ACCESSING RESEARCH GRANTS

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ACCESSING RESEARCH GRANTS

• ODEBODE TO

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Accessing Research Grants

• (a)
• There are currently many funding opportunities
  available for researchers and all potential
  funders have their own requirements.

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Accessing Research Grants

• (b)
• All funding agencies have limited funds, and will
  only fund a very small proportion of applications
  that they receive (broadly speaking, the average
  success rate for funding from Research Councils
  in the UK is around 30).
• It may even be that the funder rates your
  proposal very highly but simply does not have
  enough money to fund your project.

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Accessing Research Grants

• (c)
• Drafting a proposal for research funding is a
  significant, often time consuming project that
  should not be undertaken lightly.

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Accessing Research Grants

• Depends on having
• Adequate knowledge of the funding agencies
  agencies have bureaucracies - Check their
  web-sites e.g. USAID, WHO
• Adequate knowledge of the research agenda of the
  funding agencies develop proposals that appeal
  to your funding agency

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Accessing Research Grants

• Adequate knowledge of their general and specific
  application guidelines for proposal development
• Adequate knowledge of past proposals that have
  received funding from the targeted agencies

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Scaling through the First Hurdle

• Involves strict compliance with the following
• Basic guidelines e.g. using prescribed form, or
  forwarding letter of intent etc.
• Mundane things like the prescribed number of
  words for each section of the proposal
• Guide on submission of proposal whether by
  email or courier etc
• Deadline for submission of proposal
• Composition of the research team
• Budget limit for the round of the competition
• Other guidelines e.g. inclusion of the CVs of
  members of the team etc.
• Please note that only those that comply are
  short-listed for consideration

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Review Process for the Short-listed Proposals

• All short-listed proposals are usually reviewed
  by two or three experts
• Reviewers are guided by a scoring format
• In general, proposals are assessed on the basis
  of how well the research teams demonstrate
  clarity on the following
• Statement of the problem including a review of
  the relevant literature

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Review Process Contd

• General and specific objectives of the study
• Conceptual framework of the study
• Hypotheses to be tested where applicable
• Methodology
• Analysis of data
• Significance of the study
• Ethical consideration
• Timeline (e.g. using Gantt Chart)
• Budget

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Timeline/Gantt Chart

• The first Gantt Chart was developed by Karol
  Adamiecki, who called it a Harmonogram. Because
  Adamiecki did not publish his chart until 1931,
  this famous chart bears Gantt's name. Henry
  Lawrence Gantt (18611919), an American
  mechanical Engineer from Maryland, US designed
  his chart and published it in 1910.

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Timeline/Gantt Chart

• Depicts progress in relation to time
• Now a common technique in planning, tracking
  representing the phases and activities of a
  project WORK BREAKDOWN STRUCTURE (WBS), so they
  can be understood by a wide audience.
• Usually a bar chart that illustrates a project
  schedule i.e. the start and finish dates, the
  terminal elements and summary elements of a
  project
• Terminal elements and summary elements comprise
  the work break structure (WBS) of the project

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Scoring of Proposals

• Total marks/points are often set at 100 with the
  following as guide to the reviewers
• Statement of the Problem (25 points)
• General and Specific objectives (5 points)
• Conceptual framework (15 points)
• Hypotheses (5 points) (must be clearly stated
  conventionally as Null Hypothesis in testable
  terms and must be replicable)
• Methodology (25 points)
• Analysis of data (10 points)
• Ethical consideration (5 points)
• Timeline (5 points)
• Budget (5 points)

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Scoring Contd

• Each assessor is expected to sum the scores for
  each proposal and rank them in order of
  performance
• Each assessor will render the final report to the
  funder for consideration
• A Scientific Committee (SC) is set up to consider
  and take decision on assessors reports

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Criteria for Selection

• Merit (based on the top scorers in the
  competition
• Thematic Area (s)
• Gender
• Geography
• Other Extraneous factors such as bending over to
  fund one or two that are not very good due to
  the poor skill of proposal writers but have
  potentials

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Please note that the journey to successful
grantsmasnhip is always a long one
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Research Funding

• The term generally covers any funding for
  scientific research, in the areas of both "hard"
  science and technology and social science.
• It often connotes funding obtained through a
  competitive process, in which potential research
  projects are evaluated and only the most
  promising receive funding.

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Research Funding (Sources)

• Such processes, which are run by government,
  corporations or foundations, allocate scarce
  funds.
• Total research funding in most developed
  countries is between 1.5 and 3 of GDP Sweden
  is the only country to exceed 4 .

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Research Funding (Sources)

• Most Resch funding comes from 2 major sources,
• (a) Government (Government Agencies) (primarily
  carried out through universities and specialised
  government agencies) and
• (b) Corporations (through research and
  development departments)
• Small amounts of scientific research funded by
• (c) Charitable Foundations and Associations,
  especially in relation to developing cures for
  diseases such as cancer, malaria and AIDS.

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Government-funded research

• Many governments of developed countries provide
  considerable funds (primarily to universities)
  for scientific research (in fields such as
  physics and geology) as well as social science
  research (in fields such as economics and
  history).
• Much of this is not intended to provide concrete
  results that may be commercialisable, although
  research in scientific fields may lead to results
  that have such potential.
• Most university research is aimed at gaining
  publication in peer reviewed academic journals.

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Research Funding Agencies General

• Central Senate Resch Grant, Unilorin
• UITH, Best Research Proposal Award
• Science and Technology Education Post-Basic
  (STEP-B ) Project
• WHO, USAID, UNICEF
• Welcome Trust
• IDRC Int Devpt Resch Center (Canada)
• SIDA (Swedish Int Devpt Agencies)
• Rocky Feller Foundation (New York, Office in
  Nairobi, Kenya)
• John D Catherine T MacArthur Foundation (Fund
  for leadership devpt in Nigeria) (Notes)

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Research Funding Agencies General

• Embassy of Netherlands (Lagos, Denmark, Norway)
• DFID (Abuja, England)
• Codestra
• Ford foundation
• National Institute of Health
• National Institute for Cancer Resch
• (If Google fails try Google finder) 2020The
  Right to sight

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Research Funding Agencies General

• International Trachoma Initiative (ITI)
• Step forward Abbott and the ABBOTT FUND for
  ORPHANS and VULNERABLE CHILDREN
• US Presidential initiative FIGHTING
  MALARIASAVING LIFES IN AFRICA
• GLOBAL CAMPAIGN FOR MICROBICIDES
• INTERNATIONAL aids VACCINE initiative
• Stop TB Partnership
• Global Health Council
• Net Mark Public Private Partnership

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Government UK

• Engineering and Physical Sciences Research
  Council (EPSRC)
• Natural Environment Research Council (NERC)
• Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research
  Council (BBSRC)
• Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)
• Medical Research Council (MRC)
• Science and Technology Facilities Council

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Government US

• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
• National Institute of Standards Technology
  (NIST)
• Department of Health and Human Services
• National Science Foundation Grants and Program
  Areasfundamental research and education in all
  the non-medical fields of science and engineering
• Department of Energy
• Department of Defense
• American Society for Engineering Education

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Governments

• Germany Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft science
  and humanities
• DAAD
• Ireland Irish Resch Council for
  science,engineering and tech (IRCSET)
• Irish Research Council for the Humanities and
  Social Sciences (IRCHSS)
• -Science Foundation Ireland
• Pakistan National ICT RD Fund (Pakistan)
• Nigeria ?

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Foundations and Associations

• Fulbright Scholars Program
• IREX - International Researcher Exchange
• Packard Foundation

• ATT Foundation
• Sloan Foundation
• John D. and Catherine T. Macarthur Foundation
• The Foundation Center

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Foundations and Associations

• George Lucas Educational Foundation
• John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation
• Mitsubishi Electronic America Foundation
• Charles A. Dana Foundation

• Rotary Foundation
• Ada Project resources for women
• National Alliance for Excellence
• Benton Foundation
• Whitaker Foundation
• Carnegie Foundation
• Microsoft Research

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Foundations and Associations

• Sun Microsystems collaborative research
• American Heart Association
• American Psychological Association Funding
  Programs

• U.S. Civilian Research and Development Foundation
• Center for Field Research at Earth watch

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Foundations and Associations

• National Council for the Social Studies
• IFCC-AVL Awards for advances in critical care
  testing
• Energy Research Clearing House
• National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators
  Alliance

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• Thank You for your Attention !!!