ARMA Partners with SFA Foundation on African Research Management
On 18th March 2026, the Science for Africa Foundation (SFA Foundation) officially launched a new training programme designed to strengthen research management capability across African institutions an initiative that ARMA (the Association of Research Managers and Administrators), the UK's professional body for research management, has publicly championed as part of its ongoing commitment to equity and international collaboration in the field.
The new programme sits within the SFA Foundation's broader Africa Research Management Capacity Strengthening (REMACS) initiative, which addresses systemic challenges facing African universities and research institutions. These challenges include the need for stronger institutional leadership, sustainable research enterprise frameworks, the development of professional standards, and the building of individual capacities among research managers and administrators across the continent.
ARMA's involvement reflects the association's recognition that strong research management is a global necessity and not solely a UK concern. The partnership with the SFA Foundation builds on the organisations' shared belief that professionalising research management across Africa is essential to enabling world-class science and ensuring that African institutions can sustain robust, ethically grounded research environments.
The REMACS programme seeks to address a well-documented imbalance in the research ecosystem, whereby principal investigators have historically been required to fulfil complex administrative and compliance functions for which they received little or no specialist training. By equipping dedicated research management professionals with structured development opportunities, the programme aims to free researchers to focus on scientific leadership and discovery.
ARMA's engagement with African research management has been a growing strand of its international activity. The association has previously collaborated with organisations including the Southern African Research and Innovation Management Association (SARIMA), and its board members have attended and presented at international conferences focused on building the research management profession beyond the UK. This latest alignment with the SFA Foundation underscores ARMA's ambition to be a genuine partner in the global development of the profession, not merely an observer.
Details of ARMA's coverage of the launch are available on the ARMA website, and further information about the REMACS programme can be found on the Science for Africa Foundation website.