Approved Research This page provides a searchable list of all research protocols that have been reviewed and approved by the Uganda National Council for Science and Technology(UNCST).
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Name Title Nationality Approval Date Expiry Date Field of Science/Classification Trial Type Research Type  
Alvin Helden Jonathan
ID: UNCST-2019-R001408
 Auchenorrhycha (leafhoppers and relatives) of Kibale: initial species list, host plant associations and mouthpart morphology.
REFNo: NS21ES

To provide biodiversity inventory and species' ecology data for the Auchenorrhyncha fauna of Kibale National Park and thus to contribute to the biodiversity inventory priorities of UWA. Creation of an initial species list of Auchenorrhyncha of Kibale, together with photographs of specimens, making their identification more accessible to students and researchers at MUBFS. Also to collect some ecological data related to host plants and mouthpart structure.
 UK 2017-08-07 2020-08-07 Natural Sciences Non-degree Award
Doreen Nabukalu
ID:
ASSESSMENT OF VILLAGE HEALTH TEAMS TO IMPROVE PUBLIC HEALTH SURVEILLANCE IN RURAL SOUTHWESTERN UGANDA.
REFNo: HS80ES

• To assess the performance of VHTs in the conduct of verbal autopsy and collection of vital statistics in a rural setting. • To ascertain the leading causes of Adult Mortality in Bugoye sub county through facilitating of VHTs to conduct verbal autopsies in at least 75% of households in their villages by the end of nine months • To ascertain the magnitude of various causes of Adult Mortality in Bugoye sub county through facilitating of VHTs to conduct verbal autopsies in at least 75% of households in their villages by the end of nine months. • To examine the validity of adult mortality statistics gathered by VHTs by comparing health facility data and verbal autopsy data.
Uganda 2017-08-07 2020-08-07 Medical and Health Sciences Non-degree Award
Richard Wamimbi Wotti
ID:
Understanding social norms to prevent and respond violence against children in and around schools
REFNo: SS103ES

The overall objective of the study is to provide an understanding of social norms to prevent and respond to violence for children thrive in safer environment to realize their rights and enhance their well being . The specific objectives include: 1. Establish the existing social norms that underpin and perpetuate against violence in and around schools for girls and boys? 2. Investigate the role of social norms in driving, sustaining and mitigating behavior that contributes to violence against children in and around schools? 3. Explore the existing reference groups ( networks) and their role in influencing social norm change in and around schools? 4. Examine to what extent social norm change has embedded itself within the community, sufficient to change children’s lived experience in preventing and responding to violence against children 5. Explore how social norms change has impacted children’s lived experiences, (including enhancing positive socio-cultural capital supporting child safety and well-being?) 6. Find out the key drivers of social norms change in creating a safer school environment for children to thrive? 7. Suggest programming approaches and steps that may be applied to enhance positive social norms and shift harmful social norms in different context to prevent violence against children.
Uganda 2017-08-07 2020-08-07 Social Science and Humanities Non-degree Award
VICTORIA  NAKIBUUKA
ID:
EVALUATION OF THE UTILITY OF CRP AMONG PRETERMS WITH SEPSIS IN A LOW RESOUCE LIMITED SETTING: A RETROSPECTIVE STUDY
REFNo: HS96ES

Objective 1: To compare CRP levels versus gestational age categories among preterms with sepsis admitted at Nsambya Hospital Objective 2: To compare the CRP levels versus organisms identified among preterms with neonatal sepsis at Nsambya Hospital Secondary Objectives Objective 3: To compare clinical outcomes versus CRP levels and identified organisms among preterms at Nsambya Hospital Objective 4: To determine bacterial sensitivity patterns among preterm infants with sepsis at Nsambya Hospital.
Uganda 2017-08-07 2020-08-07 Medical and Health Sciences Non-degree Award
Hayley Dieckmann
ID:
Stress responses of African lions (Panthera leo) in relation to proximity of ongoing fires and fire scars in Queen Elizabeth National Park, Uganda
REFNo: NS26ES

To understand stress factors of lions in Queen Elizabeth National Park in order to reduce stressful events and promote coexistence of humans and lions within the park. To determine a correlation between African lions’ stress level and their proximity to ongoing fires and fire scars within Queen Elizabeth National park.
 USA 2017-08-16 2020-08-16 Natural Sciences Non-degree Award
Corrie Decker
ID:
Debating Childhood and Maturating in Colonial East Africa
REFNo: SS91ES

Between 1900 and 1960, missionaries, colonial officials, anthropologists, chiefs, elders, educated elites, and cultural nationalists in Uganda, Kenya, and Tanzania (at the time British colonial territories) came into conflict over whether or not to eradicate certain African customs governing a child’s maturation into adulthood. Demands to ban African customs are still heard in the international media today. Why were these debates so controversial at the time and why do they continue to invoke intense discord? I argue that these issues sparked such conflict because they dealt with differing opinions about how to manage a child’s maturation into adulthood. I investigate debates about rites of passage, puberty, adolescence, marriage, and definitions of the child culturally and legally in colonial East Africa. Many different viewpoints and approaches informed these debates, but they became polarized around two positions: the protection of the presumed innocent child in the name of universal rights, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, the preservation of cultural practices that fostered the child’s maturation toward normative adulthood. Scholars have pointed out that this struggle between universal human rights and culture was one that played out within the politics of colonialism and neocolonialism (Babatunde 1998; Hodgson 2011). These discourses portrayed the child as either a helpless creature in need of saving or a future productive and reproductive member of society. These debates shifted toward the end of the colonial era (1960s) as African teenagers’ greater independence became a source of anxiety as daunting as African nationalists’ demand for the end of colonialism (Burton and Charton-Bigot 2010; Ivaska 2011). This project spans the former British colonies of Uganda (1894-1962), Kenya (1895-1963), Zanzibar (1890-1963), and Tanganyika (1916-1961). I focus on the colonial era in order to show how East African customs became part of an international intellectual debate about child development and maturation.
USA 2017-08-16 2020-08-16 Social Science and Humanities Non-degree Award
Ronald Mayanja
ID:
Primary High Risk HPV Testing for Cervical Cancer Screening in a Community Health Fair Setting
REFNo: HS102ES

To pilot the implementation of high-risk self-testing in a community health fair setting with a mobile phone-based results notification to facilitate follow up treatment at a local health facility. Aim 1: Determine the feasibility of implementing cervical cancer screening at community health fairs in rural Uganda using self-sampled hrHPV testing Aim 2: Understand rural Ugandan women’s acceptability, barriers and facilitators of self-collected sampling for cervical cancer screening Aim 3: Assess the ability of Web SMS to improve workforce efficiency and follow up of cervical cancer testing results in community settings.
Uganda 2017-08-21 2020-08-21 Medical and Health Sciences Non-degree Award
Jeninah Atwebembeire
ID:
BIOLOGICAL AND PHYSICO-CHEMICAL PROFILE OF SURFACE WATERS DRAINING INTO RIVER RWIZI BASIN, SOUTH WESTERN UGANDA
REFNo: NS8ES

General objective To determine the biological and physicochemical status of surface waters draining into River Rwizi. Specific objectives i. To determine the sources associated with contamination of the river. ii. To determine the presence of indicator bacteria in streams, channels and sewage effluents draining into river Rwizi along seasonal gradient. iii. To determine the physical-chemical parameters in streams and channels, sewage effluents draining into river Rwizi along seasonal gradient. iv. To determine the impact of pollution on the water quality using macrozoobenthos indicators in the river and its streams, in the upstream, midstream and downstream, during seasonal variations in river Rwizi
Uganda 2017-08-28 2020-08-28 Natural Sciences Degree Award
Raquel Pereira Costa Filomena
ID:
How infants perceive the world: assessing the current impact of mountain gorilla ecotourism in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park (Uganda), through the eyes of the youngsters
REFNo: NS29ES

This project aims to understand the social development of immature individuals within a group and how they react to human presence. Specifically, this study aims to: 1) analyse immature`s behaviour during tourist visits, 2) analyse adult`s role in these interactions and 3) changes in the groups social dynamics. This research will follow that of Muyambi, 2005, who assessed the general tourism impact on the gorillas` behaviour. Hence, the current project may have important and practical applications in gorilla conservation, via for example, guidelines for ecotourism. Such guidelines should focus on minimizing disturbance levels for the animals and, simultaneously, refining tourist education regarding behaviour in front of gorillas, promoting the animal`s typical calm behaviour. This aims to decrease potential risks of conflicts as well as building visitors` sense of responsibility. Such work may also help local communities to develop ecotourism in a more sustainable way.
 Portugal 2017-08-28 2020-08-28 Natural Sciences Degree Award
David Mafigiri Kaawa
ID: UNCST-2019-R001276
 Assessing the effectiveness of the 'Reaching Every Community using Quality Improvement methods' (REC-QI) approach in strengthening the Routine Immunization system in six districts in Uganda
REFNo: HS109ES

• To develop quantitative and qualitative measures to assess dimensions of the RI system that have been strengthened and where problems persist, identify the reasons for them. • Describe adaptations to the implementation of REC-QI that enable districts to move along the continuum of “Orient” to “Establish and Strengthen” to “Sustain.”
Uganda 2017-08-28 2020-08-28 Medical and Health Sciences Non-degree Award
Padmasai Lakshmi Bhamidipati
ID:
Agency and Policy Change Shaping the Solar Energy Transitions in Uganda
REFNo: SS80ES

The overarching objective of this research is to capture the macro-dynamics and the socio-technical changes affecting the solar energy transitions, through an understanding of agency in institutions and policy changes. The aim is to study the electrification strategy at the national level, and with a specific focus at the rural electrification level - to examine the role, developments and debates in the solar energy sector (both grid and off-grid). Through this, the study will deconstruct the role of decentralized modern energy (such as off-grid solar) in alleviating energy access, the debates/contestations among the electricity institutions, the role of political forces in shaping the energy mix, and what does such a transition mean in a larger socio-economic and political context. This PhD project will help in a better understanding of the factors that support a transition to sustainable energy system and overall sustainable development in developing countries (which have a very low electrification rates at present). At the same time, the PhD project aims to provide a greater understanding of the role of transnational linkages and stakeholders within a national context, and the development of an innovation system in the solar sector in Uganda (in terms of changes in the local institutional and socio-economic structures, local competence-building and experience-based learning). The development of institutions and technical-economic capacities at a local level will create further market opportunities for private sector intervention in the solar sector.
India 2017-09-05 2020-09-05 Social Science and Humanities Degree Award
Kavuma  Mwanje Arthur
ID:
CORRELATION BETWEEN CD4 CELL COUNTS AND THE IMMUNE STATUS AMONG CRITICALLY ILL HIV NEGATIVE PATIENTS ADMITTED TO INTENSIVE CARE UNITS
REFNo: HS104ES

General objective To assess the immune status of critically ill HIV negative patients admitted to Ugandan ICUs using CD4 T cell counts as a surrogate marker. Specific objectives Primary objectives i. To determine the CD4 T cell counts among critically ill HIV negative patients admitted to Ugandan ICUs. ii. To determine the relationship between CD4 T cell counts and a twenty eight day ICU mortality among the critically ill HIV negative patients admitted to the Ugandan ICUs. Secondary objective iii. To assess the feasibility of using CD4 T cell counts to predict 24 hour mortality or disease severity as compared to APACHE II score among the critically ill HIV negative patients admitted to Ugandan ICUs
Uganda 2017-09-05 2020-09-05 Medical and Health Sciences Degree Award
Sofia Forss Ingrid Fredrika
ID:
Comparing the Effects of Early Experience and Cognitive Plasticity across the Great Ape Species
REFNo: NS27ES

The main aim of the project is to compare developmental- and experience effects both within and across ape species. First, I aim to investigate the influence of rearing histories (mother reared, wild born, sanctuary born, zoo housed, sanctuary housed, human hand reared etc) on cognitive skills within ape species. Second, by acknowledging individual differences due to rearing histories, this project will deliver meaningful comparisons, where individuals of similar experiences are compared across great ape species. In addition, it allows me to evaluate the strength of experience effects by examining if the change in problem-solving abilities linked to rearing experiences and human contact can even outweigh intrinsic species differences.
 Finland 2017-09-12 2020-09-12 Natural Sciences Non-degree Award
Dave Darshit
ID:
THE ASSOCIATION BETWEEN NUTRITIONAL STATUS, ADHERENCE AND PHARMACOKINETICS OF ATAZANAVIR AMONG HIV POSITIVE ADOLESCENTS ATTENDING AN HIV OUTPATIENT CLINIC IN AN URBAN SETTING IN UGANDA.
REFNo: HS100ES

i. To determine the prevalence of malnutrition among HIV positive adolescents on ATV based on different growth parameters. ii. To determine the association between nutritional status and adherence to ART among HIV positive adolescents on ATV based regimen. iii. To describe the association between nutritional status and pharmacokinetics of boosted ATV among HIV positive adolescents.
India 2017-09-12 2020-09-12 Medical and Health Sciences Non-degree Award
Emmanuel Kiiza Mwesiga Kiiza
ID: UNCST-2019-R001588
 PREDICTORS OF COGNITIVE IMPAIRMENT AMONG PATIENTS WITH FIRST EPISODE PSYCHOSIS IN UGANDA.
REFNo: HS88ES

i) To determine the genetic (COMT, DISC1, HT2RA, BDNF) and environmental (substance use and childhood trauma) factors associated with cognitive impairment among patients with a psychotic episode for the first time. ii) To determine the frequency of BDNF gene polymorphism and its association with serum BDNF levels and cognitive impairment among patients with a psychotic episode for the first time.
Uganda 2017-09-20 2020-09-20 Medical and Health Sciences Non-degree Award
Edith Wakida K
ID: UNCST-2019-R001225
 BARRIERS AND FACILITATORS TO THE INTEGRATION OF MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES INTO PRIMARY HEALTH CARE: A CASE STUDY OF MBARARA DISTRICT, SOUTHWESTERN UGANDA
REFNo: HS126ES

1.4.1 To synthesize evidence on the barriers and facilitators to the integration of mental healthcare services into primary health care 1.4.2 To explore the context specific barriers and facilitators related to the integration of mental healthcare services into PHC by Primary Care Providers (PCPs) 1.4.3 To develop and pilot an educational intervention to describe the PCPs’ ability to integrate mental health services into PHC
Uganda 2017-09-20 2020-09-20 Medical and Health Sciences Degree Award
Irene Andia Biraro Rebecca
ID: UNCST-2019-R001475
 The Link Between Tuberculosis Infection and Type-2 Diabetes Mellitus: Contribution of Innate Lymphoid Cells
REFNo: HS66ES

Primary objective: To investigate the exposure prevalence of latent and active tuberculosis among newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) patients attending the diabetic clinic at Mulago National Referral Hospital (MNRH)-Kiruddu, compared to healthy non diabetic community controls in Kampala, Uganda Nested Secondary objective: To assess the frequency of innate lymphoid cells (ILCs), T-helper (Th)17, Th1 cells, and immune responses among T2DM patients.
Uganda 2017-09-26 2020-09-26 Medical and Health Sciences Non-degree Award
Bruce Kirenga J
ID: UNCST-2019-R001460
 Reducing exposure to household air pollution
REFNo: HS71ES

To evaluate the feasibility, acceptability and effectiveness of proven household air pollution reduction interventions in households using traditional way of cooking and heating methods in selected communities in four countries of Uganda, Vietnam, the Kyrgyz Republic and Greece. Research questions will be: 1. What is the feasibility and acceptability of clean cooking and heating interventions compared to traditional cooking and heating? 2. What is the effectiveness of a clean cooking intervention on health outcomes? 3. What is the effectiveness of household air pollution reduction on health outcomes?
 Uganda 2017-09-26 2020-09-26 Medical and Health Sciences Non-degree Award
Kelly Sambucci Marie
ID: UNCST-2019-R001513
 Parasite occurrence and genetic relatedness in overlapping populations of Mountain Gorilla (Gorilla beringei beringei), livestock, and the Batwa community in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park (BINP), Uganda
REFNo: NS22ES

1. To collect faecal samples for analysis, using light microscopy to identify intestinal helminth eggs and PCR for protozoan diagnosis. 2. Use targeted PCR and amplicon sequencing to confirm parasite identity and genotype those species detected, allowing for investigation into cross-host species transmission. 3. Focus on the occurrence and genetic diversity of Entamoeba species, comparing to existing data which defines the Entamoeba infecting mountain gorilla, livestock and humans in BINP in 2015, exploring changes in prevalence and diversity.
UK 2017-09-26 2020-09-26 Natural Sciences Degree Award
Richard Wamimbi Wotti
ID:
Utilizing Information Communication Technology (ICT) to prevent violence against children in and around schools.
REFNo: SS108ES

The general research purpose is understanding the utilization of ICT in preventing violence against children in and around schools and developing a model that can be applied by agencies to prevent violence against children. Specific objectives: 1.Establish the role of ICT in driving, sustaining and mitigating behavior that contributes to violence against children in and around schools 2.Examine the benefits of ICT use to prevent violence against children specifically for knowledge generation and transfer, capabilities enhancement and social enabler 3.Establish when and how ICT - enabled child sexual violence and exploitation starts, is maintained and perpetuated in and around schools. 4.Examine the inter-related constraints to ICT utilization to prevent violence against specifically social cultural, infrastructural, economic and technological. 5.Find out how ICT (telephone sms, whatsapp, etc.) is promoting values and influencing ICT that can prevent violence against children 6.Suggest the strategies and actions that can be adopted by formal ( law enforcement, teachers, social workers) and non-formal ( children, families, religious, traditional leaders ) actors to better address ICT enabled child sexual abuse and exploitation
Uganda 2017-09-26 2020-09-26 Social Science and Humanities Non-degree Award
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