University Research Administrators Gain Experience from The Ohio State University in United States (U.S.) Embassy Workshop

As Ethiopia’s public universities transition to new governance models, strong policies and practices to administer research are key to helping universities secure financial resources, improve their research facilities and labs, attract talented faculty and students, and build international partnerships.

Continuing its effort to support for Ethiopia’s public universities’ as they transition to autonomous governance, the U.S. Embassy in Ethiopia organized a five-day workshop July 8-12 on university research administration for 20 vice presidents and directors of research from the nation’s leading research universities.  The workshop was organized by Institute of International Education (IIE) and The Ohio State University’s Global One Health initiative (OSU-GOHi) in collaboration with the Ministry of Education.

Experienced research administrators and senior research leaders from The Ohio State University facilitated the workshop and shared practical experiences, with the goal of building the capacity of research administrators and strengthening the institutional systems and research culture at Ethiopian public universities.  The president of Europe Canadia Centre for Innovation and Research also shared experience as a research administrator outside the United States.

The speakers discussed different ways to structure research administration offices, and how to manage research proposal writing, grant management, and budgets, as well as research ethics and regulatory compliance.  The Ministry of Education’s Research Administration team presented the key aspects of the Ministry’s research policies, strategies, and programs that guide research and innovation in the Ethiopian higher education system.  Participants also joined panel discussions on the opportunities and challenges of research in Ethiopian public universities and developed key recommendations to help improve the research and innovation ecosystem in Ethiopia.

The Ohio State University is one of the United States’ leading public land grant universities. It’s Research and Innovation Enterprise administers an astounding annual budget of more than $1.4 billion USD in research funding, with much of this funding coming from U.S. federal agencies through competitive funding opportunities.

Since the August 2023 proclamation that initiated the transition of the nation’s public universities to autonomous governance, the U.S. Embassy has assisted the Ministry of Education and Ethiopian universities in developing the leadership, management, and governance policies and practices necessary for universities to succeed as independent institutions.

This partnership in higher education continues a long tradition of government-to-government, university-to-university, and faculty-to-faculty relationships that date back to the 1950s to the founding of Haramaya, Jimma, and Gondar Universities under the U.S. government’s Point Four program.  The U.S. government and the American people have been committed to the success of higher education in Ethiopia since the very beginning our 120-year long bilateral relationship.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of U.S. Embassy in Ethiopia.