Researchers and postgraduate students of the University have been challenged to start writing grant-winning proposals that could advance their research activities. Giving this challenge was the FUNAAB’s Director of Grants Management, Dr Kola Adebayo, during the International Foundation for Science (IFS) Grant Application Write-Shop, held recently in the University.
The Director noted that numerous international grant opportunities were readily available but accessing them was always strictly based on merit.He said that the Write-Shop would help groom researchers “to write the kind of grant that anybody, anywhere in the world would see and say, this is a very good proposal and would be willing to sponsor”. He added that writing of applications that could win grants was not an impossible task that is limited to Professors but also achievable by researchers that are properly mentored and groomed in the basic rudiments.
While assuring all that the Directorate of Grants Management was equipped with the necessary expertise to manage University’s grants, Dr Adebayo revealed that the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Olusola Oyewole, who is currently an alumnus of IFS, was a 3-term winner of the IFS grant, having won the grant thrice.
The Vice-Chancellor encouraged members of staff researchers to be ever committed, as he disclosed that since joining the services of the University in 1985, he had won a grant in 1986 and since then, several others had rolled-in.
Professor Oyewole disclosed that supervisors play crucial roles in achieving research success for students, noting that FUNAAB was blessed with young and dynamic academics like Dr Kola Adebayo as well as the Director of Academic Planning, Dr Olukayode Akinyemi, who were deeply committed to mentoring the younger ones. He charged researchers to always write good proposals, stressing that what was important in academics is not just becoming a Professor but being able to impact on peoples’ lives positively.
Shedding more light on the IFS grant, the Vice-Chancellor said, “it is an individualistic research grant, which offers 12,000 Dollars to researchers to do research within three years as well as help young people, who are just coming into academic to raise up and that is why we believe that those of you who are just coming in should get connected to that”.
Speaking further, Professor Oyewole informed that the University was subscribed to Research Africa on hourly basis; a facility that affords academic staff the opportunity of receiving grants and fellowships. Highpoint of the Write-Shop training was the donation of a table i-pad by the Vice-Chancellor, to the Directorate of Grant Management for any researcher with the Best Research Proposal.