The Uganda National Council for Science and Technology (UNCST) in collaboration with Mbale Regional Referral Hospital and Busitema University have developed a national online system where science researchers can upload their work for review. 

The system is dubbed the National Research Management System (NRIMS), it will be used by scientists engaged in clinical trials, medical research and student researchers undertaking scientific research work. 

Dr. Martin Ongol, the acting executive secretary at the UNCST said that the COVID-19 pandemic presented glaring gaps in the efficiency and effectiveness of scientific research reviews. 

Ongol said this presented an opportunity for UNCST to fast track its process flows of reviewing research through the project for developing the online system. 

This was during the dissemination meeting of scaling up of capacity of research ethics committees in Uganda (SCRECU).  

The two-year project was funded by the European Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnerships (EDCTP) between October 2019-to and December-2021. The function took place at the Hilton Garden Inn Hotel, Kampala. 

The project aimed at building a sustainable National Research Management System (NRIMS) framework for all the Research Ethics Committees (RECs) in Uganda with capabilities of facilitating multi-REC ethical review of research, national registration of research and subsequent monitoring of approved studies in Uganda. 

During the event, Helen Opolot, the assistant executive secretary at UNCST read a speech for Ongol. 

Ongol said that the project has achieved tremendous outputs, especially in the rollout of the E-research regulatory system, the National Research Informational Management System (NRIMS) in Uganda. 

Prof. led the project Maxwell Otim-Onapa who provided both technical and infrastructural capacity for 25 RECs. 

Ongol said that the NRIMS has been piloted within the East African Region through the Consortium for Clinical Research Regulation and Ethics Capacity in the Eastern Africa Region (CCREEA) project, under another EDCTP grant-making UNCST a centre of excellence in E-research regulatory tools. 

“We are happy to note the successful implementation of the two research studies embedded with the project; feasibility and effectiveness of NRIMS for review, registration and monitoring of research in Uganda and the evaluation of the cost economics of implementation of the system,” Ongol said. 

He thanked the project partners for the implementation of the project and hoped for continued collaboration in achievement of the Vision 2040 through the creation of an enabling environment for research and innovation.   

NRIMS has reduced the volumes of paperwork and the cost of printing. 

It has improved the response time to one to four days from the four weeks it used to take. It has made it easy for regulatory agencies to receive clear studies. 

Onapa noted the system underpins the concept of ‘digital natives’ which means a generation of people who use digital technology fully and leverage it. 

The other concept is the ‘digital migrants’ who are in and out of digital technology preferring to print materials to have confidence in them. 

The new system sends reminders to different users to respond to pending requests.  

The project has built a sustainable National Research Management System (NRIMS) framework for all the Research Ethics Committees (RECs) in Uganda. 

It has capabilities of facilitating multi-REC ethical review of research, national registration of research and subsequent monitoring of approved studies in Uganda. 

Specifically, the project is aimed at developing capacity among the RECs to adopt and implement NRIMS as a tool for electronic review and registration of research in Uganda, conducting training for RECs to use and maintain NRIMS for REC review processes. 

It undertook to test the feasibility and effectiveness of NRIMS for review, registration, and monitoring of research in Uganda and evaluating the cost economics of implementation of the system.

 Onapa said that there was a gap identified in research ethics in Uganda which the project aimed to address. 

“There is a problem of research safety culture, coordination of submission of research protocols to multiple ethical regulatory authorities including RECs. This process is slow and time-consuming,” Onapa said. 

Onapa noted that Uganda was among the best countries in Africa in attracting a lot of resources for research. 

“We want to improve the quality of research reviews using online resources, improve multiple RECs reviews,” Onapa said. 

Caption Photo: Onapa (Second from right) and Opolot (Seated front row, first from left) during the dissemination meeting of the scaling up of capacity of research ethics committees in Uganda at the Hilton Garden Inn Hotel, Kampala. Photo by John Odyek