Speech by the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research, Production and Extension) (RPE), University of Nairobi

Prof Lucy Irungu

During the official opening of the retreat for the Consortium for Advanced Research Training in Africa (CARTA), University of Nairobi Committee Memberson Friday May 29, 2015 at the Maasai Lodge, Rongai

Director PSRI, Prof. Murungaru Kimani, CARTA UoN Focal Person,

Director School of Public Health, Dr. Dismas Ongore, the CARTA UoN Co-Focal Person,

Professor Ngure, the CARTA Programme Manager represented by Mr. Thomas Yebei,

CARTA Committee Members, UoN,

UoN CARTA Fellows

Ladies and gentlemen

It gives me great pleasure to participate and to officiate at the opening of this retreat of the Consortium for Advanced Research Training in Africa (CARTA), University of Nairobi, Committee Members.

On behalf of the University of Nairobi and on my own behalf, I wish to extend a warm welcome to youto this retreat. I also thank the Population Studies and Research Institute (PSRI) for organizing the retreat.

The objective of this retreat as indicated in the invitation letter is to orient you as members of the CARTA committee of the University of Nairobi on the CARTA activities and particularly in our University and the roles you are expected to play. I should mention that the CARTA committee is a committee of the university and members are appointed by the Vice-chancellor. I have been informed that although your units are members of this committee, most of you are not aware of the CARTA committee and its activities. I would like therefore to provide a brief background to CARTA.

The Consortium for Advanced Research Training in Africa (CARTA)was established in 2009 to strengthen PhD training in African universities. The Consortiumis South-South partnership with South-North collaboration. It is jointly-led by the African Population and Health Research Center (APHRC), Kenya and the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits), South Africa. It consists of nine African universities (UoN, Moi, Makerere, Dar-es-Salaam, Witwatersrand, Ibadan, Obafemi Awolowo, National University of Rwanda, University of Malawi), four African research institutes and seven northern academic institutions. University of Nairobi is one of the founding members. The CARTA committees in each of the partnering universities are the main structure for attaining the objectives of the Consortium. Thus the importance of this workshop cannot be over-emphasized.

CARTA activities mainly revolve around the CARTA PhD fellows who are competitively awarded fellowships to pursue PhD in the various universities under the sponsorship of CARTA. The fellows undergo innovative training through the four year training programme. The various CARTA universities committees facilitate the selection process. I am happy to note that two of the CARTA fellows from our university are here to share with us these experiences.

Currently there are a total of 115 fellows at different stages of the PhD training in the 9 universities under the CARTA sponsorship. Thirteen (13) others have so far graduated. An important point worth noting is that these CARTA fellows have attracted over Kshs. 800 million in research grants. Currently there are 17 CARTA fellows at UoN from 4 of the partnering universities (UoN, Moi, Ibadan and Dar-es-Salaam) who are at different stages of their PhD programme.

Several activities under the consortium have been going on since its establishment in 2009 as you will be informed later in the programme. Besides the PhD fellowships, CARTA organizes workshops for the supervisors and potential supervisors of the fellows. So far a total of 90 supervisors have been trained from UoN. Another important activity is the Faculty and Administrators (FaS) workshops which brings together academic, administrators, library and ICT staff of the various universities. So far a total of 350 participants have undergone training in the 5 previous workshops including participants from the UoN. Again the CARTA committee members play an important role in selecting the participants.I am happy to report that during the Partners Forum in Lilonge, Malawi in September 2014 UoN was selected to host the 6th Faculty and Staff (FaS) workshop in July 2015.Thisretreat is therefore timely since the members of the Committee are expected to play a keyrole in this process. Arrangement for this workshop have been going on and I also note that this will be discussed in the retreat.

The University of Nairobi has benefitted in several ways since 2009 when it started participating in the CARTA programme. I wish to express our appreciation for the financial support from CARTA including the funding of this retreat and the support to the CARTA fellows at the various stages of the PhD programme at the University of Nairobi. We also appreciate CARTA’s initiative in financing TURNITIN the anti-plagiarism software for partner institutions. The software is being implemented in the UoN in line with the institution’s plagiarism policy to ensure quality research output.

It is my desire that the retreat will come up with strategies to enhance the participation of the Committee members in order to enhance its effectiveness in our university. I hope the Committee will also explore strategies of domesticating the CARTA training model at UoN. With those remarks it is my pleasure to declare the retreat officially opened.

God bless you.

THANK YOU

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