Rsif Capacity Building Strategy - English

Abstract

Executive Summary: Executive Summary The Partnership for skills in Applied Sciences, Engineering and Technology (PASET) is a program which aims to address systemic gaps in skills and knowledge in sub-Saharan Africa’s priority ASET fields, and to build the capacity of African education and training institutions to train high-quality technicians, engineers and scientists to meet the demands of the economy. Its flagship program is the Regional Scholarship and Innovation Fund (Rsif), which aims to support doctoral and post-doctoral training, research and innovation in five priority areas: ICTs (including big data and artificial intelligence); Food Security and Agribusiness; Minerals, Mining and Materials Engineering; Energy including Renewables; Climate Change. The Rsif program admits scholars into competitively selected Rsif African Host Universities (AHUs) in each of the five priority areas. The goal of the Rsif Capacity Building Strategy is to outline a structured Rsif-wide program of training and other capacity building opportunities for Rsif PhD Scholars that (i) prepares them to undertake excellent PhD research for successful completion of the doctoral program, and (ii) enhances post-PhD employability and a successful career in academia, research and innovation. Training will also be available to PhD supervisors and other AHU faculty, to provide them with key skills in student supervision, research and grant management, IP, entrepreneurship, and other research and innovation-related skills. AHU libraries will also benefit from strengthened services and increased access to information resources. The development of the Rsif Capacity Building Strategy was informed by the World Bank Project Appraisal Document (PAD) for the Rsif, the results of the October 2019 Scoping Study Workshop with AHUs, AHU questionnaires, and benchmarking of training programs from Europe and North America. The Capacity Building Strategy focuses on three categories: i. Orientation Training: All new Rsif PhD students will take a mandatory 6-day training, which will cover the Rsif Program; and introductory trainings on research ethics; sexual harassment; grievance redress mechanisms; PhD planning; proposal writing; information literacy; science communications; and data management, research methods and statistics. Courses will be delivered through live streaming, led by icipe and Rsif partners, with support from local tutors at each AHU. ii. Cross-cutting Training Courses: RSIF students, AHU supervisors and faculty will access a set of in-depth cross-cutting courses, including PhD supervision; sexual harassment and grievance redress mechanisms; information literacy and reference management; research methods and statistics, thesis defense training, scientific communication, science paper writing, grant proposal writing, entrepreneurship and IP, grant management, and research management and leadership. Courses will be delivered through taught courses (by online video streaming) and online learning through Open Educational Resources (OERs) and Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). iii. Additional Capacity Building activities will include support for international accreditation of PhD programs at AHUs; lectures from domain experts and other leaders; strengthening the services of AHU libraries and improving access to international journals; and provision of an online tool for AHUs to monitor student progress and quality of supervision. The strategy includes ‘training the trainers’ to facilitate the integration of training into PhD and staff training curricula at AHUs. In addition, AHUs will be encouraged to form networks with partners to contribute to the development and delivery of training courses. Training schedules, M&E plan and budget are also provided.