Program Mission 

To link research with practice and vice-versa in the framework of a living lab in order to foster uptake and optimization of strategies to tackle risks confronting human societies

Our activities at TDF are evidence-based. Through this Research and Development (R&D) department, we strive to ensure that we follow our evidence-based agenda by interlinking our actions with science/theory, grounded in experience.

An upcoming part of this program is to link researchers to practice and vice versa in the context of understanding as well as tackling risk from societal/social and natural hazards. Here, we intend to start connecting researchers from various academic institutions within and outside Uganda to conduct a research-based internship at our premises or in the field with the group or framers that are members of TDF. Through us, the researcher can thus interact in the framework of a living lab with the local lived experiences.

Our research lab (THRIVE RESEARCH LAB) is growing and transforming into a research university, THRIVE SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH UNIVERSITY (TRISU). The vision of TRISU is to be a research-for-development university, aimed at evidenced-based development for the betterment and improvement of human societies. Our core values are thus prudence and integrity. Our mission is to create a nurturing environment where scholars grounded in interdisciplinarity conduct research and innovatively dialogue at multi-disciplinary platforms to address issues that confront human societies while contributing to life improvement itself. As such, in our view, doing science as well as intellectual works corresponds to a gift of nature and so science as well as the university is and should be humanitarian in nature. Our philosophy thus follows: science and the university should be responsible to human societies in their specific contexts, taking each endogenous knowledge as a micro university in itself. This is the reason our research stance hinges on an endogenous development approach.

TRISU is being established on the following specific program areas and objectives:

  1. SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH: Conduct research in all forms of science, including – but not limited to – field, lab, and other forms of research.
  2. SCIENCE AND COMMUNITY OUTREACH: Conduct and implement various platforms for sharing scientific research outputs and engagement of human communities in the best ways to optimize and do things differently and better.
  3. SCHOLARLY SCIENCE COMMUNICATION: Establish and implement scientific knowledge platforms and participate in existing ones in the scholarly/scientific community. This also includes running conferences to communicate science to society and to allow society to engage with science vigorously.
  4. OPTIMAL RESEARCH ENVIRONMENT: Develop an optimal research environment to support all researchers in the best possible way in order to produce high-quality research and innovations.
  5. RESEARCH CONSULTANCY, INNOVATIONS, AND TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT: In line with R&D, conduct specialized research to develop specialized innovations, and innovative technologies – including on behalf of other entities.
  6. SCIENCE-BASED ADVISORY SERVICES: Provide a platform in which the community and other sectors of society can benefit from some evidence-based pieces of advice on matters of concern and/or issues confronting society.
  7. Conduct any other activities incidental to the roles of a scientific research university.

Two more things:

  • As a scientific Research and Development University program, we owe primary responsibility to the scientific community while being accountable for our findings to specific micro-universities, i.e., specific local contexts.
  • Our operations are for now, mainly virtual although with an administrative desk at all physical offices of THRIVE DEVELOPMENT FACILTIY (TDF) as well as EYISOKO DEV’T ASSOCIATES, our founders. Towards the establishment of TRISU, these two partners first put in place a research institute and termed it as THRIVE Scientific Research Institute (TRISI). TRISI operates w.e.f. Feb. 2024 in the run-up to TRISU. This process is expected to take not more than seven years.