the East Africa region.
With the help of the network, existing management structures at East African universities are to be optimized and streamlined, and insights into the various perspectives of different stakeholders are to be gained. Since its inception in 2013, EANLA has so far attracted and supported more than 250 researchers and financial administrators from member countries.
As Birgit Felmeden (Executive Manager, ICDD, University of Kassel) explains, the conference served as a platform to exchange ideas for stakeholders from higher education and policy makers to further develop and strengthen the structural management of international project funds within the network.
In addition to financial administration, Prof. Christopher Kanali (JKUAT) and his colleagues placed a special focus on the issue of using research results from universities to improve the living and working conditions of people in East Africa. The visit of a young start-up from Nairobi demonstrated the concrete implementation of such thoughts on collaboration between universities and young entrepreneurs.
The reactions to the event were consistently positive. For example, Prof. Victoria Wambui Ngumi, Vice President of JKUAT, sees the network's activities as an opportunity to create sustainability, in that the skills acquired will build trust among potential funders, thus facilitating and encouraging the acquisition of research funding. This is essential for JKUAT as the university has a very limited amount of research funding available.
The DAAD project officer for the region, Margaret Kirai, highlighted the particular importance of networks such as EANLA: "Given the current developments in the higher education sector, thought leaders who think globally are needed to deal with the emerging problems, some of which are complex."
She urged participants to play an active role in ensuring that administrative processes are streamlined and unified, capacity building takes place through workshops and training, and effective communication channels are established, which she expects will strengthen trust between partners and funding institutions. The network will continue to exist under East African direction after project funding ends in 2019. Ideas for further third-party funding applications from the region on the topic of food safety were concretized at the conference.
Contact person:
Birgit Felmeden (EANLA Coordinator)
University of Kassel, International Center for Development and Decent Work (ICDD).
felmeden[at]icdd.uni-kassel[dot]de
Tel. 0561-804 7391