Attracting Research Funds through Proposal Writing

As part of activities to improve knowledge in assessing external funds for research, the Office of Grants and Research (OGR) organized a one-day workshop for researchers.

The training took place on Tuesday, 7th October 2014 at the Conference Room of the Great Hall from 9.00 am to 4.00pm.The Resource Person for the workshop was Prof. David Ofori-Adjei, Rector of Ghana College of Physicians and Surgeons. Prof Ofori-Adjei, a former Director of Noguchi Memorial Institute of Medical Research, is a seasoned researcher and reviews applications for a number of international institutions. Other supporting facilitators were:  Prof. Peter Donkor (Director, Office of Grants and Research), Prof. William Oduro (Dean, International Programmes Office), Prof. Robert C. Abaidoo (Dean, School of Graduate Studies) Dr. Ellis (Director, KCCR), Dr. Moses Mensah (Department of Chemical Engineering), Dr Robert Aidoo (Dept. of Agric. Economics, Agribusiness and Extension) and Dr Kwasi Ohene-Yankyera (Dept. of Agric. Economics, Agribusiness and Extension). The workshop recorded an attendance of forty-four (44) researchers from all the six Colleges namely College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, College of Science, College of Engineering, College of Architecture and Planning, College of Health Sciences and College of Arts and Social Sciences.

Prof. Peter Donkor, opened the workshop with the introduction of the Resource Person, Prof. David Ofori Adjei and encouraged all the participants present to actively participate in all the sessions and ensure that they build on their proposal writing skills.

Prof David Ofori-Adjei”s presentation elaborated on the types of funding mechanisms available. He further gave a list of things reviewers look for in the application process enumerating eight main things with reference to funders such as Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and National Institutes of Health. In his conclusion, he presented some common mistakes in applications which researchers should try to avoid. This according to him included the lack of new or original ideas, the absence of an acceptable scientific rationale, lack of experience in the essential methodology and a questionable reasoning in experimental approach

The workshop took the form of applied knowledge in developing research proposal for funding.  After the presentation on the topic, participants were put into groups to have a hands-on development of a proposal using a real-time Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA).  Each group was allocated a facilitator and worked on one of the three (3) available FOAs which were from the National Institutes of Health, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the African Water Facility. All the groups made presentations on their proposal in a plenary session at the end of the day. The hands-on nature of the training programme made it very interactive and accorded the participants the opportunity to put to practice the theories they had learnt.