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Dr Nakimbugwe is the team leader of BioInnovate Africa supported project on Food enriched with insect-based proteins (grasshopper and cricket). She is an Associate Professor in the Department of Food Technology & Nutrition at Makerere University, and a founding director of Nutreal Limited, a company in Uganda that develops processed nutritious food products.
Dr Nakimbugwe has engaged in research to unlock the potential of insects as alternative sources of protein for food and feed. From 2015 to 2017, she led a multi-disciplinary (INSFEED) project, to prove the technical feasibility of using insects. The team developed the first ever protocol to rear the edible grasshoppers.
She has collaborated in research on the nutritional characterisation of grain amaranth and development of the first ever amaranth-based products to be commercially available on the Ugandan market. She co-authored the first ever comprehensive account of the characteristics and utilisation of grain amaranth, a book chapter entitled ‘Efforts to promote amaranth production and consumption in Uganda to fight malnutrition’. She has also co-authored several scientific and mass media articles. Dr Nakimbugwe has pioneered research to improve nutritional quality of beans in Uganda leading to the first ever bean products with reduced cooking times (from 1-3 hours to 10 minutes). She has also partnered in pioneering research to introduce innovative instant porridge flours into informal settlements of Kampala city.
She holds a Ph.D in Bioscience Engineering from the Katholieke University of Leuven, Belgium; and Master of Science in Food Science from Cornell University, New York, USA and a Bachelor of Science in Food Science, Nutrition and Technology, from Makerere University, Uganda.
