Over the last decade, Sub-Saharan Africa has experienced an increased volume of funding and training activities to support research capacity development. However, there are persistent deficits in the number of active investigators conducting independent research with their own grants. To address this deficit, research institutions need to find an optimal balance between the types of trainings conducted: the long-term trainings involving post graduate programs in particular disciplines and short-term, hands-on courses involving "learning by doing". This article examines the impact of a five-year National Institutes of Health (NIH) seed training award aimed at strengthening grants administration infrastructure at Makerere University-Johns Hopkins University Research Collaboration (MU-JHU) in Uganda, focusing on early career investigators. Using short-term, hands-on courses in grants management, the trainees were equipped with specialized skills to enable them to independently apply for grants. As a result, the number of early career investigators with their own grants rose from four to 16 within four years. This article describes the impact of well-designed, need-based short-term training courses with a hands-on approach and the critical role of supportive, skilled research grant administrators in nurturing early career investigators.