Mbarara University of Science and Technology (MUST) is among 23 research centres in East and Southern Africa that have been earmarked for funding under a World Bank funded initiative to promote excellence. The centres have been conditionally selected under the US$140 million Eastern and Southern Africa Higher Education Centers of Excellence Project (ACE II).

The list of centres, agreed at a meeting in December 2015, includes four centres in Ethiopia, four in Uganda and two in Zambia. They focus on specialist areas ranging from smart agriculture and herbal medicine to data science and sustainable mining (see full list at the end of the article).

MUST’s centre shall specialise in Pharm-biotechnology and traditional medicine (PHARMBIOTRAC).

A Project Appraisal workshop at which the conditionally selected teams met to finalize the project proposals was held in February 2016 at the White Sands Hotel in Dar er Salaam, Tanzania. The MUST team members included Dr. Cassim Tolo, Dr. Patrick Ogwang Engeu, Eng. Anke Weisheit and Prof. Celestino Obua.

ACE II centres selected for funding

Ethiopia
Climate smart agriculture and biodiversity conservation (Haramaya University)
Innovative drug development and therapeutic trials (Addis Ababa University)
Water management (Addis Ababa University)
Railway education and research (Addis Ababa University)

Kenya
Sustainable agriculture and agribusiness management (Egerton University)
Sustainable use of insects as food and feed (Jaramogi Odinga Oginga University of Science and Technology)
Phytochemicals textiles in renewable energy (Moi University)

Malawi
Aquaculture and fisheries science (Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources)
Public health and herbal medicine (Malawi College of Medicine)

Rwanda
Energy for sustainable development (University of Rwanda)
Internet of things (University of Rwanda)
Data science (University of Rwanda)

Tanzania
Infectious disease surveillance in humans and animals (Sokoine University)
Water infrastructure and sustainable energy (Nelson Mandela African Institution of Science and Technology)
Research, evidence agricultural advancement, teaching excellence and sustainability (Nelson Mandela African Institution of Science and Technology)

Uganda
Crop improvement (Makerere University)
Agro-ecology and livelihood systems (Uganda Martyrs University)
Pharm-biotechnology and traditional medicine (Mbarara University of Science and Technology)
Materials, product development and nanotechnology (Makerere University)

Zambia
Infectious diseases of humans and animals (University of Zambia)
Sustainable mining (Copperbelt University)

Zimbabwe
ACE in sustainable food systems (University of Zimbabwe)