Prof. Felix Asante, Pro Vice-Chancellor (RID)
Eleven faculty members from the College of Education have taken part in a one-day workshop on research and project grants proposal writing, as part of the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) call for proposals for the project: “Generating and Mobilizing innovative knowledge for regional educative challenges”
Speaking at the workshop, Professor Felix Ankomah Asante, the Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research, Innovation and Development, expressed ORID’s readiness to work with the College of Education to develop its potential and capacity for research, and challenged the College of Education to improve upon its research portfolio within the various disciplines in the College. He pledged ORID’s support to work with researchers from the College to increase their chances of submitting successful proposals.
The Pro-Vice-Chancellor noted that there was the need for the College of Education to find a niche for itself in terms of research and programmes offered.
“ I want to see improvement in the College’s research profile, and I will work with the Provost on how best ORID can help the College of Education in terms of growing research ”, Prof Asante stated.
On his part, Prof. Michael A. Tagoe, Acting Provost of the College of Education, welcomed participants to the workshop and urged them to collaborate as a team to work towards winning grants for projects in the College.
Prof. Michael Tagoe, Acting Provost, CoE
Prof. Tagoe explained that funding from grants could be used to supplement the College research fund for the college for lecturers to develop themselves in their career path.
The workshop was led by Professor Denis W. Aheto, Director of the Centre for Coastal Management and the Africa Centre of Excellence in Coastal Resilience (ACECoR) at the University of Cape Coast.
Prof Denis Aheto
Prof. Aheto established that when it comes to grants, constant practice of proposal writing is key and, attracting institutional grants is the best alternative to undertake research works and projects.
According to Prof. Aheto, grants can be instrumental in accomplishing projects, however, they also come with some challenges borne out of competing interests of donors among others.
Touching on the main subject, Prof Denis Aheto outlined some key points to consider in drafting proposals to win grants including:
He added that one needs competent human resource and reliable partnerships locally and abroad to leverage on when working on proposals.
While acknowledging that academics are usually overburdened with work; from lectures, research papers to field projects, he admonished participants to take interest in writing proposals for grants to fund their research activities and projects.
Participants later broke into teams to work on the proposal.