Gulu University VC applauds NORPART Project team for achieving great over the years.

The Vice Chancellor of Gulu University, Prof. George Ladaah Openjuru has applauded the Norwegian Partnership Programme for Global Academic Cooperation (NORPART) project delegation for their great work and commitment that yielded positive results within the project implementation period.

The VC applauded the team on Wednesday 13th May, 2026 during the project conclusion meeting held at the university Council Boardroom and implored them to be innovative. The team was led by Prof. Darley Jose Kjosavik from Norwegian University of Life Sciences and Dr. Solomon Olum, the NORPART Project coordinator for Gulu University.
“We want to move from research for academic achievement and publication into research for innovation and transformation,” said Prof. Openjuru.

A group photo of the Vice Chancellor, NORPART delegation and university management.
While highlighting the achievements of the project, Prof. Darley Jose Kjosavik mentioned that four (4) fully funded masters students completed their degrees from the Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU), Seven Ugandan students (4 from Gulu University and 3 from Makerere) completed semester exchange at NMBU, Nine (9) students from NMBU participated in field courses at Gulu University and did field research in Adjumani district.

Prof. Kjosavik also confirmed that about 90 students completed three-week field courses implemented in 2023, 2024 and 2025 at Gulu University. The other achievements included yearly staff exchange to Norway and Uganda while 19 project supported students completed their master theses and graduated, with additional two (2) students to complete in 2026, altogether making 21 master theses from the project.

The Seven million Norwegian Kroner (UGX2.8billion) five-year project which kicked off in 2022 under the theme “Partnership for Education in Refugee host contexts: Joint Learning towards Food security and Sustainable Development in Uganda 2022-2026, is a collaboration with Gulu University, the Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU), Makerere University and Center for African Research.

Over the five years, the NORPART project has supported long-term academic collaboration and mutual student and staff mobility between higher education institutions in Norway and Uganda.

Assoc. Prof. Collins Okello, the Dean Faculty of Agriculture and Environment under which the project was executing its initiatives and activities was grateful for the successful collaboration established within the five years. He called upon the team to continue lobbying for funds to implement more projects in future.

The delegation during the meeting
The Gulu University management appreciated Dr. Olum, for his successful coordination with partners, local leaders and all the stake holders involved to achieve the goals of the project.

Christopher Oballim, the Deputy University Secretary commended the NORPART delegation for fulfilling all the project needs on time without any pending activities and balances, noting that the project has been very successful, the reason it is not asking for an extension.
“Opportunities like this help us in learning, generation of knowledge and growing together said Mr. Oballim.

He recommended that Gulu University grants office should be strengthened in order to follow up on research gaps and ensure that no areas are repeated so as to move into research that creates impact in addition to research for publication.

In his closing remarks, the VC congratulated the NORPART project team for all the achievements made during the project implementation and recommended that the project consortium which has worked very well should continue to work together and attract more grants to push forward the collaboration.

Prof. Darley Kosavik thanked Gulu University Management for the wholehearted support that facilitated the successful implementation of the project and noted that the team is working on three (3) grants application to continue the collaboration