Writing convincing research proposals and effective scientific reports. Part A: writing a convincing proposal

Baguma, S.D.; Anandajayasekeram, P.; Puskur, R. 2010. Writing convincing research proposals and effective scientific reports: a learning module. Part A: writing a convincing proposal. Nairobi (Kenya): ILRI

The growth in agricultural research investment was very rapid in the 1970s and slowed down since the mid 1980s. The rate of expansion of research staff has been more rapid than that of funding, resulting in a growing proportion of research funds being used to pay salaries and an acute shortage of operating funds for undertaking research. As national public sector spending on research is falling, many National Agricultural Research Systems are heavily depending on donor funds to support research. This situation is more acute in sub-Saharan Africa than anywhere else in the world. In order to keep the research agenda moving, it is critical for individual agricultural research scientists and their organizations to find new sources of funds. While the available research resources are declining, there has been a universal move towards the use of competitive funding for research. Many institutes also started moving towards results based contractual arrangements. That means a successful researcher will have to write convincing proposals to secure funds and be able to widely publish the results (outputs and outcome)of their work to attract more resources.Although the primary audiences of this module are ILRI Graduate Fellows, the materials can be easily adapted by our national research partners. The users are expected to modify and change the content to suit their specific context and need. We are planning to update this module periodically to respond to the changing needs and circumstances. Hence, any feedback and constructive comments from the users are very much appreciated.