BUILDING CAPACITY FOR WRITING A COMPETITIVE GRANT APPLICATION R. M. JINGURA

‘

Research is one percent inspiration, ninety-nine percent perspiration

’

-

adapted from Thomas A. Edison

CONTEMPORARY ACADEMIA

• • • • Pressure on academics –

publish or perish (h-index)

–

do a PhD or perish

Foster a gentle approach to a complex system –

non-linear complexities

Broaden the base –

place research on the agenda

Set the research culture

INTRODUCING THE UNIVERSITY RESEARCH FUND (URF)

• 5% of recurrent expenditure allocated to URF • Annual allocation • Eligibility – all lecturers Purpose: – Pump-priming fund to grow research – Support early career researchers – Purchase research equipment – Drive the research agenda

• Allocated $140,000 in 2011 • Expecting > $200,000 this year • 60% allocated to research grants ($120,000)

MANAGEMENT OF URF

• Managed by SERC • Broadcast call for proposals • Selection done by SERC • Equity – allocation to priority research areas

PRIORITY RESEARCH AREAS

1) ICT and manufacturing engineering 2) Energy and water 3) Biotechnology, food security and food quality 4) Entrepreneurship and community development 5) Environmental systems, hospitality and tourism 6) Art and indigenous knowledge systems

EXPERIENCES

REASONS FOR REJECTION OF APPLICATIONS

1. Lack of academic merit 2. Lack of ‘goodness-of-fit’ with research themes 3. Under- or over-budgeting 4. Failure to adhere to guidelines 5. Individualism

STATISTICS FOR 2011

Item

Number of proposals Number of academics in proposals Number of Lecturers Number of Teaching Assistants Number of female academics Total budget allocated

Statistic

16 (9) 76 56 18 20 $95,000

WORRISOME

• Lack of progress • Failure to consume grants • ‘Fake teams’

PROPOSAL PROCESSING FLOW PRE-AWARD PHASE

Researchers submit proposal Grantee signs contract letter Projects Officer opens account Project starts Dept. evaluates proposal SRC evaluates proposal Sub-committee evaluates proposal Score cards sent to DRPS SERC selects grantees Ethics review

FUNDAMENTAL ISSUES OF PROPOSAL EVALUATION

1. Compliance with guidelines 2. Relevance of research 3. Academic merit 4. Scholarship 5. Postgraduate training

PEER REVIEW SYSTEM

Self-assessment Peers Department School SERC

POSSIBLE OUTCOMES

1.

Fundable (score above 33/50) •

but does not mean will be funded

2.

Needing revision (25/50 – 32/50) 3.

N ot fundable (< 25/50)

RESPONDING TO SERC DECISIONS

1. Combative 2. ‘Sour grapes’ 3. Progressive

COMBATIVE & SOUR GRAPES

•

Retrogressive

•

Non-academic

PROGRESSIVE

• Seek to understand reasons for rejection • Find ways of improving the application

FUNDAMENTALS OF GRANT WRITING

a) Relevance of research b) Typology of research approaches c) Academic articulation of issues

RELEVANCE OF RESEARCH

RESEARCH MUST SOLVE SOCIETAL PROBLEMS

• Research must be relevant to the country’s needs • Speak to the realities of Zimbabwe • Within the confines of our ‘strategic niche’

Poverty

Transportation

•

Produce outputs consistent with a university of technology

–

Patents

–

Licences

–

Business incubation

–

Technology parks

–

Start-ups

– –

Contracts IPs

metrics

RESEARCH CYCLIC – NOT LINEAR DISSEMINATION IDENTIFYING TOPICS EVALUATION PRIORITISING ANALYSING RESULTS UNDERTAKING RESEARCH MANAGING RESEARCH DESIGNING RESEARCH COMMISIONING

TYPOLOGY OF RESEARCH APPROACHES

1. Disciplinary 2. Multidisciplinary 3. Interdisciplinary 4. Transdisciplinary

MULTIDISCIPLINARY

Discipline A Discipline A Watson and Crick Discipline B Discipline B

Discipline A

INTERDISCIPLINARY

Discipline C Discipline B

TRANSDISCIPLINARY

Discipline A Non-academic participants Discipline C

•

Interdisciplinarity + participatory Discipline B

TEAM BUILDING

• Build a team and not a group 

whole > sum

• Commonage of understanding • Leverage value of diversity • Collegiality vs. individualism

ACADEMIC ARTICULATION OF ISSUES

DEVELOPING A RESEARCH TITLE

43

• First thing reviewer learns about your proposal • A mini-abstract • Use key words that reflect focus of the proposal • Restrict to 15 words or 60 characters • Word syntax very important 44

TYPES OF TITLES

• Single-sentence title • Two-part title – hanging titles – Building Adaptive Capacity to Climate Change: Role of farmer field schools 45

EXAMPLE

1. Use of farmer field schools to build adaptive capacity to climate change 2. Building adaptive capacity to climate change through farmer field schools` Avoid present participle e.g. ‘Analysing….’, and say ‘Analysis of ….’ 46

DEFINING THE PROBLEM

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• Be able to adequately define a problem to make a case for the research – What is the nature of the problem? (

the discrepancy

between ‘what is’ and what you prefer the situation to be) – What is the distribution of the problem? (

who is affected, when, and where

) – What is the size and intensity of the problem? (

is it widespread, how severe is it, what are its consequences

) • Show evidence of the problem by citing sources and giving statistics 48

 Avoid such terms (circular & uncertain) as:  ‘Little is known about….’ or ‘no research has dealt with….’  ‘There is a general lack of information….’  Rather, explain consequences of lack of information on potential impacts

ANALYSE THE PROBLEM

• • Identify factors that may have contributed to the problem Clarify the relationship between the problem and contributing factors

how it affects

PROBLEM

how it affects

FACTOR 1

relationship

FACTOR 2

FORMULATING OBJECTIVES

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  Correspond to core problem Define strategy to overcome problem 

Focus

the study (narrowing it down to essentials) 

Avoid

the collection of data which are not necessary for solving the problem 

Organise

phases the study in clearly defined parts or   Specifies measurable outcomes of project Different types and are SMART

TYPES OF OBJECTIVES

Behavioural (anticipates that a particular human action will occur , e.g. learn to do something)

Performance (a particular behaviour will occur at an expected proficiency level over a specified time frame, e.g. pass an assessment) Process (document manner in which something occurs) Product (the end product is a tangible item e.g. a module will be produced)

TYPOLOGY OF OBJECTIVES

1.General objective 2.Specific objectives

54

•

SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES

Are logically connected • Specify what you will do in your study, where and for what purpose

e.g. of logical specific objectives

a) to identify the geographical spread of the problem b) to determine the causes of the problem c) to find solutions to the problem and make recommendations 55

EXAMPLE

a) General objective: 

To increase maize yield in drought-prone areas

b) This can be through: 

Adopting drought-tolerant cultivars



Improving agronomic practices



etc

c) Specific objective should specify which strategy to be used 56

CHARACTERISTICS OF SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES

• Are clearly phrased in operational terms • Are realistic considering local conditions • Use action verbs that are specific enough to be evaluated • Examples of action verbs are:

establish to determine, to compare, to verify, to calculate, to describe, and to

• Avoid the use of vague non-action verbs such as:

to appreciate, to understand, or to study

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UNDERSTANDING GOAL, OUTCOMES AND OUTPUTS

GOAL OUTCOME

Improved livelihoods Increased cotton production

OUTPUT

high-yielding cotton cultivar produced

METHODOLOGY

FUNDAMENTAL ISSUES IN METHODOLOGY

• Validity • Reliability

problem

DATA COLLECTION

METHODOLOGY QUANTITATIVE QUALITATIVE VARIABLES ANALYSES VARIABLES ANALYSES

EXPERIMENTAL Variables Numerical Continuous Discrete QUANTITATIVE QUASI-EXPERIMENTAL Categorical Ordinal Nominal

•

DATA ANALYSIS

Quantitative data – Descriptive statistics – Categorical data – ANOVA – Regression, correlation – Linear models, mixed models – Nested data

BUDGET

• Guided by inputs • • • Inputs derived from activities Activities derived from objectives Budget line items – – – – – Consumables Small equipment Travel Lab analyses Data collection

END