Experts and researchers have lamented that despite the importance, positive impact and benefits derived and deriveable from researches, funds allocated for them in the country has been inadequate.
They argue that considering the critical roles that researches play in exploring new knowledge and improving on existing scenarios towards enhancing institutional and national development, adequate funds ought to be channelled to researches.
And in their quest for adequate research funds appropriation, the Michael Okpara University Of Agriculture, Umudike ( MOUAU ), Abia State, in conjunction with MOUAU Directorate of University Research Administration ( DURA ), MOUAU Centre of Excellence in Root Crop Research and Development ( CERCORD ), Centre for Gender and Child Development ( CGCD ) and Tertiary Education Trust Fund ( TETFUND ), organised a three-day workshop tagged “Winning Grant Proposal Writing Workshop”.
The objective of the workshop was to expose researchers on ways and modalities of writing proposals that could attract and win research grants.
While declaring the workshop open, the MOUAU Director of Research, Prof. K. J. Simonyan, described research as a careful and detailed study of a specific problem using scientific methods to meet institutional and National development.
He stated that researches did not only encourage creativity and objectivity, but were also central to quality teaching, publications, and career fulfillment.
Simonyan urged the participants to take full advantage of the three-day workshop and equip themselves with the impactful skills the workshop would expose them to.
The topics presented at the workshop by the resource persons included: ‘Searching for Grant Awarding Institutions ‘ by Dr. Charles Nkwoala; ‘Research Ethics, Experimental Design and Workplan by Dr. D. N. Njoku; ‘Key Features and Structure of Winning Grant Proposal’ by Dr. Eni Oko of Newcastle University and the ‘Arts of Grantsmanship/Building Research Team and Research Focus Areas by Prof. Emeka Oguzie.
Also presented were ‘Linkage, Collaboration, and Partnership in Research and Proposal Writing’ by Prof. G. I. Onwuka; ‘Monitoring and Evaluation by Dr. A. O. Olojede; ‘Literature Review and Theoretical Framework’ delivered by Prof. Ike Nwachukwu and ‘Developing a Grant Winning Proposal and Realistic Budget’ presented by an Associate Partner from Sahel Consulting, Mr. Chinedu Agbara.
Others were ‘Codes of Conduct guiding research proposal writing, issues relating to intellectual property, risk analysis, and risk mitigation in grant writing amongst other inevitable methodologies.
They challenged Research Grants beneficiaries to strictly use the grants for research purposes in order not to defeat the goals and objectives of the grant.
Also in attendance were some MOUAU principal officers, deans of colleges, heads of departments, directors from various directorates, including research scholars from outside the university community.
