1. Ben Prasadam-Halls, Director of Programmes
The Association of Commonwealth Universities

2. The Nairobi Report (2009) Recommended:
Increasing doctorates but protecting quality
Mentoring researchers through their early careers
Supporting local research training - including soft skills training
Re-integrating returning scholars
Developing proper career structures for emerging researchers
The first report grew out of a meeting in Nairobi that brought together academics from across the African continent with some of their peers from the UK to look at barriers to UK-Africa collaboration. One of the most pressing issues that emerged from this dialogue was the need to better support African early career researchers. It is from this series of reports that the ACU’s work in this area emerged.

3. Objectives of STARS
Build the skills and confidence of early career academics
Offer institutions materials to extend the support they are able to offer

4. Key principles Light touch for busy academics Blended learning
Breadth of content over depth
All content developed by African based authors
International reference groups for relevance
Published under a Creative Commons license

5. STARS Participants 832 researchers 30 institutions 10 countries
Gambia x1
Ghana x2
Nigeria x6
Kenya x5
Cameroon x1
Uganda x2
Tanzania x2
Durban University of Technology
Stellenbosch University
Tshwane University of Tech
University of Cape Town
University of the Free State
University of Limpopo
University of Pretoria
University of the Witwatersrand
Namibia x2
Zimbabwe x1
South Africa x8

6. STARS Modules Identifying your research niche Finding funding
Managing your research project
Managing your time
Effective collaboration
Writing and publishing
Communicating research to non-academic audiences
Ethics in academic life
Supervision
STARS tutorial at UCT

7. Openly available
Materials openly available: