Mbarara University of Science and Technology (MUST).

MUST, the second public university founded in Uganda (1989), is a multidisciplinary university with strong community outreach programs and produces some of the best healthcare professionals, technologists, and development workers in East Africa. An autonomous institution devoted to teaching, learning, research, and community outreach, MUST is accredited by the Uganda National Council for Higher Education (UNCHE), which implements the University and Other Tertiary Institutions Act of Uganda Parliament (2001), registering, monitoring, and regulating all institutions of higher education established under the Act and ensuring minimum standards for courses of study and standardization of degrees, diplomas, and certificates awarded.  MUST offers Bachelors, Masters, and Doctoral programs in the following Faculties: Medicine; Science; Applied Science and Technology; Interdisciplinary Training and Research; Management Sciences; and Computer Science.

In contrast to most SSA academic institutions based in urban centers, MUST is located in rural Southwestern Uganda and is uniquely positioned to advance the science needed to improve health in rural sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Even as a relatively young university, MUST has a substantial research base, with more than $10 million in research funding, and its research productivity is growing exponentially. MUST is ranked among the best in Africa, with a quickly rising rank on the global webometrics from the top 7% of the 1,306 universities in Africa before the MURTI (D43TW010128) was established to build research capacity for junior faculty, to the top 4% of 1493 universities in January 2018 [45].

MUST is a member of the MEPI MESAU (R24TW008886; PI: Nelson Sewankambo) and was independently awarded D43TW010128 (PI: Celestino Obua) to establish the Mbarara University Research Training Initiative (MURTI) in 2015 to build research capacity for junior faculty in the university. Growing from the MURTI, MUST applied for another grant, the Mbarara University Research Ethics Education Program (MUREEP) to build multi-level research ethics capacity in Uganda. It was awarded (R25TW010507; PI: Gertrude Kiwanuka) to further strengthen the training of students and faculty in Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR), which MUST started offering under the MEPI-MESAU and MURTI. In 2018, the Mbarara Alzheimer’s and related Dementia Research Initiative (MADRI) (D43TW010128-04S1; PI: Celestino Obua) and Health-professional Education Partnership Initiative – Transforming Ugandan

Institutions Training Against HIV/AIDS (HEPI-TUITAH) (R25TW011210; PI: Celestino Obua) were awarded.