Critical to Research Uptake success, and one of the focus areas of the DRUSSA Programme, are the institutional support mechanisms that are available to provide support to individual research projects. These include policies and strategies that guide Research Uptake; support structures such as the Research office, Knowledge Transfer and Innovation Management Offices that identity research for uptake and manage stakeholders; and Communications and media offices that provide additional technical support in terms of writing skills, online accessibility of publications, events management and design. As a result of these support structures, Research Uptake activities have been strengthened.

Over the five years of the Programme the selection of resources to support Research Uptake capacity strengthening has been ongoing, curated and published on DRUSSA.net by the Communication and Engagement unit, directed and run by Organisation Systems Design in South Africa. Karrine Saunders, the ACU's DRUSSA Programme Manager, takes us through the key resources and their availability in the future.

At this stage of the DRUSSA programme there is a tendency to focus our attention to questions of sustainability. Will the new Research Uptake expertise and skills be further embedded, and will the universities continue to support institutional research culture shifts? How will the universities’ adapted policy and strategy frameworks support Research Uptake in the medium- and long-term?

John Kirkland, DRUSSA Lead and Deputy Secretary General of the Association of Commonwealth Universities, reflects on the Programme’s success in supporting Research Uptake capacity at African universities.