The Vice-Chancellor, University of Lagos, Professor Oluwatoyin T. Ogundipe, FAS, has urged participants at a two-part training programme on grant writing, and mentoring skills for mid-level academics to make the most of the opportunity.
The training programme featuring members of the Academic cadre at the level of Lecturer II and I respectively, was organised by the Research and Innovation Office with facilitators drawn from the pool of notable Researchers within the University.
Giving his remarks at the opening session of the training on Grant Writing & Innovation Workshop, held on Tuesday, September 28, 2021, Professor Ogundipe commended the Director, Research and Innovation Office, Prof. Bola Oboh for the initiative and said it would have cost the University a fortune to have personnel undergo the training abroad but was quick to assert that the training still had funds expended by the university to organised it. Thus, it would be an exercise in futility if by the end of the training, it did not impart on how things were done at University of Lagos.
According to the Vice-Chancellor, the vision of the University of Lagos is to be one of the leading universities in terms of research grant awards. He therefore admonished them to make best use of the opportunity to become the best they can be in their chosen line of endeavour, which is research and teaching.
Earlier, the Deputy Vice Chancellor, Prof. Oluwole Familoni, remarked that the purpose of the training was to strengthen the University of Lagos and provide academics the platform that will expose them to the rudiments of writing and winning grant proposal, which he assert is a criterion of being a first-class university with cutting edge of researches in several areas of disciplines.
The Initiator and Director of the Research and Innovation office, Prof. Oboh, stressed that the workshop is an extension of the successful hosting of the Grant Writing and Innovation Boot Camp for Early Career Researchers in the University which held earlier in the year. It was on the basis of the programme, that the University Management saw the need to extend the experiences garnered at the workshop to all academics in order to increase research output and visibility of the University. A move that has seen considerable percentage of about 50% amongst the academics opened to the new route of research education.
She further stated the training objectives were for participants to be able to identify strategic research opportunities and to strengthen areas for development in leadership; focus on research proposal writing and the need to succeed in grant application process; which invariably will strengthen the ability to lead a team effectively with diverse groups; and also articulate how they can serve as change agents in the institution among others.
