Charles Muiruri, a student at UNC's Gillings School of Global Health, has been instrumental in establishing the Association for Research Administrators in East Africa.  The organization hopes to help regional scientists in sub-Saharan Africa get grants and use them more effectively.

Currently completing his MPH in the School's Public Health Leadership Program, Muiruri works for Duke Global Health Institute and with the Fogarty's international AIDS training and research program in Tanzania.

As noted in the NIH/Fogarty International Center Newsletter,

Once the Association of Research Administrators in Africa becomes established, planners say it will be open to other institutions in East Africa. 
The idea is "to get Africans at all levels to understand the process and be part of the research agenda," said Kenyan born Charles Muiruri, who works for Duke Global Health Institute and who sparked the organization.

He said individual members of the organization are being urged to gather support and expertise among counterparts at other institutions throughout the region "so that this becomes not a Western but actually an African idea. This would assist us to understand how to build a sustainable model in this region to be replicated elsewhere."

An executive meeting is scheduled for early 2009 and another general meeting is scheduled for late summer or fall at Moi University in Eldoret, Kenya.