Charter for Kenya Medical Research Institute, 2026
2. Interpretation
2. Interpretation
In this Charter, unless the context otherwise requires—"academic and research staff" means a person appointed to teach, train or conduct research at the Institute and any other employee designated as such by the Governing Board;"academic year" means a continuous period of teaching, examination, and study organized in a full year mode, semester mode, trimester mode, and quarter mode and extending over not less than thirty weeks in a calendar year;"Act" means the Universities Act (Cap. 210);"Alumni" means any person who is a graduate, a former student of the Institute and such other persons as the Board may determine;"Alumni Association" means the organization of all graduates of the Institute and such other persons as may be declared by the Statutes;"biobank" means a specialized institution or repository that collect, store and manage biological materials;"biological material" means living organisms or any substance derived from living organisms including human tissues, blood, genetic material, cells, microorganisms, toxins and other materials for use in scientific and medical research;"Board" means the Governing Board of the Institute established under paragraph 15;"Cabinet Secretary" means the Cabinet Secretary for the time being responsible for university education;"Chancellor" means the Chancellor of the Institute appointed under paragraph 13;"Charter" means a Charter granted to a research institution under section 24(1)(a) of the Act;"Commission" means the Commission for University Education established by section 4 of the Act;"Convocation" means the Convocation of the Institute constituted pursuant to paragraph 71;"critical national health security infrastructure" means essential facilities, systems, technologies, and specialized workforce that the country must maintain to safely and effectively conduct research that improves public health and protects the public from health threats;"faculty" means the academic staff of the Institute who teach and do research in any program of the Institute;"research data banks" means specialized facilities that are either physical, digital, or hybrid, that collect, store, manage, analyze, and safeguard data used in health and biomedical research;"health security" means the systems, policies, capacities, actions, and arrangements required to prevent, detect, respond to, and recover from biological threats, public health emergencies, epidemics, pandemics, bioterrorism events and other hazards that pose risks to human health, national stability, and the security of the country;"human health" means a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity;"incubation centre" means a transitory and facilitative platform that gives innovators technical assistance, infrastructure, access to inventors and investors and networking that may encourage and scale-up inventions;"intellectual property" means any new or useful process, machine, composition of matter, life form, article of manufacture, software, copyrighted work and know-how and information associated with the above. It includes but is not restricted to such things as new or improved devices, circuit layouts, chemical compounds, drugs, genetically engineered biological organisms, data sets, databases, software or unique and innovative uses of existing inventions;"Institute" means the Kenya Medical Research Institute established under paragraph 3;"public health emergency" means the occurrence or imminent threat of an illness or health condition caused by bioterrorism, epidemic or pandemic disease or an infectious agent or toxin that causes substantial risks to humans by causing a significant number of human fatalities or permanent or long-term disability;"Research and Academic Board" means the Research and Academic Board established under paragraph 18;"research for human health" includes systematic investigation, experimentation, exploration, examination and evaluation for purposes of decision-policy-development, policy-development and practice in human health and includes clinical trials;"regulatory sandbox" means a framework managed by regulators that encourages innovation by allowing researchers and companies to test new products, services, and business models within a monitored "safe space" where regulatory requirements may be relaxed or modified;"schools" means schools of the Institute established by the Statutes;"specialized laboratory" means a purpose-built facility that supports advanced scientific investigations, requiring specialized equipment, technical expertise, and regulatory oversight beyond routine laboratory functions aimed at understanding diseases, developing diagnostics, producing vaccines, strengthening surveillance, and improving overall public health;"Statutes" means the Statutes of the Institute made pursuant to paragraph 67;"student association" means an association of students recognized by the Board as being an organization representative of the students of the Institute and as provided by paragraph 19;"student" means a person enrolled by the Institute to pursue an academic programme, receive instructions in a particular area of study and obtain a qualification or any other person who the Research and Academic Board may determine to be a student;"variable pay" means additional pay to employees; and"Vice-Chancellor" means the Vice Chancellor of the Institute appointed under paragraph 17.Source: Kenya Law