4-DAY TRAIN-THE-TRAINER WORKSHOP ON GRANT PROPOSAL WRITING, GRANTS MANAGEMENT AND RESEARCH NETWORKING IN FINLAND
This professional grant writing Training workshop was sponsored by the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND) and jointly organised by Cognity Advisory and The University of Turku, Finland. The workshop was designed to increase and build the capacity of selected mid-level and senior academics in various Nigerian Higher Education Institutions. Due to the high number of participants (143) the training was organised and delivered in four different batches and was held at the University of Turku, Finland between the period of 22nd May – 23rd of June 2022.
The goals of the workshop included:
- Training participants on Grant writing for local and International calls for research proposals including-
- Journal articles v grant writing
- Introduction to Horizon Europe/focus on EU Research Grant
- Grant writing principles
- Proposal structures
- Workplan development
- Budgeting procedures
- Developing CVs for Grant application
- Attracting partners for international cooperation
- Writing convincing exposes
Our resource persons were:
- Johanna Toivonen de Gonzales – Grant writer and Research Funding Specialist, Research Funding, University of Turku
- Ville Myllynpaa – Research Funding Specialist, Research Funding, University of Turku
The different batches were each trained over a four-day period by the two resource persons using an interactive methodology. Participants were engaged in discussions, lectures, research collaborations, group work activities and personal presentations with ample opportunity for feedback, queries and suggestions. Each group was also given opportunity to meet with several top scholars in different fields of research and participants were encouraged to contact researchers or research groups they were interested in collaborating with.
At the conclusion of the training, the following outcomes were realised:
- Improved grant writing and grant management skills
- Improved elevator pitching capability
- Improved skills for identifying and connecting international research partners
- Improved ability to transfer grant writing skills to others effectively
- Increased chances of winning grant funding for research proposals.