Page 30 - AERC Strategic Plan 2 July2020

THE AERC 2020–2025 STRATEGIC PLAN

Expand Influence

AERC will expand policy influence through fostering the uptake of economic-policy
research, knowledge sharing, and dialogue through the creation of a knowledge
generation centre at AERC to foster policy collaboration and networking with national
think tanks. A policy communications programme will be developed at national and
regional level, aligning with policy-outreach initiatives underway in the region.

1: Improve Quality

Outcome 1: Develop stronger synergies between collaborative and thematic research
to create a stronger enabling environment for high-quality research that
is policy oriented.

AERC will ensure that global standards remain the hallmark of its research and
collaborative training programmes by:

» Revamping collaborative and thematic research programmes to achieve
excellence by global standards;

» Improving the research-management process and restructuring the incentive
mechanism for thematic research;

» Ensuring each of the five thematic groups develop a collaborative research
project that is relevant to the African development and policymaking terrain;
» Increasing due diligence and rigour within the process of pre-screening
research proposals;

» Strengthening research mentorship opportunities across its research and
training programmes and within those programmes to foster research capability
of early-career researchers; and

» Ensuring emerging research areas inform development and revision of curricula
for graduate training as well as thesis-research areas.

The Purpose

Evaluation indicates that quality in thematic research has been compromised due to
leadership problems in research and incentive mechanisms. Thematic research as well as
thesis areas have become repetitive and not path-breaking at all. Strengthening linkages
between thematic and collaborative research will not only signal priority research areas
to potential thematic researchers, but also provide cutting-edge methodologies that will
lead to high-impact journal publications from both collaborative and thematic research.
Policymakers will be provided with actionable research on economic issues facing the

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