Whereas the Makerere University Medical School has grown as a hub of Research in Africa by utilising funding support obtained through International patners (including The National Institutesof Health - NIH), a critical gap in such a resource - limited setting remains the lack of well trained Grant managers and Clinical researchers who can ably tap into the available funding opportunities in order to sustain these research activities in the long term. The overall vision of this proposal is to create a critical mass of well- trained professionals within the Medical School who would be able to swiftly respond to the growing research needs by exploiting the potential synergies within the Medical School for grant applications and management. Building on a collaborative, highly successful and decentralized system within the medical School, we propose to turn the ORD office at The Makerere University - Johns Hopkins University Research Collaboration (MU-JHU), one of the main affiliate institutions of the Medical School, into an ORD Secretariat and model. MU-JHU will take the lead on this application with the full support of the Medical School and the other affiliates. This secretariat will be developed into a core team of highly knowledgeable grant managers, trainers and support staff who will manage MU-JHU grants as well as train the other ORDs and replicate the model in the affiliate institutions from within the Medical School namely;the Infectious Diseases Institute, Makerere University - Case Western Reserve University Research Collaboration, the Joint Clinical Research Centre and the Medical School ORD. The major activities in the proposal are based on staff training and capacity building. Using the short and long term approaches of training, this proposal aims to;a) Strengthen capabilities within the Medical School through increased grants management skills thereby creating self sufficiency in application and administration of NIH grants, b) Create a Grant Resource Center hub providing grants materials, training tools, and other grant support services for several other grant offices of Institutions affiliated to the Medical School, c) Design an appropriate IT infrastructure at the core ORD office that can be used as a focal point for accessing and dissemination of NIH grants information to other ORDs. d) Design an appropiate finance and accounting IT system accross the ORDs that can facilitate managent of NIH awards, generation of receipts or financial statements in a consistent manner, and handling the requisite financial and compliance reports.
