The Institute for Interdisciplinary Research (IIR) has organised a training workshop for faculty and school coordinators on grantsmanship. In his opening remarks, Dr. Abdulai Abubakari, the Director, of the Institute for Interdisciplinary Research (IIR) emphasised that the main reason behind the organisation of the workshop was to equip coordinators of Faculties and  Schools with the requisite knowledge and skills to be able to win grants for your research.

Professor Conrad P. Lyford, a Professor of Agriculture and Applied Economics at the Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas was the facilitator. He explained that the ability of the Staff of any University to win grants, is always an added advantage to the University, adding that Quality Research helps to place Universities high up on the ranking order.

Prof. Conrad Lyford, who has over $3 million USD in funding, 50+ completed projects, two-time Fulbright scholar in Ethiopia in 2015 and Ghana in 2022, spoke of the need for grants for funding in order to conduct top-level research that will reflect in better publications, additional students, travel to conferences, relevance to solving key problems and a higher ability to fund salaries.

He added that one of the reasons that account for the failure of many researchers to win grants is the fact that they do not have the requisite training to do so. He gave an outline of some of the steps researchers to should follow when applying for grants. These steps, he explained, include the following:

• Understanding the grant process
• What are key challenges that faculty face?
• What resources can you provide that will facilitate success?

He stressed the need to have the proposal or idea go through a peer review process He added that researches need to assess themselves by answering the following questions: 

• Do you have the relevant demonstrated skills and expertise to win?
• How many proposals will be funded?
• Have they funded similar teams to yours 

He stated that currently, some of the best funding sources are NGOs, grant.gov, United States Department of Agriculture, USAID, US, UK, Japanese and Chinese Embassies.

He said, grants are a critical way to support the long-term success of UDS, adding that in order to make this possible, specific strategies can be used to incentivize and support researchers in the University.

When he concluded, participants were given the opportunity to ask him questions for more details and clarifications on some of the issues raised in his presentation. 

The Director of the Institute for Interdisciplinary Research, Dr. Abdulai Abubakari said the IIR is ready to offer support to anyone who wants help in terms of getting grants for his or her research. He said the idea of organising such a workshop was to inform coordinators of Faculties and school in UDS that, the IIR can help any researcher to win grants by linking the researcher to a professional in that particular research. The Deputy Director of IIR, Prof. Mahamud Akudugu assured researchers in UDS of their support at all times, especially, when it involves winning grants for the university.

Story by: Iddrisu Abdul Malik (University Relations)