The Africa Centers of Excellence (ACEs) in Agriculture have successfully completed a training workshop aimed at enhancing their capacity to develop competitive and impactful proposals to enable them secure funding for ongoing projects, undertake new initiatives and secure their sustainability. The participants that included university staff and postdoctoral fellows are actively involved in proposal writing and resource mobilisation within their institutions.
The Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture (RUFORUM), the regional technical partner for the Agriculture ACEs, facilitated the workshop.
“The overall objective of the writeshop was to equip university academia with the skills and knowledge required to develop competitive proposals and effectively manage grants, with a specific focus on the EU Intra-Africa Academic Mobility Scheme’s 2024 Call for Proposals,” explained Prof. Majaliwa Mwanjalolo, ACE II Project Coordinator at RUFORUM.
The workshop aimed to (i) Build capacity in identifying and articulating project goals, objectives, and outcomes in line with the EU Intra-Africa Mobility Scheme’s priorities. ii) Train participants on proposal structure, writing, budgeting, and submission requirements for the 2024 call. iii) Enhance knowledge of grants management practices, including compliance with donor guidelines and reporting requirements, iv) Facilitate networking and collaboration among institutions to foster the development of strong, multi-partner proposals and v) Increase the success rate of the Agriculture ACEs and other participating institutions in securing EU funding.
Representatives from five ACEs, including Malawi’s Mzuzu University and Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources, as well as Eduardo Mondlane University in Mozambique, have developed their logframes and are on track to submit proposals before the January 25, 2025 deadline.
This week, the ACEs will continue the writeshop, focusing on responding to the ERASMUS call under RUFORUM’s facilitation.
