Launching the brown bag seminars at Kabale University

The Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences launched the Brown Bag Seminars. These seminars are intended to promote research within the University. In order to broaden the research concept within the Faculty, this idea was floated and adopted by Faculty members who will be organising to meet some times and share ideas related to research. This will enable accelerated implementation of different research projects at both individual and team levels, and also inspire the rest of the staff to develop potential research projects. A steering committee of Research and Publications was put in place to coordinate this activity, and it consists of the following academics.

• Dr. Marus Eton – Chairperson
• Assoc. Prof. Caleb Tamwesigire -Coordinator
• Prof. Ayiga Natal
• Dr. Godfrey Barigye
• Dr. Julius Chaka
• Dr. Stanley Kinyatta
• Dr. Afolabi Luqman
• Mr. Sanni Tajudin Adebayo
• Dr. Christopher Olugnowa

During the Launch of the Brown Bag Seminar, Dr. Eton Marus gave a brief background of brown bag seminars and the related significance, and said that such seminars help staff to develop a collegial relationship in research.

The Dean Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences Prof. Caleb Tamwesigire, in his address to participants, said the Brown Bag Seminars are meant to promote academic staff research activities, publications and knowledge transmission. He stressed the fact that these Research Seminars would help to promote innovative strategies for the Faculty research activities and improve on research outputs.

Professor Twesigomwe, the Deputy Vice- Chancellor – Academic Affairs, when delivering his keynote speech, appreciated the initiative by the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. He said researchers needed to be accountable to the communities where they conduct research such that when the communities get results out of the research they could feel the impact of being part of the research processes. Professor Twesigomwe emphasized the significance of research seminars in an academic institution especially at university level. He made it clear that research differentiates a university from any other academic institutions. Since most of them (academic institutions) also do teaching, a university can only distinguish itself from those other institutions by conducting research. Besides developing the communities and improving the image of an academic institution, research and publication contribute to an individual’s growth and promotion.

Professor Twesigomwe further urged members to conduct research that can attract extra funding, since the University research envelope might not meet all the funding needs of every project. He urged members to utilize forums with information on fundable research like Research Africa.

He congratulated the Faculty upon having a substantial number of staff with PhDs and urged them to motivate their colleagues to follow suit by pursuing and attaining Phds. And he said students on master’s degree programmes would benefit from the different research projects. The Professor said, “We can use the available small resource envelope to attract more resources”.

Assoc. Prof. Tamwesigire, in his inaugural talk, had briefed members about the conference he had recently attended organized by the United Nations Economic Commissions of Africa (UNECA). This Conference had brought together people under Intergovernmental Committee of Experts (ICE) to discuss the theme “Implementing the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA): from Vision to Action”. This conference, attended by 250 delegates from fourteen (14) member states of UNECA-SRO-EA, was held in Kigali from 20^th to 22^nd November 2018 at the Kigali International Conference Centre.

From attending the conference, Professor Tamwesigire realised that:

1. There is potential for partnerships and collaboration in research in areas of trade, energy tourism, gender and equity, and regional integration.
2. Demand driven research agendas can be formulated in partnership with UNECA and relevant sectorial ministries in Uganda.
3. One can undertake survey studies and consultancy engagements in collaboration with UNECA.
4. Fundable research proposals for technical assistance and grants can be jointly developed.
5. Joint field missions and capacity building activities can be undertaken with UNECA within the initiated and implemented regional and continental cooperation frameworks.

The Brown Bag Seminars were finally launched by Professor Twesigomwe, the DVC Academic Affairs.