The ARUA VCs met between 24 and 26 April 2019 in Kigali, Rwanda. The meeting was hosted by Prof Phil Cotton on behalf of the University of Rwanda.

24 April 2019

On Wednesday, 24 April 2019, the VCs worked with Prof Andrew Thomson and his team from the UKRI. The team brain stormed how ARUA and the UKRI could use their commonalities to foster high quality research and human capacity development in Africa.

In particular the meeting discussed the GCRF support for the 13 ARUA CoE. The closing date for submission of their applications for support is 30^th April 2019. Furthermore the discussion focused on the research excellence programme that will support 6 projects related to the 13 ARUA themes and especially the disciplinary space between them. The call will open in September 2019.

25 April 2019

In the morning of Thursday, 25 April 2019, the meeting focused on the development of the partnerships that will hopefully benefit ARUA and its members.

The following three partnership opportunities were discussed:

1. Brookhaven National laboratory – Prof Robert Tribble – presented the opportunities for African researchers to use their accelerator.
2. The Guild – Prof Ase Gornitzka – discussed this alliance of 19 European Universities and how they can work with ARUA.
3. The Association of Commonwealth Universities – Prof Joanne Newman – discussed how this large network could work seamlessly with ARUA to develop their common goals.

In the afternoon of the 25^th April the ARUA conducted its board meeting. Normal business was discussed and the Secretary General, Prof Ernest Aryeetey was thanked for his leadership.

26 April 2019

On Friday morning the ARUA VCs meet with the CARTA leadership. Several of CARTA member Universities overlap with the ARUA membership.

The success of the CARTA PhD programme was discussed and offered to ARUA as a working model for split- site PhD degrees. It was clear from the discussions that much synergy could be leveraged. A task team was established with the ACU to take these matters forward.