Call for Participation

Proposal Development, Scientific Writing and Presentation Training

29th November - 3rd December 2019, Cape Coast Ghana

 

The Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture (RUFORUM), in collaboration with University of Cape Coast, has opened a call for participation Thesis Proposal Development and Scholarly Publishing.

Deadline for Applications: 31st October 2019
Venue: University of Cape Coast, Ghana
Period: 29th November – 3rd December 2019
Open to: Master students of UCC and other Ghanaian universities
Contact: Prof. LK Sam-Amoah (lsam-amoah@ucc.edu.gh; dric@ucc.edu.gh)

 

Description

Project proposal development skills are crucial for researchers in Africa in order to mobilize research resources that are increasingly competitive, yet essential for the continued engagement of researchers and sustained performance of the agricultural research sector. Students at university particularly postgraduate students have opportunity to attain skills in proposal development as part of the training process when they develop Proposals for their respective Thesis research. Unfortunately, such skills are rarely catered for in the universities curricular and the assumption is that the students will learn through interactions with their supervisors.

Similarly competence in scientific writing and targeted packaging of information are critical ingredients for agricultural researchers to contribute meaningfully to knowledge management and to institutional visibility worldwide. Besides, meticulous writing is an attribute often cautiously or otherwise associated with high quality and credible research scholarly products. It is a major ingredient for uninterruptable reading of documents; besides being a quality associated with celebrities in science. African research institutions are presently characterized by generally poor publication levels in regional and international peer reviewed journals, owing to diminishing capacity in scientific writing skills and academic mentorship. African researchers must reposition themselves or be facilitated to do so in order to connect with the current art and design of manuscript writing, to resonate with the obtaining cutting edge frontier knowledge and readership interests.

 Aim
The objective of the write-shop is to develop and/or strengthen capacity of postgraduate (Masters – level) students of the University of Cape Coast and other Ghanaian Universities skills and competences in proposal development, scholarly writing for journal manuscript production and presentations in order to contribute to global frontier knowledge management.

Objective
By the end of this course the participants will be able to:

  1. Demonstrate key principles of proposal development and scientific communication
  2. Organize the different components of a proposal in a logical flow
  3. Write an effective proposal according to donor’s requirements and guidelines
  4. Use of M&E frameworks in project design when developing a proposal
  5. Write good quality reports tailored to a target audience
  6. Write good quality papers for publication.

Methodology

A group discussion approach will be adopted to foster interdisciplinality, harmonise the different levels of experience in scientific writing skills to enhance sharing of experiences. Group discussion outputs will be presented in plenary for inputs from facilitators and participants.  A logical step by step format will be used for the three components of the workshop (Thesis proposal development; scholarly writing, and Presentations).  Each day will end with an evaluation by the participants. The outputs of the evaluation will be presented the next day except for the last day when the overall evaluation will be discussed.  In addition to daily evaluations, participants at the Closing Session evaluate the effectiveness of the workshop using a formal evaluation template.

This training will be a unique experience that will offer participants a one-one interaction opportunity with the facilitators, along with working groups. For this to be achieved, it is imperative that a modest number of students will be involved. Furthermore, take-home exercises will be inevitable and the full cooperation of the participants is mandatory for the course to achieve its objectives.

Certification
Participants who successfully complete the training course will receive a certificate of participation from RUFORUM and University of Cape Coast.

How to Apply
Applications must be submitted by 31st October 2019. If you encounter problems with your application, do not hesitate to contact us. Applications received after this time will not be considered.

Please indicate ‘Application for skills enhancement training_PSPT in the subject line of the email.

Profile Requirements
To be considered for a candidate for this training, the applicant must meet the following requirements:

  1. Should be in the following fields: natural sciences, and agriculture
  2. MSc. Students
  3. Have understanding of  thesis topic which addresses a significant problem
  4. Have ideas on what to write a manuscript on
  5. Have a laptop