- MMUST scholar Dr Rose Atieno Opiyo is among eight researchers selected for the 2026/2027 St Andrews Global Fellowship.
- The fellowship will connect her East African child-development research with internationally recognised developmental scientists in Scotland.
- Hillary Muhalya highlights how the award could strengthen MMUST’s international research networks and collaborations.
Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology (MMUST) has secured a significant international research milestone after Dr Rose Atieno Opiyo was selected among only eight scholars worldwide for the 2026/2027 University of St Andrews Global Fellowship Award in Scotland.
Dr Opiyo’s selection places her in an international cohort drawn from institutions across Europe, Asia, Africa, South America and Oceania, strengthening MMUST’s visibility in global research and academic collaboration.
The fellowship will enable the MMUST scholar to undertake an intensive research visit at the University of St Andrews, provisionally scheduled for March to May 2027.
The seven other fellows come from the University of Bonn, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Federal University of the State of Rio de Janeiro, French National Centre for Scientific Research, University of Otago, Stellenbosch University and the National University of Singapore.
Established in 2018, the University of St Andrews Global Fellowship Scheme has supported more than 115 leading international researchers and practitioners whose work has contributed to expanding knowledge across different disciplines.
For Dr Opiyo, the fellowship is particularly significant because it will place her research on child development in direct conversation with internationally recognised scholars in psychology, neuroscience and developmental science.
During her residency, she will be jointly hosted by Professor Malinda Carpenter, a Professor in Developmental Psychology, and Professor Amanda Seed, whose research examines the evolutionary and developmental foundations of reasoning and problem-solving.
The collaboration will give the Kenyan scholar an opportunity to participate in research exchange, mentorship, seminars and advanced methodological training while contributing perspectives from East African communities to international developmental research.
Her fellowship research will concentrate on four closely connected areas: nurturing care and child protection, positive parenting and family practices, play-based learning, and children’s digital media and screen exposure in East Africa.
At the centre of the research is a broader question of how early social learning develops when children grow up amid different forms of adversity and rapid social change.
The study will examine areas including joint attention, imitation and cooperative communication, while considering how these processes are influenced by poverty, displacement, adversity and increasing exposure to digital technology.
This gives the fellowship a distinctly African research dimension. Much of the established developmental-science literature has historically been generated in Western settings, making evidence from East African children and families particularly valuable to efforts to understand how culture, environment and social conditions shape childhood development.
Focus on child development
Dr Opiyo said the fellowship would provide an opportunity to receive direct mentorship from internationally recognised developmental scientists while gaining practical exposure to advanced research methods for studying infants and young children.
She also expects to develop a joint research protocol that could contribute to a larger comparative research dataset.
“As a Global Fellow, I will join an international network of scholars drawn from different academic and professional backgrounds whose expertise in cross-cultural social learning, joint attention, educational psychology, childhood adversity and infant research complements my work,” Dr Opiyo said.
The exchange will not, however, be one-directional.
Dr Opiyo is expected to contribute to the St Andrews academic community through research seminars and workshops focusing on child development, parenting and early intervention in East Africa, as well as the realities of conducting developmental research in low-resource and culturally diverse settings.
She will also participate in research sessions, colloquia and journal clubs, giving international researchers an opportunity to engage with evidence and experiences from contexts that remain comparatively under-researched.
For MMUST, the fellowship represents more than an individual academic achievement. It provides a platform for the university to deepen international research partnerships, expose its scholars to global research networks and strengthen the institution’s contribution to research addressing pressing questions affecting children and families.
Dr Opiyo’s work also comes at a time when questions surrounding parenting, child protection, early learning and children’s exposure to digital technology are becoming increasingly important across African education and social-development systems.
The proposed research could therefore generate evidence relevant not only to academic scholarship but also to discussions on early childhood education, parenting interventions, child protection and responsible use of digital media among young children.
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Her selection is consequently a notable achievement for MMUST and another indication of the potential for Kenyan universities to contribute original evidence to international research conversations.
By Hillary Muhalya
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