The relationship between academic research, industry need, and national priorities is being strengthened due to Ghana’s participation in the Science Granting Council Initiative (SGCI), an academic has said.

Director of ICT Services, Communications and Knowledge Management at the Association of African Universities (AAU), Nodumo Dhlamini, said the initiative is helping enhance the capacity of various African countries, including Ghana, getting the best out of scientific research for the benefit of the populace.

“The project is demonstrating a close linkage between academic institutions and national research priorities and challenges so academics can help address them,” she told the media.

“Ghana is going through a change process in terms of how the research system is organised. A new act has been approved to allow for the National Research Fund.

"We are working with Ghana to make sure what we are doing is captured within the new structure or the future of the research management ecosystem in Ghana,” she explained.

The SGCI is a multi–funder initiative aimed at strengthening the capacities of 15 Science Granting Councils in Sub-Saharan Africa to support research and evidence-based policies that will contribute to economic and social development.

The SGCI works to help nations manage research, monitor outcomes of research initiatives, support knowledge exchange with the private sector, and strengthen partnerships between Science Granting Councils and other science system actors. 

The project's first phase runs from 2015 to 2020, with the second phase running from 2021 to 2023. It is being implemented in Ghana under the auspices of the Ministry of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation (MESTI).

The overall goal of the second phase of the SGCI is to fortify the capability of country Science Granting Councils in explicit areas of research management, knowledge and use of tools such as Research Quality Plus framework, research ethics, emerging scientific practices (especially open data, open access and citizen science), good financial grant practice (GFGP) benchmarking exercise, and development of online grant management systems.

The SGCI is currently being supported by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida), United Kingdom’s Department for International Development (DFID), Canada’s International Development Research Centre (IDRC) and South Africa’s National Research Foundation (NRF).

The Association of African Universities (AAU) and the African Academy of Sciences (AAS) are the consortium partners for the second phase of the SGCI. Both AAU and AAS are two continental higher education and research bodies with experience in research management.

Communications officer at AAU, Felicia Kuagbedzi, explained that “through this project, we have increased networking of the Science Granting Council Initiative on the continent. We have created the platform for the transfer of knowledge, sharing of lessons among themselves.”