Open Call: Women in Research Essential Grant Writing Skills Programme

The Africa Research Excellence Fund (AREF) is calling for applications from women who are active, emerging biomedical/health researchers in Africa to participate in its Essential Grant Writing Skills Programme. The Africa Research Excellence Fund (AREF) works to strengthen the health research capacity of scientists in Africa who are engaged in tackling the continent’s significant health challenges. They recognise the need to support a diverse community of scientists across Africa, therefore, this call is specifically open to female biomedical/health researchers.

To fully benefit from this Programme you will be at a stage in your research career where you are actively seeking independent funding, but have yet to secure that big grant necessary to support your research independence.

This fully on-line programme will be held over eight 3-hour sessions during the weeks of 18th September 2023 and 6th November 2023. There will be a five-week break in between the two sessions, where you will be expected to write a draft proposal. This is an intensive programme that is designed to produce tangible progress towards a grant proposal by the end of the Programme. Your commitment to the entire Programme and to the additional work outside of sessions will be necessary to achieve these outcomes.

Programme aim

• The Programme aim is to enable talented women early-career health and health-related researchers to build skills to develop their own research and fellowship proposals of the quality required to win competitive international, regional and national funding.

Scope

• AREF welcomes applications for this Programme from women researchers who are actively working on challenges to human health and are trained and experienced in one or more of the following disciplines: biomedicine; physiology and pharmacology; clinical sciences; epidemiology; mathematics and statistics; environmental health; “one health” (veterinary science); behavioural, social and economic sciences; and health policy and systems research.

The expectations of participants

• Inputs
  • You will need to
    • commit to all online sessions for the full duration of each session. These sessions are interactive and will require your active participation.
    • commit approximately an additional hour each day to prepare for each session through reading and pre-work assignments/reflections.
    • dedicate significant time during the five week period in between Programme sessions to write a draft of your own research proposal, which will then be utilised in the final three sessions.
    • have access to good bandwidth and a computer or laptop that is set up to use the Zoom platform (IT department may control your ability to use online platforms)
    • be able to use a smart phone simultaneously with the Zoom platform.
• Outputs
  • Through your application, you will need to demonstrate that you are highly likely to apply your learning to winning research funding and that you are at a stage of your research career where this intensive training will support your future success as a researcher.
  • You will also be expected to participate in AREF monitoring and evaluation surveys before, during and after the Programme to track outcomes.

What the Programme will cover

• Developing and expressing your unique research niche
• Formulating a compelling research question
• Understanding funders’ requirements
• Writing in plain English
• Writing the different sections of a proposal
• Key parts of a typical Case for Support / Project Description
• Planning your proposed project and budget
• Principles of managing and collaborating with a team
• Understanding and practicing peer review
• Preparing for a Fellowship interview.

What the Programme will not cover

• The Programme will not cover the following: how to research ethics approval; how to complete individual funders’ application forms; the details of intellectual property management; practice in research communication.
• The facilitators will use examples of real funding applications. However, they will not be assisting participants directly with their own specific proposals.

Eligibility Criteria

• To be eligible, you need to provide evidence that:
  • You are a woman health researcher/scientist
  • You are a citizen of a country in Africa.
  • EITHER you have been awarded a research doctorate (PhD/DPhil/MD) from a recognised academic institution within the previous 6 years, i.e. awarded on or after 01 January 2017); OR you have a medical/clinical qualification plus a research-relevant Master’s degree awarded within the previous 6 years.
  • AND you are currently employed in Africa by a recognised university and/or specialist research institution.
  • You have not participated already in equivalent proposal development / grant-writing training.
  • A significant part of your current employee role is to develop and conduct health research.
  • You do not already have a significant portfolio of international research grants (Combined value of £250,000 or more).

Criteria for selection

• Capacity to benefit
  • Your application will be assessed in terms of your capacity to benefit from the training, using the following kinds of evidence:
    • Your research experience, outputs and other achievements as an emerging researcher up to now.
    • How you will use the training to achieve your personal vision for your development as a scientist who can address key health challenges important to Africa.
    • How you will “cascade”, i.e. to pass on, the knowledge and skills you have gained from the Programme
    • Practical support committed by your sponsor(s) or mentor(s).
    • Adequate ability to understand and communicate in English.
  • Programme participants will be shortlisted from the eligible applicants by reviewers using these criteria. Only applicants who meet the capacity to benefit criteria will be on the shortlist, from which the final selection will be made.
• Diversity and inclusivity
  • To ensure equity across research organisations, no more than two shortlisted participants will be finally selected from any one employing institution.

For more information, visit AREF.