ATBU trains 100 Academics on TETfund National Research Fund Proposal Development

The Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University ATBU Bauchi has charged its Academic staff to work towards securing maximum slots from the pool of 200 allocated to institutions in the North under the Tertiary Education Trust Fund, TETfund National Research Fund NRF Proposal Development.

The Vice Chancellor of the institution Professor Ibrahim Hassan Garba gave the charge during the opening of a 2-day Workshop on National Research Fund NRF Proposal Development for 30 Academics who developed good Concept Notes.

Professor Ibrahim Garba represented by the the immediate past Vice Chancellor of the University Professor Muhammad Ahmad Abdul'azeez said the NRF is simply secured on merit hence the need for them to ensure they pay close attention to the training to expand the notes to better proposals.

He said the training was organised in order to effect all the necessary corrections on the developed concept notes for them to scale through the rigorous screening process of securing the research grant.

Earlier, the Director Research, Innovation and Development RI&D Professor Fatima Sawa who congratulated all the participants for passing through all the hurdles to write the concept notes, urged them to support each other and brainstorm towards elevating the institution's ranking by winning as many NRF slots as possible.

In a presentation on Marking Scheme for NRF Proposal, the Deputy Director RI&D Professor Balarabe Yushau noted that for the research proposal to scale through, it must be within the specific word limits, have quality team members with track record, good and detailed budget with specified activities and timeline for execution.

The two-day training was organised for 100 academics from the faculties of Agriculture, Management Technology, Engineering, Environmental Technology, Computing, Science as well as Directorate of Distance Learning and the TETFund Sustainable Procurement, Environmental and Social Standards SPESSE Project, Centre of Excellence.

In a related development, the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University ATBU Directorate of Research, Innovation and Development RI&D has been advised to expand its training on research proposals to other faculties for more inclusion and access to local and international grants.

The Immediate Past Vice Chancellor of the institution Professor Muhammad Ahmad Abdul'azeez gave the advice at the opening of a 2-day Workshop on National Research Fund NRF Proposal Development held at the University's Innovation Hub, Gubi campus.

Professor Muhammad Abdul'azeez who emphasised the need to integrate more facilities into the training said the wider the area of coverage in terms fields of study, the more opportunities for the institution to achieve groundbreaking discoveries and ranking among higher institutions of learning.

" So I want other faculties also to come in, to buy into this project. The NRF is just trying to tell you that you have a project that you now develop it and the finances from TETfund, and these projects are projects that are helping the community. So if you help the community, that is a kind of reason for setting up of university in any place. It is trying to solve community problems", Abdul'azeez states.

While appealing to the directorate to organise such trainings every semester, the Former Vice Chancellor charged the participants and other academics to use their brain towards getting out of the current economic situation by initiating research ideas to attract funding.

He expressed happiness with the number of concept notes that scaled through the TETfund scrutiny this year, hoping that the development will lead to the securing of more research grants by the university.

In a presentation on NRF Proposal Guidelines, the Director RI&D Professor Fatima Sawa said TETfund NRF is designed to support research across multiple thematic areas, enhance innovation and capacity building in Nigerian institutions and provide funding for impactful research with national relevance.

"The NRF grant is meant to motivate staff and encourage them to conduct impactful projects that will impact directly on the society. So on the basis of that, they brought out a guideline. First of all, you have to develop a concept note, which is sent to TETFund, and they have a team of experts who normally assess these concept notes. Then out of the lots that have been submitted, they screen out those that are not good enough, and then they respond to the ones that are successful".

"So this year, we were able to have 30 successful concept notes. But that is the first step. The second step is for us to develop the proposal fully, and then it will be subjected to another set of screening", the Director RI&D highlights.

Professor Sawa advised all the researchers to follow all guidelines stipulated such as providing detailed and practical methodology, adherence to budget limits and justifying expenses, highlight collaboration and institutional support, ensure gender representation in research groupings among others.

"So if they can follow that guideline diligently, and then the scores are allocated accordingly, I believe they will be able to scale through, and that is why we are here as resource persons. This presentation we are having this morning is theoretical, technical, but after that we will look at each and every proposal and, you know, address where there are issues and clear them before they can upload on the TETfund platform", she explains.