Prof. NIRAGIRE François

"Professor François Niragire Biography François Niragire is currently full Professor of Applied Statistics (Public and population health) at the University of Rwanda (UR). He has also served as Director of Research and Innovation in the UR College of Business and Economics, UR for more than six years. During more than 20 years of university teaching experience, he has accumulated exceptional skills, knowledge, and expertise in teaching and research practice in higher learning institutions environment. As Director for Research and Innovation, he provides research leadership and technical advice pertaining to research resources mobilization and management as well as research capacity strengthening at the University of Rwanda. He has facilitated training sessions and seminars on research methodology and communication for university faculty and mentored more than 100 university students at all levels on their research projects. Prof. Niragire’s research interest has focused on application of statistical methods in population and health research, including policy analysis, biostatistics, spatial epidemiology, maternal and child health, economics of higher education, and others. He has authored around 30 research publications in impactful peer-reviewed journals and publishers including BMC Nutrition, BMC Oral Health, BMJ Global health, Plos One, Geospatial health, Global Health Action, BMC Archives of Public Health, Journal of Education and work, Heliyon, Cities and Health, Veterinary Medicine and Science to list a few. Prof. Niragire has provided consultancy services to diversified clients including public and private institutions as well as Non-Governmental Organizations. In the last five years, Prof. François Niragire has been implementing eight (8) funded projects as Principal or Co-Principal Investigator including both internally and externally funded. Among other project management roles, he is currently Co-chair holder for the World Trade Organization Chairs Programme (WCP) at UR, the UR Focal Person for the Consortium for Advanced Research Training in Africa (CARTA), and the Principal investigator for Institutionalization of Advanced Research Training in Africa (iCARTA) project funded by Norad through the University of Bergen (UiB), Norway. He was also a core member of the team that secured the World Bank funding to establish the African Centre of Excellence in Data Science at UR in 2016. Prof. François Niragire has expertise in design and management of research projects, as well as the application of advanced statistics in the research process. He strives for transforming data into useful information for policy and action."