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Fishing community gathered along the lake shore at dusk — daily life by water in Uganda.

How we work alongside researchers

Research execution services.

Six capabilities we carry on behalf of principal investigators, study sponsors, and partner organizations working in Uganda and East Africa. Each is offered in service of the design we are entrusted with — not as a stand-alone product.

  1. Field data collection

    In-person, telephonic, and digital instruments deployed across urban Kampala and rural Ugandan study sites. We carry the day-to-day work of reaching participants where they live, learn, and seek care.

    • Household, facility, and community-site visits across Uganda and East Africa
    • Phone-administered surveys for follow-up and longitudinal cohorts
    • Tablet-based digital data capture with offline-first workflows
    • Source-document control and audit-ready data trails

  2. Community engagement & recruitment

    Locally-led outreach grounded in language, customs, and the trust that takes years to build. Before any instrument enters the field, we work to ensure that the communities a study touches understand why it matters and what is being asked of them.

    • Pre-study sensitization with local leaders and health workers
    • Community-rooted recruitment of eligible participants
    • Informed-consent workflows in the participant's first language
    • Post-study return of findings to participating communities

  3. Qualitative research support

    Interviews, focus groups, ethnographic field notes, and the slow craft of transcription and translation. We help research teams hear what numbers alone cannot tell them.

    • In-depth interviews and focus-group discussions
    • Ethnographic observation and field-note documentation
    • Verbatim transcription with Ugandan-language and English outputs
    • Translation review for analytic fidelity

  4. Survey logistics & operations

    Enumerator training, day-to-day supervision, quality assurance, and scheduling across multi-site studies. Operational delivery is rarely visible in a published paper, but it is what makes the paper possible.

    • Recruitment and training of enumerators and field supervisors
    • Routine supervision visits and inter-rater quality checks
    • Data-quality audits, query resolution, and back-checks
    • Field scheduling across districts and study arms

  5. Translation & cultural adaptation

    Instrument translation across major Ugandan languages, with back-translation review to preserve meaning rather than only words. Cultural adaptation is treated as part of measurement, not a clerical step.

    • Forward translation by first-language speakers
    • Independent back-translation and reconciliation
    • Cognitive piloting of adapted instruments with local respondents
    • Documentation of adaptation decisions for the study record

  6. Local coordination

    On-the-ground logistics, site readiness, and day-to-day management of study activities from a Kampala base. We act as the in-country counterpart that sponsors and principal investigators can rely on when distance and time zones make a study otherwise hard to steer.

    • Site readiness assessments and local permissions
    • Procurement and movement of study materials
    • Daily operational reporting to sponsors and PIs
    • Liaison with district health offices and community structures
On execution

“Disciplined execution is quiet by nature. A well-run study draws no attention to its logistics, only to the integrity of what it found.”

A note on scope

What we carry, and what we do not.

Afriscope is a research execution partner. Study design, primary authorship, and ethical approval rest with sponsors, principal investigators, and the relevant Ugandan and East African ethics committees. Our work is the in-country delivery of a protocol we have been entrusted with — read more about how we work, or visit about Afriscope for the organization behind these services.

We do not procure ethics approvals on a sponsor's behalf, and we do not present ourselves as a commercial contract research organization. Where a study calls for capabilities outside the six listed here, we say so plainly and help find the right partner.

Clarifications

Often asked

Is Afriscope a CRO?
No. Afriscope is a research execution partner, not a commercial contract research organization. We carry fieldwork for universities, NGOs, and study sponsors with care for the communities involved, and we frame our role around the integrity of the study rather than a commercial trial pipeline.
Do you handle ethics approvals?
We collaborate with sponsors and principal investigators on ethics submissions and support the documentation that local committees require. We do not represent ourselves as approving studies on a sponsor's behalf — ethical review remains the responsibility of the relevant Ugandan or East African ethics committee.
Can you work outside Uganda?
Yes, with a primary focus on East Africa. Uganda is our home base, and we routinely scope work across neighbouring countries where the study design and partner relationships support a careful execution.
What types of studies do you support?
Observational, qualitative, mixed-methods, and operational or implementation studies in health. We are well suited to research that requires close community contact, multilingual fielding, and patient on-the-ground coordination.

Working together

If your study has work in Uganda, we can carry it.

We prefer early conversations — before instruments are finalised, before timelines are fixed — so that field realities can inform the design rather than surprise it. Read more on our methodology principles, or get in touch.

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