About us and what we offer to members

Welcome! We are a research group focused on the interdisciplinary field of Environmental and Sustainable Studies (ENS). We generate knowledge and innovations on how the interaction of humans and nature out there can be harnessed to create a world where all is sustainably at peace, i.e., pandemic socio-ecological resilience to issues confronting society. Our activities revolve around this ambition, including projects, discussions of scientific or scholarly papers, write-shops or writing camps, research workshops, and research meetings. As part of disseminating our findings and contributing to the vision of its founder, the ENS research group subscribes to the FAIDA Conference Series (whose secretariat is at the THRIVE Research & Innovations Facility). We convene a panel at each FAIDA Conference. We are thus a platform for co-learning and informing interventions in this interdisciplinary field. Members get acquainted with what is happening in this field, including benefiting from each other’s expertise and awareness of the various opportunities to advance one’s career in ENS, new scientific knowledge being generated, and funding or funders available for conducting research and innovations in that line, among other things.

You are welcome to apply as a member. By doing so, you agree to co-learn with others, contribute to this field, and adhere to the ground rules governing us. These rules are elucidated in the section below:

Terms and conditions for membership:

Mandatory Registration

  1. Membership shall be open to individuals from various institutions (currently TRISU, which is also the secretariat, UMU, and KYU).
  2. Anyone interested in joining ENS as a member shall notify the general secretary or anyone acting in that position of their intention to join the group.
  3. The General Secretary or anyone in that position shall brief the interested party. Upon consent, the party shall be temporarily added to the group, including all communication channels, including the ENS official WhatsApp.
  4. The interested party shall then fill out the application form. Once approved, the party shall register as a member and be fully added to all the communication channels, including the ENS official WhatsApp Community and its associated (sub-)groups.

Mandatory Attendance at all events

  1. Every member shall commit to actively attending all ENS events, which means participating in them as and when they are organised.
  2. Subject to 1 above, failure to attend two consecutive events without prior sufficient notice of a valid reason shall lead to automatic disqualification and cessation of membership.
  3. Sufficient notice shall be construed as such time in which it is possible to avert any (financial) losses, in any case, twenty-four (24) hours before the occurrence of the event.

Income and other support sources

  1. Projects and institutional support or subscriptions constitute the CORE source of financial and in-kind support for ENS research group activities.
  2. Bearing 1 above in mind, every member shall be required to actively participate as a team member in at least one project being written and/or implemented in a particular year.
  3. For doctoral students, such research projects as in 2 above are or constitute part of the source of funding for doctoral research undertakings; henceforth, they are required to be more active to ensure success in winning at least one project.

Partnering institutions

  1. Every partner institution associated with the ENS research group must be ready to support in-kind and financial handling of events and/or activities in a particular cycle of research.
  2. The said support in 1 above includes, but is not limited to, hosting such events as writeshops, research workshops, and conferences in their institution or any other partner institution.

Research Niche within the scope of ENS

  1. Every member of the ENS research group ought to fit with the scope of ENS. In other words, a research niche within ENS shall be one of the prime conditions for membership.
  2. In reference to 1 above, every member must find a niche in one research strand of the group and explain how they benefit from it, without which this can form part of the grounds for denial of membership, notwithstanding the fact that such a person is already registered on the ENS group.
  3. If the condition in 2 above is not fulfilled, the Secretary General or any other person acting in that position shall notify the affected applicant.

Regulation on visibility and recognition

  1. Every member shall be listed in the membership register, which shall be developed by and approved by the general meeting of all members.
  2. The register shall be kept by the general secretary both in hard and soft copies with particulars of each member. Other copies shall be kept at the secretariat.
  3. The membership register shall be displayed in soft copies, inclusive of but not limited to virtual platforms, including WhatsApp groups and webpages created by ENS from time to time.

Organization and leadership

  1. ENS is headed by the founder, who is also the group’s chief research advisor/scientific officer.
  2. Every registered member will participate in the organisation and management of ENS and adhere to decisions made to strengthen it. This shall be guided by a committee comprising the following: (i) the head, who will also be the chief scientific officer; (ii) the general secretary; and (iii) the admin.
  3. The management team shall be headed by the chief scientific officer, an established researcher acquainted with the ENS ambitions, who shall also be the head of the research group. The other members of this committee shall be the general secretary and the member in charge of resource mobilisation and support.
  4. In line with the above, committees include the scientific and publicity committees. The other committees shall be established as needed.

How to join the ENS Research Group

Three steps will be required (in addition to meeting the conditions described above):

  1. Write an expression of interest via these two emails: trisu@thrive.ac.ug and ens.researchgroup24@gmail.com. The expression of interest can be in any format, including a simple email, but should include the whole brief academic background and aspirations, among other things.
  2. ⁠⁠Apply formally: The application should be tendered after feedback from the expression of interest, which feedback will show whether there is a vacancy for the prospective applicant.
  3. Upon feedback of potential vacancy, fill out the ENS Application form HERE

NOTE: TRISU staff are automatically members of the ENS once this is specified in their terms of reference. In other words, they do not need to follow this procedure.