Researchers from the Department of Energy Science and Technology under the Faculty of Economics, Energy and Management Science at Makerere University Business School (MUBS) recently won a grant of $56,000 from the UNESCO-TWAS programme, “Seed Grant for New African Principal Investigators” financed by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). The programme aims to support early-career scientists in Sub-Saharan Africa to undertake high-level promising research projects across various fields of science.
At MUBS, the grant will support project activities aimed at promoting applied research in the energy field. Among the activities to be undertaken using the grant is the establishment of a hybrid green energy research unit at MUBS. The unit will initially consist of solar photovoltaics (PV), solar thermal, and biogas systems for research and demonstration purposes. With more funding, it is envisioned that other green energy technologies will be added in future.
Once complete, the unit will transform energy research at MUBS by enabling staff and students to undertake cutting edge studies and experiments aimed at generating innovative and sustainable energy solutions for national transformation. Furthermore, it will improve the teaching of energy courses at MUBS by bridging the gap between theoretical knowledge acquired in class and practical application of different energy technologies and systems. The unit will, therefore, greatly benefit the school for years to come.
Through the grant, the school will also support masters research of five students (three females and two males) from the Master of Energy Economics and Governance programme. Relevant books to support energy teaching at MUBS will also be acquired.
The Principal Investigator (PI) for this project is Dr. Nicholas Mukisa, with support from Mr. Paul Nduhuura.
For more information about the project, please contact Dr. Nicholas Mukisa at nmukisa@mubs.ac.ug.