AAU NEWSLETTER English Vol. 17 Issue 1 2011 - AAU Resource ...

Vol. 17, No. 1 (May, 2011) AAU NewsletterPage 3The 24 participants who attended the Workshopincluded members of national research teams fromBurkina Faso, Cameroon, La Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana,and Senegal; resource persons and experts in therelated fields; and AAU staff.The Workshop was intended to provide the opportunityfor the national research teams to gain a better understandingof the Project and the various methods thatwould be used to undertake the study. It also provided aplatform to expose the country teams to the conceptualframework for the study and foster networking amongthe country teams. Specifically, the Workshop coveredareas such as Introduction to the Concept of theNational Innovation System, Analytical Frameworkfor the Analysis of National Innovation Systems, andThe Role of Universities in National InnovationSystems; and provided inputs to be included in the toolsof investigation (questionnaires, interview guide, etc.)and guidelines to map existing national innovationsystems to determine the role and place of universityresearch and interactions with other actors.BackgroundIn 2009, considering the increased interest in highereducation as a critical factor in development, the WestAfrica Regional Office of the Canadian IDRC commissioneda study on the state of university researchgovernance in West and Central Africa. After the study,a meeting was held in October 2009 to validate thefindings, which mainly showed a lack of appropriatestructures and noted deficiencies in research administration.Subsequently, in collaboration with the AAUand STEPRI of Ghana's CSIR, the IDRC developed aproject proposal to address these issues and contributetoward a better system of university research andmanagement.In March 2010, the IDRC approved the project onImproving the Quality and Relevance of UniversityResearch within National Innovation Systems inWest and Central Africa, which is being implementedby the AAU in partnership with Ghana Institute ofManagement and Public Administration (GIMPA),Centre d'Etudes Supérieures en Gestion (CESAG),STEPRI of Ghana's CSIR, West African Research andInnovation Management (WARIMA), and CanadianAssociation of University Research Administrators(CAURA).To keep the discussions on the Project ongoing, an e-platform was created to conduct discussion groups sothat participants could continue to interact with oneanother concerning the research methodologies andother technical issues after the Workshop.What is Research Governance?By Prof. Mazonda , University of Botswanahe main aim of university research governance is to createconducive environments and supportive policies andpractices to enable the university to be more responsive toTpublic expectations so that it may achieve the public good. It is alsomeant to spare the researchers the tedium of arranging complianceissues, which would compete with their research time.In Europe and the UK, higher education is at the centre of nationaldevelopment planning. The government uses universities as theengine of development. The universities serve as the vehicles forimplementing the national development plans. The government andthe universities collaborate closely.By contrast, the situation across much of Africa now is that there aregaps in linking university research with development priorities, aswell as weak linkages between knowledge producers and knowledgeusers, and between knowledge production and innovations. With thenew perception of universities as instruments for knowledge-basedeconomic development and change, universities are shifting fromconducting research merely for knowledge generation to researchthat addresses societal issues. In that sense, university research