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  
Anthony  Fuller
ID:
Comprehensive Neurology and Neurosurgery Care Country Level Assessment in Uganda
REFNo: HS2344ES

The main objective of this study is to complete a neurological care continuum evaluation of Uganda’s public hospitals and health centers for the purposes of informing the current gaps in Uganda’s health system to manage neurological patients, elucidating the availability and distribution of neurological care throughout the country, and allowing for examination of the current infrastructure of the health system to appropriately refer and treat acute and non-acute neurological patients.
USA 2022-07-18 14:41:02 2025-07-18 Medical and Health Sciences Non-Clinical Trial Non-degree Award
Chaning Jang Ahn Wong
ID:
Contextualizing Moral Foundations Theory for Better Messaging in Uganda
REFNo: SS797ES

General Objective:
This study seeks to contextualize the Moral Foundation Theory to the Ugandan context through various instruments to have a better understanding of the social, and personal values of its population.
Specific and Achievable Objectives:
The breakdown of the general objective of this project is as follows:
Adapt the moral foundation research process, as laid out by Knutson and Haidt, to the Ugandan context through exploratory and confirmatory analysis
Diagnose the distribution of moral decision-making across five themes by examining respondents’ classifications of moral violations.
Seeking to understand how the foundations are distributed across the general population.
Use the validated set of moral foundations to inform behavioral change communication/messaging campaigns.

USA 2021-04-27 2024-04-27 Social Science and Humanities Non-Clinical Trial Non-degree Award
Katherine Fiorillo Fiorillo
ID:
Measuring Women's Empowerment in Agroforestry Activities in Northern Uganda
REFNo: SS799ES

Research Questions:

● What is the baseline level of women’s empowerment in agroforestry in the project target area?
● How can project activities better address issues of women’s empowerment in agroforestry in the target area?
The main objectives of this research study, listed above, are to understand the baseline level of women’s empowerment and how the project can better respond to these issues. The baseline will be used to both inform and to monitor the project progress towards women’s empowerment. A strong evidence base will allow Kijani to adapt programming to better meet the needs of the community. Qualitative protocols will ensure that the community’s needs and values are being expressed fully in the research process.

USA 2021-07-22 2024-07-22 Social Science and Humanities Non-Clinical Trial Degree Award
Jessica Perkins M
ID: UNCST-2021-R013564
 Perceptions of Social Norms and Personal Propensity to Engage in HIV Testing: A Mixed Methods Study and Intervention in Rural Uganda
REFNo: SS812ES

We propose a study to assess norms and perceptions about HIV prevention and related topics. This includes assessing village norms (i.e., the behaviours or attitudes of more than 50% of the adult population), perceived norms, how people form their perceptions, which social reference groups are the most meaningful, and the difference between actual norms and individuals’ perceptions of what most others do or believe. We will also examine whether perceptions are associated with personal behaviours and attitudes. Project 1 Aim: To engage in secondary analysis of quantitative data about perceived social norms and actual population norms around HIV prevention behaviours and related topics across different social reference groups. Aim 1: We will assess the prevalence of perceived and actual behavioural norms. We will do this both at the village-level and across various sociodemographic and health indicators. We will consider a behaviour the village norm if it is reported by more than 50% of adults. Aim 2: Because the parent study includes nearly all adults living in Nyakabare Parish, we can compare the actual village norm (assessed in Aim 1) to perceptions of the village norm. The parent study asked participants about their perceptions of what most other adults in the village do or think. Aim 3: Using the self-reported behaviours, attitudes, and norm perceptions, we will test whether individuals’ perceptions of what is normative is related to their personal attitudes and behaviours. Project 2 Aim: To use qualitative research methods to understand the nuances of HopeNet participants’ perceptions about local norms and design valid survey questions that elicit perceived social norms about HIV testing within different reference groups. Aim 1: Through in-depth interviews, scenarios related to HIV prevention attitudes and behaviours and perceived norms about salient social reference groups will be discussed. Aim 2: Based on results from Aim 1, survey questions using different ways of assessing norms will be developed to assess perceived social norms around HIV-related prevention behaviours and attitudes among different reference groups. Aim 3: Through cognitive interviews, the content validity of these survey questions to elicit perceptions of social norms about HIV-related attitudes and behaviours among specific social reference groups will improve.
USA 2021-11-11 2024-11-11 Social Science and Humanities Non-Clinical Trial Non-degree Award
Cole Harris
ID:
Pentecostalism and Development: Explaining the Variation of Church-Led Community Programs in Kampala, Uganda
REFNo: SS1151ES

Complete program observation at the community programs of the three selected case study churches.,Create three Pentecostal-Charismatic church case studies that situate the churches within the broader Pentecostal movement.,Conduct interviews with church leaders regarding the availability of community programs and their selection of those programs.,Better understand Pentecostal leaders’ decision-making process in the selection of community programs.,Take an inventory of the availability of community programs offered by Pentecostal-Charismatic churches in Kampala, Uganda.,
 USA 2022-01-19 2025-01-19 Social Science and Humanities Non-Clinical Trial Non-degree Award
Elodie Freymann Marion
ID:
Intergenerational Transmission of Self-Medicative Knowledge in Chimpanzees? Examining Putative Modes and Mechanisms of Information Transmission Between Chimpanzees
REFNo: NS257ES

Homo sapiens are not the only species to self-medicate. Over the last few decades, self-medication has been observed in a variety of primate and non-primate species and throughout a wide range of localities (Janzen, 1978; Huffman, 2016). Non-human self-medication takes many forms and involves a variety of medicinal resources. These include self-medicative resources (SMRs) known to be used in medicinal behaviors like leaf swallowing (Wrangham & Nishida, 1983) and bitter-pith chewing (Huffman & Seifu, 1989), putative therapeutic resources (PTRs) which are irregular dietary items with known bioactive properties, ingested when an individual is ill, and medicinal foods (MFs) which are foods eaten at low frequencies in the absence of symptoms, at certain times of year when their associated medicinal properties are likely most beneficial for preventing future infection or illness (Huffman, 1997). While bioactive and limitedly nutritious botanical species remain the best studied medicinal resources, clay, termite soil, and cambium beneath peeled tree bark are also widely acknowledged as possessing medicinal properties (Pebsworth et al., 2019). In recent literature, many other resource types have been proposed as candidates for further study, including driver ants, honey, ash, and mushrooms, although no studies thus far have empirically established the intentional use of these resources by sick chimpanzees.

Although chimpanzees have been shown to transmit medicinal information to their peers in experimental settings (Huffman & Hirata, 2004; Huffman et al., 2010), the modes, mechanisms, and social learning processes through which chimpanzees transmit medicinal knowledge and behaviors remain untested in free-ranging chimpanzees. This project, titled ‘Intergenerational Transmission of Self-Medicative Knowledge in Chimpanzees? Examining Putative Modes and Mechanisms of Information Transmission Between Chimpanzees’ will consist of three studies, all of which aim to test hypotheses related to intergenerational self-medicative knowledge transmission: the modes and mechanisms facilitating this transmission, and how this knowledge disperses across communities in wild populations. This research will be carried out as part of the completion of Ms Freymann’s DPhil at the University of Oxford.

The first study, titled ‘Gestural Communication During Chimpanzee Self-Medication Events? An analysis of multi-modal signaling between self-medicating models and observers’ will examine whether or not model individuals use specific multi-modal signals and/or increased signaling frequencies to communicate medicinal information to offspring or non-kin observers. The second study, titled ‘Mapping the Self-Medicative Landscape: Do wild chimpanzees revisit medicinal resource sites when seeking treatment?’ will evaluate the presence or absence of habitually utilized SMR sites, to determine whether or not preferred locational ‘hotspots’ exist for chimpanzees within their habitat, and may function as contextual clues to alert chimpanzee observers to the potential onset of a self-medicative event. The third study, titled ‘Evaluating Inter-Community and Intra-Community Variation in Resource Selection and Self-Medicative Behaviors' will evaluate whether or not medicating individuals demonstrate inter-group and/or intra-group variation in their employment of self-medicative behaviors and medicinal resource selection, as well as whether or not social and demographic variables can predict the presence of these variants.

There are two neighboring habituated chimpanzee communities in Budongo forest, the Sonso community, with has ~65 individuals, and the more recently habituated Waibira community which has ~120 individuals. While this research will begin with the Sonso community, if this group becomes unavailable for study due to other scheduled projects, Ms Freymann will flexibly move her data collection to the Waibira community to make the study a cross-community comparison.

Research Questions
1. Gestural Communication During Chimpanzee Self-Medication Events?
• Are gestural signals used at higher frequencies during medicinal events than during normal feeding events?
• Do models use signals at higher frequencies in the presence of an observer during medicinal ingestion events than during medicinal events in which the medicating individual is alone?
• Do medicators increase signaling frequencies during medicinal events based on relatedness to observers?
• Is the proportion of ‘successful’ begging outcomes higher during medicinal events than the proportion of ‘successful’ begging outcomes during normal feeding events?
• Do signaling frequencies between individuals during medicinal events vary based on demographic characteristics or health state?
• Are there specific signals that are used during medicinal events which are not commonly used during normal feeding events?
• Do signal types between models and observers exhibited during medicinal events vary based on social relationships, demographic characteristics, resource type, or behavioral type?

2. Mapping the Self-Medicative Landscape
• Are locations where SMR or PTR ingestion events took place spatially clustered into hot spots?
• Do individuals re-use the same SMR resource hotspots when they are sick?
• Do sick individuals utilize sites with high resource abundance scores over sites where the resource is scarce?
• Do any demographic variables (age, sex and reproductive status) predict which individuals visit which medicinal hotspots?
• When sick individuals travel away from the group to self-medicate, do they choose the most efficient route, foregoing nutritious resources and normal feeding sites to get to the closest available resource, or do they ignore closer sites and return to habitually used sites?

2. Evaluating Inter-Community and Intra-Community Variation in Resource Selection and Self-Medicative Behaviors
• Across all individuals in the community, are specific sickness behaviors correlated with an increase in ingestion of any specific resource type or species?
• Does there appear to be behavioral variation during medicinal events?
• If variation does exist, can horizontal or vertical transmission predict the diffusion pathways of the behavioral variants?
• Does variation in self-medicative behavioral techniques or resource selection appear to be cultural?

 USA 2021-07-05 2024-07-05 Natural Sciences Non-Clinical Trial Degree Award
Jonathan Marino
ID:
How the social and material conditions of teaching influence early grades teachers’ implementation of reading pedagogies
REFNo: SS1509ES

To understand how social and material conditions shape the way teachers think about these reading pedagogies and their own teaching practice.,To understand how early primary educators in Uganda make sense of various reading pedagogies they are asked to undertake, such as mother-tongue instruction and child centered pedagogies.,To understand what are the social and material conditions of teaching experienced by early primary educators in Uganda. and how the COVID-19 pandemic has influenced these conditions.,The goal of this study is to explore how early primary teachers in Uganda make sense of and implement new pedagogical approaches to teaching reading and how the social and material constraints of their teaching environment influence their reading instruction.,
 USA 2022-11-11 17:18:21 2025-11-11 Social Science and Humanities Non-Clinical Trial Degree Award
Shevin  Jacob Thomas
ID:
AN OBSERVATIONAL STUDY TO ASSESS THE UTILITY OF BEDSIDE ULTRASOUND SCAN IN SEPSIS TREATMENT AMONG HOSPITALIZED ADULTS IN UGANDA
REFNo: HS1499ES

General objective: To describe the potential utility of bedside ultrasound scanning in evaluating adult patients with suspected sepsis admitted to hospitals in Uganda Specific objectives: 1. Estimate the proportion of patients admitted to the medical emergency unit with suspected sepsis who have ultrasound findings consistent with intravascular fluid depletion. 2. Estimate the proportion of patients admitted to the medical emergency unit with suspected sepsis who have ultrasound findings suggestive of intolerance to high volume intravenous fluid. 3. Estimate the proportion of patients admitted to the medical emergency unit with suspected sepsis who have ultrasound findings that identify a potential source of infection. 4. Determine the feasibility of delivering POCUS to evaluate non-pregnant adult patients with sepsis by clinicians who are not specialized in radiology.
USA 2021-07-16 2024-07-16 Medical and Health Sciences Non-Clinical Trial Non-degree Award
michael taylor halford
ID:
Dry Rifting in the Albertine -Rhino graben (DRIAR)
REFNo: NS260ES

To conduct geological investigation of faulting associated with continental rifting in the magma poor rift environment in the northernmost western branch of the East African Rift System.
 USA 2021-12-01 2024-12-01 Natural Sciences Non-Clinical Trial Degree Award
Jacqueline Delie Slabe
ID:
Exploring the social-political contexts of wildlife conservation in Queen Elizabeth and Kibale National Parks in Uganda
REFNo: SS1479ES

1. Understand which socio-political factors affect community-ranger relations in Queen Elizabeth and Kibale National Parks, Uganda.

2. Identify the similarities and differences between communities and park rangers in their perceptions of socio-political factors, and their potential relevance to mitigating human-wildlife conflicts and strengthening conservation of both wildlife and culture.

3. Highlight the important insights that arise in characterizing gendered similarities and differences in the way communities and park rangers value the local protected area.
USA 2023-02-21 13:00:12 2026-02-21 Social Science and Humanities Non-Clinical Trial Non-degree Award
Peter Olds
ID: UNCST-2023-R006240
 The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on NCD care in Mbarara, Uganda
REFNo: HS1535ES

1. Patients differentially sought medical care during the COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in different utilization of NCD care at health centers and a regional referral hospital.
2. We hope to understand both patient and provider perspectives on NCD care during COVID-19 pandemic, and discuss their outlook on more mobile versions of care.
 USA 2021-10-26 2024-10-26 Medical and Health Sciences Non-Clinical Trial Non-degree Award
Carolyn Pelnik
ID:
Identifying and Easing Constraints on Microenterprise Location within Kampala, Uganda
REFNo: SS935ES

This project asks whether business relocation within the city could increase profits for microfirms in Kampala, Uganda, and if so, then what frictions (constraints) restrict a firm’s ability to relocate without intervention. Ultimately, this project plans to use a multi-arm randomized experiment to accomplish 3 aims: to detect appetite for business relocation, whether relocation increases profits, and which of the tested frictions might constrain location choice. In the first phase of the research, the project will survey microfirms in Kampala to understand their current locations, how profits vary by location across the city, what aspirations the business owners have with respect to future business growth, and what challenges they perceive to accomplishing business growth.
USA 2021-09-10 2024-09-10 Social Science and Humanities Non-Clinical Trial Non-degree Award
Brenda McCollum
ID:
Muslims and Islam in Buganda, ca. 1900 - 1962
REFNo: SS950ES

I seek to examine the Muslim experience of colonialism in the Kingdom of Buganda.
USA 2021-11-23 2024-11-23 Social Science and Humanities Non-Clinical Trial Degree Award
Goylette Chami
ID: UNCST-2023-R006262
 SchistoTrack: Determinants of schistosomiasis infection and morbidity as part of the Oxford-Uganda Collaboration on Schistosomiasis
REFNo: HS1664ES

Determine whether infection indicators are informative for measuring morbidity risks
associated with schistosomiasis;
2. Prioritize the most common morbidities associated with schistosomiasis, by age, that
require treatment and further research;
3. Understand the relative importance of environmental factors versus current infections for
schistosomiasis- associated morbidities.
4. Assess the feasibility of large-scale tracking of individuals with wearable GPS;
5. Determine whether spatial indicators from wearable devices can better predict individual
infection risk when compared to conventional approaches such as household surveys;
and
6. Develop methods to classify water contact sites based on individual usage and
contamination to understand whether there are focal points for transmission or super
spreaders.
USA 2021-09-22 2024-09-22 Medical and Health Sciences Non-Clinical Trial Non-degree Award
Amy  Ritterbusch Elizabeth
ID:
Child Protection Mapping and Honour
REFNo: SS970ES

1.To examine the effect of global narratives of child wellbeing on child protection and rights practices in Uganda
2.To explore prospects for local child protection practices in informing and enriching global child protection policy
3.To explore the concept of honour and examine how it promotes children’s wellbeing and or sustains violence against children in the Ugandan context.

USA 2021-09-03 2024-09-03 Social Science and Humanities Non-Clinical Trial Non-degree Award
Zarin Machanda Machanda
ID:
The form and functions of leadership in wild chimpanzees
REFNo: NS288ES

This project will establish chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) as a new comparative model of human-like leadership by testing how individual variation across a leader’s temperament, behaviour, and physiology shapes collective action in natural social groups. The first aim of the project is to support continuing long-term data collection by the Kibale Chimpanzee Project. We have three additional research aims that are specific to this project: (1) to identify and describe different domains of leadership in wild chimpanzees; (2) identify and describe the characteristics of chimpanzee leaders; and (3) evaluate the success of different pathways to leadership for chimpanzees. This project aims to collect both observational and experimental data that will provide detailed empirical insight into leadership among wild chimpanzees
 USA 2021-09-08 2024-09-08 Natural Sciences Non-Clinical Trial Non-degree Award
Radhika Sundararajan Lu
ID:
A pilot study of adherence support delivered by informal health providers to improve entry to and retention in HIV care in rural Uganda
REFNo: HS1747ES

: Pilot test the adapted intervention to evaluate implementation and impact on linkage/retention in HIV and ART adherence among individual PLWH,Adapt an evidence-based layperson adherence support curriculum for delivery by TH.,
 USA 2021-10-01 2024-10-01 Medical and Health Sciences Non-Clinical Trial Non-degree Award
Yang Jae Lee
ID: UNCST-2021-R012449
 Destigmatization of Mental Illness Through Theater
REFNo: HS1764ES

1. Primary Objective
Effectiveness of a community theater-based destigmatization program to combat stigma and increase care-seeking habits as measured by KAP (knowledges, attitudes, and practices) survey and focus groups at the beginning and the end of the intervention

2. Secondary Objective
1) Assess the general prevalence of mental health conditions for patients attending outpatient visits for general medical conditions
2) Assess KAP towards mental health of healthcare providers to shape future interventions in mental health destigmatization

 USA 2021-12-10 2024-12-10 Medical and Health Sciences Non-Clinical Trial Non-degree Award
Dorothy Stamps Sarah
ID: UNCST-2019-R001036
 Dry Rifting in the Albertine-Rhino graben, Uganda (DRIAR)
REFNo: NS294ES

Investigating the physics of strain accommodation in the magma-poor Albertine- Rhino Graben of the East African Rift System using geodynamic modeling and GNSS geodesy
 USA 2021-10-08 2024-10-08 Natural Sciences Non-Clinical Trial Non-degree Award
DeeAnn Reeder Marie
ID: UNCST-2021-R012240
 Tolerance and resistance responses of African bats to viral antigens: Immunological tradeoffs in zoonotic reservoir hosts.
REFNo: NS300ES

The overall goals of the proposed work are (1) to understand the role that infection tolerance plays in the ability of African bat species to serve as reservoir hosts for virulent zoonotic viruses (especially Ebola), and (2) identify the molecular and behavioral mechanisms that contribute to these tolerance phenotypes.


 USA 2022-02-24 2025-02-24 Natural Sciences Non-Clinical Trial Non-degree Award
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