School of Research & Knowledge Innovation
Covers research design, methodology, ethics, and responsible conduct of research and Focuses on knowledge translation, innovation ecosystems, and African knowledge systems
Department of Research Methodology and Ethics
Department of Knowledge Systems and Innovation Studies
Courses in this School
Grant Proposal Writing and Funding Acquisition
This practice-intensive course equips African academics, researchers, postgraduate students, and research supervisors with the strategic and technical craft of converting rigorous research designs into fundable proposals. Learners master the full funding lifecycle — from mapping national, continental, and international funders to building theories of change, defensible budgets, equitable partnerships, and compliant submissions — all grounded in the realities and opportunities of African higher education.
Philosophy of Knowledge and Research Foundations
Foundational course on the nature of knowledge, major epistemological traditions (rationalism, empiricism, constructivism), African research philosophies (Ubuntu, indigenous knowledge systems, epistemic decolonization), paradigms of inquiry, and the philosophy-methodology-ethics interface; entry module of the RKI series / Certificate in Research Methods and Grant Writing mandated by the CAA CPD Policy Framework. The course makes the researcher philosophically literate at the start of their professional journey: command of the fundamental questions of epistemology so every methodological choice can be justified; placement of those questions in the context of the academic calling — scholarship as a vocation of disciplined truth-seeking in service to society carried with integrity; and assertion of African knowledge sovereignty — the right of African scholars, universities, and communities to define, validate, and curate knowledge on their own terms while engaging global thought from a position of dignity. "Africanization" is treated as rigorous philosophical work — Ubuntu, indigenous knowledge systems, and decolonial critique studied with the same analytical seriousness as Descartes, Hume, or Kuhn. Target audience: academics, researchers, postgraduate students, and research supervisors in African higher education across all disciplines, from early-career faculty and doctoral candidates to senior professors and postgraduate supervision mentors.
Research Design and Methodological Approaches
The second pillar of the Certificate in Research Methods and Grant Writing, this course converts the philosophical literacy of RKI 101 into practical design competence. Participants learn to move from a research problem to a fully specified, defensible research design across the full spectrum of quantitative, qualitative, and mixed-methods approaches — always grounding every design choice in an explicit paradigm justification. It prepares academics, postgraduate students, and research supervisors to design studies that are methodologically rigorous, ethically sound, and genuinely workable in African contexts: resource-constrained, multilingual, and community-centered.
Research Ethics and Integrity
The flagship, full-credit ethics course of the Department of Research Methodology and Ethics, giving academics, postgraduate students, research supervisors, and ethics committee members in African higher education command of the theoretical, regulatory, and practical dimensions of responsible research conduct — from ethical theory and African relational ethics through governance, consent, integrity, authorship, and data ethics, to the frontier questions of AI, genomics, and international collaboration. It anchors the Certificate in Responsible Conduct of Research and Publication Ethics (RKI 103, 104, 108).
Research Project Management and Collaboration
The capstone of the Certificate in Research Methods and Grant Writing, this practice-intensive course equips principal investigators, research coordinators, and research office staff to convert an awarded grant into delivered, audited research impact. Learners manage a real or simulated award — inherited from the RKI 105 finale — through the full post-award lifecycle: launch and governance, financial stewardship, collaborative team leadership, monitoring and evaluation, data management, funder reporting, close-out, and positioning for the next funding cycle.
Responsible Conduct of Research: Ethics, Integrity, and Good Practice in African Higher Education
A focused, deeply practical mini-course equipping faculty, postgraduate students, research supervisors, and institutional ethics committee members across African higher education with the knowledge and skills to conduct, supervise, and review research to the highest ethical and integrity standards. Grounded in international normative frameworks (the Belmont principles, the Declaration of Helsinki, ICMJE authorship criteria) and reinterpreted through African communitarian ethics and the realities of research governance on the continent, this course builds genuine competence in informed consent, data protection, publication ethics, and institutional oversight — not merely awareness of rules.
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