By Umar Sani
The Centre of Excellence for Research and Innovation, CERI, in collaboration with Sa’adu Zungur University, Bauchi, has conducted a workshop on Grant-Winning Concept Notes and Proposals for the academic staff of the university.
According to the Public Relations Officer of the university, Auwal Hassan, who issued in a press release on Tuesday the two-day workshop, which was held at the university’s main campus, Gadau and Yuli campus, aimed to enhance the research capacity of participants.
He noted that in her opening remarks at the workshop, the Vice Chancellor of Sa’adu Zungur University, Professor Fatimah Tahir, emphasized the importance of the training, stating that “writing grant-winning proposals is crucial for the university’s research growth and development.
“There is also a need for the academic staff to understand the requirements for accessing grants.
“Each grants have their own requirements. If you don’t understand the requirements of any grant, you will not be able to access it.
Tahir maintained that “these days, universities are bursting with how many awards they can secure, which is also related to the good research work they have produced. Hence Sa’adu Zungur University should not be left behind.
“This workshop is very important. I implore you to please listen attentively, participate actively, and let your contribution be recognized.”
She also expressed gratitude to the Center of Excellence for Research and Innovation CERI for partnering with the university to organize such a workshop.
The vice chancellor declared in a bold statement that the institution will no longer compromise on academic excellence, emphasizing that the institution will not settle for being perceived as “easy” but instead will strive for excellence in all aspects of its operations.
She said, “We don’t want students subscribing to our university because we are easy, we want students to subscribe to our university because we are excellent. And one of the ways that we can show the world that we are excellent is by the excellent research work that comes out of our university.”
She noted that the institution is committed to producing research that is impactful, innovative, and relevant to the needs of society.
She stated that Sa’adu Zungur University will invest heavily in research infrastructure and capacity building to ensure that its researchers have the resources they need to produce high-quality work.
Professor Tahir noted that students will benefit from rigorous and challenging courses that will prepare them for success in their chosen fields.
On his part, the Director Centre of Excellence for Research and Innovation CERI, Dr. Usman Adamu Garkuwa, explained that the workshop was organized to address the need for researchers to access funding opportunities.
He said “CERI recognized the challenges faced by academic staff in writing winning proposals and decided to bridge the gap with the workshop.
“If you go to the database, you see that there are a lot of aspects of our living that are poorly researched, and you will hardly find information about these things. Then we have a lot of challenges ranging from the healthcare system, economic problems, security problems, out-of-school and what have you.”
According to him, people in academia have a great role to play in helping to solve some of these societal problems, and therefore, there is a need to be trained on how to get funding for their research.
Dr. Garkuwa added that benefit of the training is beneficial to not only the participants but also the university in general, as the institution will benefit from each grant received for a particular research purpose.
