​About​ SGCI​​

SGCI Partners

- Canada
-Sweden
- South Africa

SGCI Associate

SGCI Contacts  

Dorothy Ngila
Project Specialist
Strategic Partnerships
National Research Foundation, South Africa
Telephone: +254 248 14302

Loise Asewe Ochanda
Project Management Officer
International Development Research Centre
Telephone: +254 709 07440

SGCI Panel of Advisors

Professor David Langley
Deputy CEO and Chief Partnerships Officer, New Model in Technology & Engineering (NMiTE), United Kingdom

Dr Wanjiru Kamau-Rutenberg
Director, African Women in Agricultural Research (AWARD), Kenya

Professor Frans Swanepoel
Director: International Strategic Partnerships
and
Professor, Agricultural Transformation in Africa (ATA), Centre for Advancement of Scholarship, University of Pretoria, South Africa

Professor Nelson Torto
Executive Director, African Academy of Sciences (AAS), Kenya

Professor Teboho Moja
Professor and Program Director, Higher Education Program, New York University, USA

Dr John Kirkland
Chief Operating Officer & Company Secretary, National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR), United Kingdom

Dr Gertrude Ngabirano
Executive Secretary, East African Science & Technology Commission (EASTECO), East African Community (EAC), Rwanda

Who we are

The Science Granting Councils Initiative in Sub-Saharan Africa aims to strengthen the capacities of science granting councils in sub-Saharan Africa in order to support research and evidence-based policies that will contribute to the continent’s economic and social development.

Science Granting Councils

Science granting councils play a critical role in supporting the consolidation of a country’s national system of innovation, and are central to funding and catalysing research and innovation. These organisations are both agents of government and represent the interests of a country’s scientific community. They inter alia disburse funds for research and development; build research capacity through appropriate scholarships and bursaries; set and monitor research agendas and priorities; advise on science, technology and innovation policies; manage bilateral and multilateral science and technology agreements; and assess the communication, uptake and impact of publicly funded research. Globally, the virtual organisation and the Global Research Council (GRC) brings together science granting councils whom the majority are SGCI participating councils to promote the sharing of data and best practices for high-quality collaboration among research funding agencies worldwide.
 

SGCI Contribution

Science, technology and innovation landscapes across developing regions still suffer from a number of challenges including low capacities in research and research management. The importance of strengthening the capacities of publicly funded science granting councils in sub-Saharan Africa, important brokerage institutions for continued gains in STI development on the continent is an imperative.
 

The SGCI contributes to strengthening the ability of science granting councils to:

  • Manage research
  • Design and monitoring of research programmes based on the use of robust science, technology and innovation indicators
  • Support knowledge exchange with the private sector
  • Strengthen partnerships between Science Granting Councils and other science system actors 
 
 

SGCI Outcomes

 
  • More effective research management practices among science granting councils
  • Increased use of STI indicators to design and monitor research programmes
  • Increased knowledge transfer to the private sector
  • Increasingly coordinated and networked science granting councils 

 

SGCI Collaborating Technical Agencies