The University of Gondar’s Research and Community Service Vice President’s Office has been conducting a workshop on drafting a new strategic plan for that will create a new spirit for all of its future work. The guideline will incorporate new ways forward concerning thematic areas, research and publication, community service, and tech transfer. Dr. Asrat Atsedeweyn, President of the University of Gondar, Dr. Binyam Chaklu, Vice President of Research and Community Service, Prof. Gashaw Andarge, Vice President of Administration, Dr. Meseret Kase, Vice President of Business and Development, Debarq University Research and Community Service President Prof. Tesema Zewdu, Bahir Dar University Research and Community Service Vice President Dr. Tesfaye Shiferaw, Debre Berhan University Research and Community Service Vice President Dr. Azmeraw Ayehu, Deans, Directors, University Professors and other invited guests were present. Dr. Binyam, Vice President of Research and Community Service, welcomed the workshop guests and shared that the university has recently developed a ten-year strategic plan and formulated big ideas for the future. He stated that more work is needed in the next ten years to achieve this, especially in the areas of research, community service, technology transfer and science. Dr. Binyam added that a committee has been formed in the last five months to review the University's research focus, various practices and guidelines from the Ministry of Science and Higher Education. From the looks of the guideline it seems that more marginalized individuals and target groups will have a better chance of doing more research moving forward. The guideline will now incorporate more women, people with disabilities and even junior staff into the fold. Finally, Dr. Binyam stressed that the newly envisoned thematic areas are of great concern and importance for the wider society. Moving from single digit thematic areas to double digits means that future researchers have a better chance to increase the research scope of the University and tackle some of the more pressing issues that society deals with. But when speaking on some thematic areas that were left out, he expressed that the country of Ethiopia has priorities and those have been met by the new guideline. Dr. Asrat, President of UoG, said in his opening remarks that the University of Gondar has achieved a number of results in the past when it comes to the quality of the institution. And when speaking on the current event he stressed the need for guidelines that could be used to deal with the current situation in Ethiopia. “Research and community service is meant to bring development and awareness to tough dilemmas in today’s world and research in this regard is the key to the problems in Ethiopia” shared Dr. Asrat. He also called on all of the participants to take part in the process, which is a way to learn from each other, change society and solve the country's current complex problems. On the second day as well leading intellectuals and Vice Presidents from various Universities shared their thoughts on the new guideline. The higher officials from Debark University, Bahar Dar University and Debre Birhan University took an in depth look at the overall guideline and put forth some suggestions that the organizers felt were very important to consider. Some of the things they suggested were the ability for senior and junior staff to work together, a fixed rate of research fund distribution, creating a research repository, focusing on research alone, increasing the quality of research output by constant monitoring and the likes. Source: UoG fb page