The British Academy has awarded a grant of £74 000 under the Newton Advanced Fellowship Scheme 2014 to Prof Geo Quinot of APPRRU (as applicant) and Prof Sue Arrowsmith of Nottingham (as co-applicant) for a period of two years.
The purpose of the grant is to continue the work started under an earlier British Academy grant that saw the creation of APPRRU as a platform to facilitate research on public procurement law in Africa. The current project will aim to strengthen collaboration between the University of Nottingham’s Public Procurement Research Group (PPRG) and APPRRU. It will also provide information and awareness of issues facing Africa to enable scholars and policy makers from outside Africa to take these into account.
The project programme will involve research resulting in scholarly articles in this field at the end of the two-years as well as teaching-related development, especially at post-graduate level. It will furthermore have important long-term objectives in supporting and developing the capacity of APPRRU to facilitate scholarship in this area in Africa. A key objective is thus to draw on and transfer the expertise of the PPRG in establishing and maintaining a centre of excellence in scholarship in public procurement, involving primary research, research collaboration such as through dedicated internet portals and conferences, teaching (especially at postgraduate level), capacity development beyond the university such as of practitioners and public officials, and direct participation in the development of policy and regulatory instruments in public procurement.