Nature: Science in Africa - The View From the Front Line

In economic terms, Uganda is one of the success stories in sub-Saharan Africa. Its GDP has grown at an average rate of more than 7% between 2000 and 2010 and it weathered the recent economic crisis better than many of its neighbours. Likewise, the country's science sector has grown.

Under long-time president Yoweri Museveni, the country has been boosting its spending on R&D, from $73 million in 2005–06 to $155 million in 2008–09, which is close to 1% of the country's GDP.

And in 2006, the country won $30 million in low-interest loans as part of the World Bank's Millennium Science Initiative (MSI). That five-year project, implemented by the Uganda National Council for Science and Technology (UNCST), paid for the training of 102 scientists and engineers at the master's and doctorate levels. Among the research projects funded by the MSI programme is one at Med Biotech Laboratories in Kampala to develop a malaria vaccine that has undergone successful testing in baboons, says Thomas Egwang, the director of the non-profit lab. Article here.