The African Research University Alliance (ARUA), a network of 16 flagship universities in Africa has Friday launched a five-year Strategic Plan (2022-2027).
Launching the Strategic Plan, Professor Ernest Aryeetey, the Secretary-General of ARUA, said the universities would work together to provide knowledge through research that would lead to findings related to Africa’s developmental challenge.
The plan is to enable public universities support the transformation of Africa through research and innovation. Its common vision is to expand and enhance significantly the quality of research carried out by African researchers.
This will align ARUA’s current initiatives with its core vision of significantly expanding and improving the quality of research to consolidate gains made since its inception in 2015.
Prof. Aryeetey said the idea was to bring together expertise in order to find solutions to climate change, food security, energy and water supply and disease control, among many others.
He said, “we believe strongly that no university in Africa on its own can provide what is required.”
Aryeetey addded that the plan focused on strategic areas, thus enhancement of research, enhancement of graduate training and support for African Universities, building of institutional capability for research management and a push for advocacy and leverage.
Through the research enhancement, ARUA would develop research capacity through an ARUA model of early career and post doctoral fellowships through collaborative research, while increasing the scale, scope and the quality of inter-disciplinary collaborative research among African universities.
He said in enhancing graduate training, ARUA would ensure access to resources for competence-based outcomes while developing doctoral programmes and expanding financial support for graduate training.
In ensuring advocacy and leverage, he said, ARUA would be committed to performance monitoring, go into partnership with regional bodies and international universities, engage multi-level stakeholders while embarking on growing its income and funding.
“The workshop we held before the launch has been able to provide an opportunity for the universities to learn how to generate the kind of evidence needed through data,” Prof. Aryeetey said.
The next five years is intended for universities to work together with African governments, African Union and African stakeholders.