Prof. Rose Namara

Chief, IRIC

Welcome to the Research & Innovation Centre

Research & Innovation is at the heart of UMI as evidenced by the new strategic direction of transforming UMI into a research and innovation-led Institute. The Institute Research & Innovation Centre (IRIC) is very critical in ensuring that scholars produce work of the highest significance and impact to society. Since 2014, the IRIC has continued to provide focused attention in guiding and supporting research activities of various Schools. The IRIC with support from Schools through the School Research Committees (SRCs) and Departmental Research Focal Persons (RFP) coordinates research activities at the Institute.  The Centre provides the research ecosystem (staff, participants, various research committees and external stakeholders) for the promotion of research excellence achieved through multifaceted tasks that include the development of policies, guidelines and regulations; facilitating the initiation and implementation of research projects; foreseeing research activities in Schools and coordination, monitoring and evaluating the quality of staff and participants research.

Vision:

To be a reputable one-stop center for quality research and innovation in administration, leadership and management.

Mission:

Generate and disseminate cutting-edge knowledge and innovation in public administration, management and leadership

Our Strategic Objectives

  • Strengthen Institutional capacity to manage the research function
  • Promote local and international research, innovations, partnerships and collaborations
  • Strengthen Institutional capacity to undertake public policy research and engage policy actors
  • Strengthen management and dissemination of student research
  • Foster research and innovations uptake
  • Increase staff research outputs and publications
  • Pursue opportunities to host symposiums, seminars, colloquiums, local, and international conferences
  • Make the Management Business and Incubation Centre (MBIC) a center of preference
  • Review and operationalize research and innovation scheme and staff performance measurement framework

Functions of the :

Institute Research and Innovation Centre
  1. Ensure that the UMI research policies and guidelines and other national and international standards are adhered to by researchers;
  2. Monitor and coordinate staff, students, policy and institutional research activities, ensuring that it keeps those responsible for research informed about the opportunities;
  3. Develop supporting policies, strategies, plans and guidelines as well as review and evaluate such in a bid to strengthen the institutional framework for research is responsible for the development, implementation and evaluation of this policy;
  4. Contribute to the design, formulation and implementation of national and international policies, laws and guidelines that enhance research and innovation;
  5. Other mandates provided under 3.1.4 subsection of the Research & Innovation Policy 2019 includes the following:
    1. Coordinate the undertaking of students, staff, institutional, innovative and policy research
    2. Undertake research
    3. Ensure research policies and guidelines are implemented according to the required standards
    4. Coordinate the research incentive scheme and mobilize funds for research projects and activities
    5. Monitor and evaluate the performance of the research policy
    6. Table policies, guidelines and amendments for consideration by different committees
Departmental Research Focal Persons

The primary role of the RFPs is to coordinate and report on student and staff research and publications and other research activities in the department. The RFP is appointed by the Head of the Department and approved by the Dean and reports to the SRC. The following are the specific responsibilities of the RFP:

  1. Propose internal supervisors to the School Research Committee.
  2. Ensure quality assurance of supervision of graduate students in the department
  3. Resolve conflict between supervisors and students in the department.
  4. Coordinate and report on all other research activities at the departmental level.
School Research Committee
There are SRC in every School their primary role is to guide research and innovation in a given school and / or discipline and report on all research activities and publications at the school level. The coordinating functions of the SRCs are:
  1. Ensure that personal development plans are in place for all academic staff in their department, within the context of the appraisal and promotion systems and that these identify the steps that need to be taken for improving the research output of individuals.
  2. Submit annual research performance reports to the IRIC to be consolidated and submitted to Senate for consideration. Reports shall provide updates on research activities within schools and information on how the targets set out in the Institute Research Strategy have been or will be achieved.
The SRCs are therefore mandated to:
  1. Allocate supervisors to Masters or PhD students
  2. Allocate critical reviewers of Masters Research proposals
  3. Organize proposal defense, compile and share minutes with participants
  4. Clear students to progress for field work by providing introductory letters
  5. Allocate and appoint internal examiners for Masters dissertations
  6. Coordinate the internal examination process for Masters Dissertations
  7. Coordinate staff research and publication activities in the schools
  8. Reviewing and approval of research projects by staff for research grants
  9. Liaise with the IRIC to identify and address supervision-related complaints
  10. Coordinating effective undertaking of cross-disciplinary research
  11. Reviewing research innovations in the school
  12. Quality assurance of research products by staff and participants
  13. Make regular reports on research activity undertakings at the school level
  14. Networking with other school boards on issues of research supervision and quality assurance
  15. Identify and forward to the IRIC, research issues that require management and policy attention