The Tai Solarin University of Education, in collaboration with Depecos Institutions and Development Centre (DIADREC), on Thursday held a workshop themed ‘Grant Writing, Winning and Rewardable Scholarly Career in Africa’.
The two-day workshop is aimed at training researchers how to hone their skills in writing effective, grant-winning research proposals.
Declaring the event open, the vice chancellor of TASUED, Professor Oluwole Sikiru Banjo, noted that though the major duties of academics all over the world are teaching, research and community service, more attention seems to be paid to teaching and community service, whereas much still needs to be done in terms of research.
He also underscored the centrality of funding to research, but lamented that even though several donor agencies, both locally and internationally, are willing to provide grants, not many academics are able to access them because they fail to write proposals that meet the requirements of the donor agencies.
This, he said, necessitated the organization of the workshop.
Speaking later with the Nigerian Tribune at the sideline of the event, he said no fewer than 150 researcher-participants from both private and public institutions would attend the workshop.
A co-facilitator and Director, TASUED’s Directorate of Research and External Relations, Professor Samuel Ekundayo, also in a brief chat decried the inability of researchers, including, according to him, some professors, to write proposals that could win grants.
“Then the question is: is it that what they have written is not good or what? We found out that a lot of times, they have good ideas, but the presentation is the problem,” he said.
To address this, he said, was the motivation behind the workshop, which he emphasized would be “a recurring thing.”
Speaking with the Nigerian Tribune, on the rationale behind the workshop and collaboration with TASUED, the chairman of DIADREC, Professor Evans Osabuohien, said “In my years as a researcher-professor, I saw that the level of mentorship in Africa is not much. People tend to work on their own.
“And I found out that one of the things (that contributed to) my success story was that I had mentors on my way; people that could tell you what is important for your career. But not everybody has the opportunity that I had.
“So, I saw that gap; that we can give people much support …that’s why we started with African Mentorship Network.
“Even from this workshop, we don’t just train them (researchers) and go away; we train them, put them in a group, begin to collaborate with them, mentor them; they write, we correct them; we boost their confidence.”
Nigeriantribune
