Africa-Press – Uganda. Makerere University and African Institute for Capacity Development (AICAD) have unveiled a platform that will be used to gather and share scientific research published by public universities in East Africa.
While unveiling the platform that will be housed at Makerere University on July 12, the Country Director of AICAD, Mr Gaston Ampe Tumuhimbise said all researches and innovations developed by public universities funded by the governments in East Africa will be gathered and made available for public use.
“Our scientists should not create knowledge and keep it away on the grounds that they are protecting their patent and intellectual rights when the public is suffering. The research has been shared among researchers at the expense of the public who are major beneficiaries,” Mr Tumuhimbise said.
He added that, “Innovators and entrepreneurs should be able to use the generated knowledge and content to create goods and services. This will in return eradicate poverty in our communities.”
The Vice Chancellor of Makerere University, Prof Barnabas Nawangwe said that no country can develop without research, stressing that the world is now in the error of knowledge based sharing where those in the know are the ones that develop.
“With this appointment, Makerere is ready to work with AICAD to coordinate all member university and other research data generating agencies to pursue the idea of open science”
Prof Nawangwe said, “The idea of open science and data sharing is key in the innovation process. When data is shared, solutions are quickly realised. I understand this is how the Covid-19 vaccine was quickly produced. Different research groups were able to share their data for a common cause.”
According to Prof Nawangwe, Universities, particularly in more developed nations play an important role in research and development.
He said that Makerere University has developed a number of innovations including crop improvement, but it does not have the capacity to share it with the community.
“We have huge amounts of research which can potentially change the lives of Ugandans. However, we do not have capacity to make this research available to the communities and the public. This platform will help us notify the public about the available knowledge to change their lives,” Prof Nawangwe said.
Background
After a rigorous and competitive process, the National Research Foundation of South Africa selected the AICAD as a regional hub for the African open science platform taking charge of East Africa.
Its major mandate is to link university generated technologies to the communities to fight poverty .With its Headquarters in Kenya, it has country offices in Uganda at Makerere University and in Tanzania.
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