Call for Application Round 2

SDGs targeted: 2,1,3: The overall aim of The sector is to increase national income from agriculture as the backbone of the economy, ensure household food security and promote household nutrition from sustainable agricultural production, effective value chains and fair trade. The sector is seeking solutions that boost the transformative potential of agriculture for Uganda’s economy. Specifically, the grant is seeking ideas in the following sub-themes:

1. The sector seeks solutions to cost-effectively increase agricultural production of both regular food and cash crops (cereals, legumes, milk, bananas, coffee, cassava etc.), animal products (meat, dairy, and poultry) and high-value outputs (horticulture, aquaculture, high-value crops). Solutions could include improved affordable technologies or approaches to production, plant and animal breeding for better disease, pest and drought resistance, affordable approaches to disease control, novel affordable animal feeds, novel approaches to agricultural water resource management and optimization during dry spells, affordable irrigation technologies, soil management, and sustainable fertilizers, affordable mechanization for modernization of production. Solutions could also involve natural/herbal/organic approaches to pest/disease control
2.  Innovations in post-harvest handling and improvement of phytosanitary conditions of produce to reduce post-harvest losses but also ensure safety in the use of chemicals agricultural chemicals and drugs are needed as are approaches to reduce post-harvest losses/wastage (e.g. in the grain and poultry industries).
3.  Post production, the sector is seeking novel affordable approaches to local value addition to agricultural produce including novel affordable technologies for local produce processing and data-driven approaches to value chain analysis.

SDGs targeted: 3,1,6,10: The solutions targeted in this sector mainly aim at achieving universal health coverage through sustainable health measures. A healthy population not only reduces the strain on household and national resources but is the driving force for economic development. The sector also acknowledges that many determinants of health are placed in other sectors, thereby necessitating a cross-sectoral approach. Evidence is needed on new measures to reduce the burden of preventable diseases, but also increase the quality of life for the population through health. Specifically, proposals are sought under the following sub-themes:

1. The sector seeks novel approaches and technologies for health promotion and prevention to change behavior so as to reduce diseases responsible for a high burden of morbidity and mortality (especially pneumonia, diarrhea, malaria, HIV/AIDS, TB, maternal conditions, newborn and child morbidity, hepatitis, oral health conditions, cancer, and injuries). Reproductive Health and adolescent health are also key areas of need, as well as new approaches to addressing neglected tropical diseases. New therapeutic approaches to treat these conditions are also of paramount importance.
2.  With the emerging dual burden of disease due to lifestyle diseases (especially diabetes, cardiovascular disease, chronic lung disease, and cancer), solutions are needed to incentivize lifestyle changes (diet, physical activity, self-care and health habits) across the lifecycle, locally appropriate chronic care models that seamlessly integrate with acute care, to address psychosocial wellbeing and the growing burden of mental health, to improve road safety and to effectively reduce morbidity and loss of life from injuries and mass-casualty incidents.
3. The high frequency of epidemics and pandemic threats calls for robust approaches to epidemic intelligence, forecasting, response, and control as well as one-health approaches to emerging threats (especially RNA viruses). New biotechnology products for early characterization, diagnosis and pre-emptive screening for deadly threats as well as just-in-time vaccine development capacity for new disease strains are necessary. Tools and approaches for better surveillance and improved public health response to emergencies are pertinent.
4.  Improvements in support systems for health services delivery are also very crucial and include: Effective approaches to improving health worker skills in primary care settings improved approaches to patient management (medical, surgical or lifestyle-based), better tracking of patient harm and mismanagement, sustainable approaches to health worker incentives, but also tools to improve accountability for health workers time and increasing patient feed-back and monitoring of quality of care, innovative approaches to sustainable financing of health care especially in un-banked populations and for input-intense medical procedures but also reducing cost-escalation and inefficiencies and innovative approaches to medical waste management.
5.  Innovative solutions are needed in improving the efficiency of the health supply chain, especially demand-based forecasting and accountability, efficient delivery systems and increasing the availability of blood. Solutions are also needed on better models of community health extension and sustainable but effective ways of motivating Community Health Workers. The sector needs evidence on how to better structure the planned National Health Institutes. There is a need for platforms to support inclusion of health information from Private-for-profit health facilities into the national HIS as well as models for affordable public-private partnerships

SDGs targeted: 3,8,5,10: Education is the driving force for capacity development to develop the skills necessary to drive enterprise and innovation. The main expressed need of the sector is how to leverage the advantages of Uganda’s demographic dividend by providing education that imparts skills crucial for productivity in the 21^st Century and for the world of work. The priority subthemes of focus for this call are laid out as follows:

1.   The sector needs current and futures-based analysis of skills requirements for a transitioning economy and when and how these skills should best be delivered in the education life-cycle to maximize their impact on the economy. Cross-sectoral solutions are needed to address the growing problem of youth unemployment. The sector needs novel approaches for skilling of youth to increase gainful employment as well as attitude building to drive agency for change among youth. Ways to up-scale the skills needed for the 21^st Century job-environment
2.  Innovative ways of tracking curriculum performance to support real-time improvements in formal education is needed. Research that unpacks how to improve early childhood learning, science education and the gender gap in STEM, vocational education, informal apprenticeship based education. The sector also needs innovative approaches to integrating design science into training from early in the education process.
3. The sector needs evidence to improve support systems for education service delivery including Novel ways of financing education, innovative ways of improving infrastructure to support education, better ways of monitoring delivery of education at lower levels as well as accounting for teacher time, ways of enhancing public-private partnerships in education, enhancing regulatory frameworks.

SDGs targeted: 6,3,12,13: The main aim of the sector is to increase access to safe water for domestic use and water for production, and to safeguard the environment through sustainable development approaches. This is in a context where inadequate coverage with safe-water sources and water stress from recurrent dry spells abound leads to a high burden of sanitation-related diseases, but also recurrent agricultural losses due to insufficient water. There are major gender disparities in the consequences of inaccess to safe water. The sector seeks solutions under the following sub-themes:

1.  Solutions are needed to increase safe water availability in homes. Novel water treatment/purification technologies and cost-effective approaches to municipal water treatment are needed. New approaches to collection and storage of water at the household and community level are needed. Novel solutions to increase household and community WASH is also needed. Approaches to the elimination of water contamination and the characterization of water impurities are paramount.
2. The increasing threat of climate change, scalable models for climate change mitigation and adaptation as well as scenarios-setting studies to quantify future water demand is necessary. There a need for better conservation technologies and approaches as well as behavior change and leadership models to drive their uptake. Novel community-driven approaches to increasing tree-planting on a large scale, carbon sink development and conservation of forest cover amidst growing pressure from development initiatives should be explored, as should social-behavioural incentives to increase the agency for local actions against climate change. In general, the sector needs evidence on how to achieve a balance between economic development and environmental protection (sustainable development).
3.   Evidence on how to reduce damage to the environment from industrial and domestic pollutants is needed, including those from the Petroleum industry, plastics, and domestic refuse. Researchers may also provide insights into why climate policies fail and what needs to be done to get full policy buy-in. Innovations ineffective response to adverse climate events and disaster response are also necessary. The use of ICTs for better climate risk communication and environmental monitoring is a key gap area as well as the use of ICTs to monitor environmental pollution and air quality.

SDGs targeted: 8,10,5: The most pertinent challenge faced by the country regarding social development is youth unemployment was partly driven by lack of job and lack of skills. Other challenges relate to a lack of community agency to drive self-reliance as well as socio-cultural disparities that drive marginalization of some populations. Solutions are requested in the following subthemes:

1.  The sector requests for evidence on how to stimulate jobs from a predominantly informal economy and also how to rapidly skill the youth to meet the needs of the job market (including soft and hard skills). New approaches to job-creation are needed while the youth need appropriate skilling to be employment ready. Research and innovation are needed on how to get Ugandan youth to benefit from new forms of job opportunities e.g. digital jobs, including out-sourcing opportunities and coding.
2. The sector needs novel approaches to leveraging the creative arts as a force for development, a source of jobs for youth and as a source of increased contribution to the country’s revenue. Approaches to harnessing indigenous knowledge to address development challenges are necessary as are approaches to harnessing our culture and heritage to improve community agency for change.
3. Solutions are needed to reduce the marginalization gap faced by vulnerable groups in society. For example, research is needed on how to overcome gender barriers to the advancement of society including gender-based violence, gender, and aging, and mainstreaming of gender into operational plans. Given Uganda’s position as one of the largest refugee-hosting populations, research is needed on how to improve refugee service delivery.

SDGs targeted: 15,14,13,8,1,12: Uganda’s tourism sector is growing and the country is well-positioned to be the leading tourist destination for the region. However, much more still needs to be done to unleash the county’s untapped tourism potential which is much higher than it is currently, and which can be a major source of revenue. Research and innovations are sought in the following priority sub-themes:

1.  Research is needed on approaches to boost Uganda’s current tourism potential by increasing visibility and demand for available tourism products. Solutions are also needed to reduce the cost of accessibility to Uganda’s tourism destinations, novel ways in which local communities can benefit from local tourism, and how to increase domestic tourism by Ugandans.
2.  Approaches to the diversification of Uganda’s tourism product range are needed (e.g. expansion of water-based tourism, hills as a tourism product, cultural tourism, and religious tourism. The sector also calls for models for value addition to wild-life goods and services. The sector also needs approaches for the preservation of positive cultural practices and heritage that promote tourism. Solutions are also needed for value addition to local art products to increase their international competitiveness as well as standards for ensuring the quality of these products.

SDGs targeted: 1,8,11,12: Planning and finance are key cross-cutting sectors affecting development. Successful attainment of development goals needs adequate monitoring of national plans as well as sustainable financing methods including a progressive tax base. Solutions are needed in the following sub-themes:

1.  The sector expressed the need for research and innovations that foster effective implementation of the National Development Plan and the Vision 2040. They need novel tools for the collection of routine data from informal sectors of the economy including crowd-sourcing of economic data as well as mining and visualization of big data to predict economic trends. Tools that support dynamic tracking of development initiatives and geo-location of development projects are welcome. There is also a need for new approaches for increasing the ability of communities to demand better accountability from public programs.
2. There is a need for solutions to promote better urban planning in an already congested city (Kampala) as well as other up-coming cities.
3. The revenue management sub-sector needs better tools and evidence to enhance tax compliance and increase the tax base especially from the informal sector. Approaches too expanding e-commerce and trade are welcome. Targeted studies are needed to establish the medium to long term effects of new taxes like the social media tax and mobile money taxes to the economy as well as best practices in tax exemptions and tax holidays.
4.  New approaches to Financial Inclusion (access to credit, better savings, and affordable banking and money transactions) are needed especially for the rural poor. Research on new banking products and their reach to the unbanked population is pertinent.

SDGs targeted: 12,8,16,17: The mandate of the Public Service sector is to deliver effective and efficient social services to the people in a way that effectively reaches the last mile with a professional and competent civil service. The sector seeks solutions in the following sub-themes:

1. The sector expressed the need for better tools and approaches to ensuring an efficient civil service that is accountable to the people in implementing government programs. Approaches to the digital transformation of public service delivery including strengthening of e-governance for better efficiency are needed. Evidence is also needed on how to better account for public servants’ time, especially in peripheral service delivery workplaces and how to ensure better provision of value for money.
2. At the local government level, the sector expressed a need for approaches to sustainable finance for local governments including increasing their self-reliance. These avenues could include increasing their potential for local income generation but also using their autonomy, corporate stature, and credibility to solicit for bilateral donors and development impact investors.

SDGs targeted: 16: The defense and security sector has the mandate to ensure peace, security and the rule of law for citizens. A stable secure country is not only crucial for economic investment but is key to a good quality of life for the citizens. This is coordinated through the armed forces and other support systems for a secure country. The sector seeks to research and innovative ideas in the following sub-thematic areas:

1. The sector has an interest in research and innovation outputs that improve the livelihoods of the men and women in uniform. Areas of interest to combatants’ livelihoods include Strategies for addressing gender-based violence among combatants’ households, addressing post-traumatic stress disorder, improving food-security for combatant families and re-imagining the food rations for active combatants. The Sector is also interested in solutions that lead to better livelihoods for veterans of the armed forces including sustainable models for their economic empowerment.
2. The sector is interested in technologies and approaches to preserve peace and improve the security of the population and their property including data-driven approaches and artificial intelligence, ICT tools, and GIS mapping. Approaches to improving urban security and early identification and elimination of terrorist threats are needed. The sector also needs proposals on how to better engage communities in contributing to security through community policing and security vigilance.

SDGs targeted: 16,17,10: This sector is vested in ensuring that justice is accessible to everyone and that democracy and protection by the law are ubiquitous. The sector also seeks to ensure adequate protection of human rights. The diplomacy sub-sector aims to promote regional and international cooperation for peace and mutual development. Solutions are needed in the following sub-thematic areas:

1. Evidence and innovations are needed to increase awareness about the laws of Uganda and the accessibility to justice. The sector would like evidence on models for better coordination and collaboration with other sectors on litigation. They also need approaches to increase efficiency and performance outputs to drastically reduce the case backlog. Innovations are needed to increase out-of-court settlements. Mechanisms to increase land justice and to improve land-rights are also welcome. Legal and regulatory frameworks should be responsive to innovation. The sector also wants solutions that increase the ability to protect intellectual property.
2. Mechanisms to improve legal services for vulnerable populations (including refugees, victims of sexual and gender-based violence, and very poor people) are welcome. The sector also requested for innovations in civil society accountability, including tools that can make NGOs more accountable to the communities.
3. The regional and foreign affairs sub-sector needs more evidence on how to structure international and regional development aid to be more effective. They also need advice on improving resource mobilization for development including mobilization of the diaspora for active participation in national development. Quantification of the economic benefits of investments in regional peace efforts (including military interventions), regional integration, and membership to regional organizations and conventions on development are needed.

SDGs targeted: 9,8,10: Information and Communication Technology is a cross-cutting sector that supports other sectors. The sector provides a backbone for communication to support service delivery but also promotes the use of ICT tools for more efficiency. The Sector is in the process of building an ICT backbone to support other sectors and to facilitate economic transformation. Research and innovations are needed in the following sub-themes:

1.  Research on how to increase citizen participation in national programs using ICT tools and how to estimate this participation, innovative digital media to mobilize citizen participation in national programs, and approaches to expansion of E-Governance. Mechanisms to strengthen digital identification and to transform all Ugandans into active digital citizens are also welcome.
2. The sector would also like to increase capacity for use of data (including big data and artificial intelligence) for development including forecasting, planning, monitoring of programs and for the development of applications that can improve service delivery. The sector would like innovations that increase the capacity of other sectors to develop and use electronic records

SDGs targeted: 9,11,13,10: The works Sector is a services sector that supports other sectors through infrastructure development. The sector also includes the industrial and manufacturing sub-sector which is the engine for national development. The sector, therefore, relies on technology, investments in industrial development and a major national focus on industry driven economic transformation. Evidence is needed in the following priority sub-themes:

1. There is also need for innovations in waste management for urban areas, including low-cost solutions for urban slum areas and solutions for better end-of-life management for batteries and other such waste items that contain toxic heavy metals. There is a need for innovations in wastewater drainage and management, to reduce clogging, flooding, and pollution.
2. The sector expressed the need for research and innovations in the form of technologies and approaches to improve and optimize transport services, both between districts and in the urban areas especially Kampala. Approaches to reducing traffic congestion in Kampala City are welcome including ICT based technologies for real-time monitoring of traffic. Innovations to increase transportation safety on land and water are necessary. There is also a need for technologies to reduce transport-related carbon emissions and the resulting pollution. Approaches to reduce the cost of road construction are needed, as well as measures for better maintenance of roads and other infrastructure. Innovations in infrastructure to support industrial development are much needed. Research on road designs that can allow an increase in the weight of goods-vehicles on the roads is also needed so as to reduce long-distance transportation costs.
3. Technologies and innovative solutions are needed for better and more efficient manufacturing processes to drive industrial production, especially those that use locally available raw materials. Adaptation and industrialization of local informal manufacturing technologies are also desirable. Innovations of new commercially viable machines for various production processes are needed.
4. Innovations are needed in production of low cost but quality construction materials to boost the construction industry but also position Uganda as a leader in appropriate construction technology. Solutions are also needed in miniaturization of engineering solutions (e.g. robotics and 3-D printing).

SDGs targeted: 1,8,9,12: The business sector drives the economy. Uganda is ranked as the most entrepreneurial country in the world and the majority of start-ups and businesses are informal. However, the rate at which new businesses fail is high. Innovations are needed to develop a robust business sector that can survive strong economic head-winds to create a sustainable economy.

1. There is a need for research evidence and innovations to support the growth of small and medium enterprises to become more sustainable, profitable and resilient. Approaches to skilling of entrepreneurs and innovative finance models to make businesses more resilient are needed. Research is also needed on innovative ways to increase access to finance and capital for small businesses, as well as reducing risk from lending to them. Novel commercial banking services and products that reduce the burden on businesses in a viable way are welcome. New models for private equity and impact investments by Ugandans in the diaspora are also welcome. Approaches to increasing the registration of small and informal businesses are needed. There is also a need for evidence on how taxation can best be structured to foster business development while optimizing the tax base. Innovations in the distribution and marketing chain for local products is needed, as is the need to increase the presence of locally produced materials on supermarket shelves. There is a need for infrastructure to support business innovations.
2.  Innovations to increase e-commerce are necessary. Approaches to empowering small business owners to grow brands, and better market their products are also necessary as is the need to develop small-medium business owners’ capacity for succession planning for the sustainability of their businesses. Research and innovations to foster efficient distribution mechanisms for small scale producers (affordability and sustainability) are needed as is evidence on how to increase access to simple and affordable technology for small scale producers. There is also a need for research on how to expand external markets for Ugandan manufacturers.
3. The sector also expressed the need for exploration of how to expand ‘work at home’ as a viable source of income for people, in this area include digital jobs. There is a need for innovations to reduce financial constraints for women in business. Measures to increase the economic productivity of refugees are needed.

SDGs targeted: 7,1,8,12: Energy drives production in the economy while minerals are a source of wealth that can accelerate national development. There is a need for more innovations in the energy and mineral sector as a direct link to increased revenue and jobs. Solutions are needed in the following priority sub-themes:

1. There is also a need for research on novel clean/renewable energy sources as well as research on effective models to increase rural electrification. Study the most cost-effective and safe technology option to support industrialization (study on all the possible available technologies that are environmentally friendly. Research is needed on how to better dispose of solar batteries, how their components can be recycled.
2.  The sector requires a detailed analysis to establish the mineral wealth potential of the country and to map this potential. This will enable the country to develop a strategic plan for development of its mineral wealth. The sector also needs solutions for better use of data and informatics to inform better planning. Research on health issues arising from local mining operations is also needed.
3. Research is needed on models for proper use of Oil and Gas resources for economic development as well as better mechanisms for accountability in this emerging sub-sector of the economy. The impact of the policies/Laws on the Oil and Gas the sector to the economy should be understudies so as to propose better policy approaches.

This grant is guided by the following principles:

• A commitment to results and impact: This grant is committed to results and impact. The expectation is that researchers will address the most pressing development issues and that the findings generated from the research and innovation activities supported by this grant will be of use to policy makers, program implementers or the private sector. Research teams ought to demonstrate attainment of tangible and useful deliverables within 1 year of implementation, including projects that require multi-year funding.
•  Equity and inclusion: Measures will be taken to ensure that all colleges will benefit from the fund. The GMC will also ensure that women researchers and junior faculty are well represented in the grant portfolio. However, equity will not mean equal allocation, because the nature, capacity and cost of research and innovation initiatives differs markedly across disciplines.
•  Multi-disciplinarity: The development challenges we are seeking to solve require more than the effort of one sector. It is therefore important that researchers demonstrate a multi-disciplinary approach to the research-to-translation continuum, reflected through the problems selected, the technical proposals, and their team composition.
•   Accountability and utilization of funds: To protect the University’s and the researchers’ reputation and ensure continuity of this funding, accountability for the RIF will be of utmost importance. All funds disbursed should be accounted for in a timely way and to acceptable standards (both financial and implementation). The GMC will therefore regularly track all awardee performance. Researchers with substantial accountability arrears and those who do not utilize allocated funds will in the absence of an acceptable the justification be temporarily stopped from accessing these funds in the future.