Challenges in Retaining Research Scientists beyond the Doctoral Level in Kenya

An important goal of modern-day African governments should be to develop a sustainable research culture in higher education in order to provide human resources and expertise toward better health and scientific national policies. Regrettably, research in Kenya is mainly funded by Northern collaborators, with the Kenyan government spending only 6.2% of total government expenditure on health in 2001 [1], and even less on health-related research. As a result, the local institutions are not carrying out the bulk of research in the country; instead, most research conducted in Kenya is funded by Northern collaborators: for example, Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI) programs are funded by the Wellcome Trust (United Kingdom), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (United States of America), and Walter Reed Army Institute of Research (United States of America). These partnerships have contributed to the changing landscape of research in Kenya, and they continue to play an important role in training local scientists. Ongoing programs and projects culminating from these partnerships have significant components designed to build individual and institutional national capacities in a variety of disciplines at all levels. One of the ways this has been done is to provide postgraduate training to young scientists to the doctoral level both at local and overseas academic institutions. However, the issue of capacity retention following training has not been comprehensively tackled. In this Viewpoint, we highlight three competitive doctoral tracks available in Kenya and how the choices students make ultimately play a role in their search for postdoctoral training. Our Viewpoint is related to A. I. Leshner's Editorial in Science last year, which focuses on a change in American and British government funding strategies toward new investigators in research [2].