…NONSO J. OPARA

“Adhere strictly to the rules and guidelines in writing a grant proposal so as to attract research funding from donor agencies.” The Vice-Chancellor of the Federal University of Technology, Owerri Prof. Francis Chukwuemeka Eze stated this on Thursday, April 25, 2019, at the opening ceremony of a two-day workshop organized by the Office of the Deputy Vice-Chancellor Research Development and Innovation in conjunction with the Centre for Research and International Development (CRID) held at the Department of Physics Lecture Hall, FUTO.

Represented by the Deputy Vice-Chancellor Research Development and Innovation, Prof. Bede Anusionwu, the Vice-Chancellor was elated at the large turn-out of participants. He urged them to be resolute and adhere strictly to the rules and guidelines in writing grant proposals in anticipation of accessing funding from donor agencies which would go a long way in helping them tackle their research-work in different areas.

This according to him, will enable them to undergo a practical and result orientated training, advising the participants to form groups in their Departments which will be reviewed by the Departmental Committees and forwarded to the School that would, in turn, select the submissions to the University Research Committee for final review.

The Facilitator of the Workshop, Dr Paul Uzochukwu Nwulu, a Senior Program Officer at the Ford Foundations Office for West Africa, used templates to showcase real word and hands-on training on the grant proposal writing process. The workshop covered areas such as identifying the best options\avenues to seek for grants, a thorough proposal writing workshop and grant project implementation and management process, including monitoring\evaluation, managing relationships with funders and grant reporting process.

In a vote of thanks, the Director, Centre for Research and International Development (CRID), Prof. I.J. Ogoke thanked the participants for attending the training and encouraged them to start accessing the Ford Foundation grants in order to acquire adequate training to promote and enhance a sound basic scientific training, as a foundation for the development of technology and applied sciences.