About the Office of Research and Development (ORD)
At the University of Botswana (UB), the strategic planning of research, like that of teaching and learning, is the responsibility of the Division of Academic Affairs. In this context, the Deputy Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs (DVCAA) provides the overall strategic leadership in research through the University Research Committee (URC), which is a sub-committee of Senate. URC is responsible for advising Senate on all issues related to research. It is also responsible for overseeing and reviewing the implementation of the University Research Strategy (URS), which was approved by Senate in February 2008, to serve as a road map regarding the way research will be conducted at UB.
The University Research Strategy (URS) highlights UB’s ambition to become a research intensive tertiary education institution by 2021. It also sets out the key performance indicators for research and highlights the structures and resources that are required and will need to be put in place by the University in order for it to achieve its ambition. The URS also clearly spells out the link between research and teaching..
The Office of Research and Development (ORD), which has the overall mandate for coordinating and facilitating the implementation of the University Research Strategy, serves as the secretariat of the URC. The ORD seeks to achieve its mandate by serving the following functions among others:
- Secretariat to the University Research Committee (URC)
- Coordination of research across Faculties and Centres of Study
- Management of sub-committees of the URC
- Research training and capacity building
- Research quality and outputs management
- Identification of funding opportunities
- Budget and research proposal preparation
- Managing institutional research allocation and post award research
- Commercialisation of research outputs
- Ethics oversight
- Research awards and research publicity.