Grant writing workshop for young scholars and professionals July 22-24, 2015 Venue: Eastin Hotel, Ahmedabad A report Organised by Indian Institute of Public Health Gandhinagar Under ARCADE RSDH Project
REPORT CONTENT I. Introduction II. Learning Objectives III. Workshop course content IV. Program Schedule V. Profile of Participants VI. Profile of Resource Persons VII. Teaching Methods VIII. Course Materials IX. Participant Feedback
I. Introduction The Indian Institute of Public Health Gandhinagar (IIPHG) is one of the Indian partners under the ARCADE-RSDH (African/Asian Regional Capacity Development - Research on Social Determinants of Health) Project. This project is a multi-country, multipartner and multi-disciplinary network of twelve partners from eight countries - India, China, Sweden, United Kingdom, South Africa, Oman, Vietnam and Finland. It aims to build the capacity of scholars, researchers and teaching staff from partner institutions in research on Social Determinants of Health. Being partner institute of ARCADE-RSDH project, and as part of its work package 5, IIPHG had organized a three day workshop on Grant writing for young scholars and professionals, July 22-24, 2015. The venue of the workshop was Hotel Eastin, S.G. Highway, Ahmedabad. II. Learning objectives The workshop aimed to build capacity of research scholars and professionals on grant writing. The learning objectives were 1. Gain knowledge of different stages of research & their importance 2. Gain knowledge on different components of writing proposal 3. Get introduced to important international grants 4. Develop skills of searching & identifying potential grants 5. Develop skills of writing a grant proposal III. Workshop Course Content As a part of the grant writing workshop, the content comprised of sessions on conceptualizing research, designing a study, budget preparation, securing ethical & technical approvals, identifying national and international grants, drafting successful research proposals and managing research. The program envisaged to mentor the participants in preparing a proposal and successfully submitting it for a grant. The workshop facilitated actual proposal developing in groups during the workshop.
IV. Program Schedule S. No Time Topics Key Resource Support Day1 1 09.30 10.30 Welcome and introduction IIPHG Team 2 10.30 11.15 Overview (Contextualising public health research and grant situation) Prof. Dileep Mavalankar 11.15-11.45 Tea & group photograph 3 11.45 01:00 Conceptualising research Dr. N. Nakkeeran Dr. Parthasarthi Ganguly 01.00 02.00 Lunch 4 02.00 03.30 Choosing appropriate study designs (qualitative and quantitative) 03.15-03.30 Tea 5 03.30 05.00 Practice session Conceptualisation research and study designs Dr. Deepak Saxena, Dr. Bharati Sharma Dr. Deepak Saxena, Dr. N Nakkeeran, Dr. Bharati Sharma Dr. N. Nakkeeran Day 2 6 09.30 09.45 Review of previous day sessions Dr. N. Nakkeeran + team 7 09.45 10.45 Research management plan Dr. N. Nakkeeran Dr. Deepak Saxena 8 10.45 11.30 Discussion on selected international Dr. Madhuri Dutta Dr. Monika Setia grants - formats & procedures 11.30 11.45 Tea 9 11.45 12.30 Identifying suitable grants Dr. Madhuri Dutta Dr. Monika Setia 10 12.30 01.30 Practice session Grants formats, procedures and identifying Dr. Madhuri Dutta, Dr. Monika Setia 01.30 02.15 Lunch 11 02.15 03.15 Ethical issues and approvals in grant writing Dr. Barna Ganguly 03.15-03.30 Tea 12 03.30 04.30 Practice session - Ethics Dr. Barna Ganguly Dr. Parthasarthi Ganguly Day 3 13 09.30-09.45 Review of previous day sessions Dr. N. Nakkeeran + team 14 09.45 10.45 An introduction to developing and managing a grant budget Dr. Somen Saha Mr. Bharat Panchal 15 10.45 11.30 Research output and dissemination of Dr. Somen Saha study findings 11.30 11.45 Tea 16 11.45 12.45 Art of writing proposals Language and style Dr. Bharati Sharma, Dr. Ritu Rana Mr. Bharat Panchal 17 12.45 01.30 Practice session - Developing and managing a grant budget 01.30 02.30 Lunch 18 02.30 03.30 Group presentations 03.30-03.45 Tea 19 03.30 04.30 Feedback, felicitation and close IIPHG Team Dr. Somen Saha
V. Profile of participants The course was primarily intended for research scholars, research staff, faculty members inclined to undertake funded research associated with ARCADE partner institutes in future. The workshop was attended by a total of 36 participants. This included 33 participants from India and 3 participants from Vietnam. The participants from the following institutions represented the workshop Sr. No Name of the Institution No of participants 1 Public Health Foundation of India, Delhi 12 2 Indian Institute of Public Health Gandhinagar 12 3 Indian Institute of Public Health Shillong 1 4 Indian Institute of Public Health Hyderabad 2 5 RD GARDI Medical College, Ujjain 4 6 IIHMR, Jaipur 1 7 SANGATH, Goa 1 8 Hanoi Medical University, Vietnam 3
VI. Resource Persons The workshop was formally inaugurated by Prof. Dileep Mavalankar (The Director, IIPHG), Dr. N. Nakkeeran (Lead coordinator, Additional Professor, IIPHG) and Dr. Mayur Trivedi (ARCADE coordinator, IIPHG). The sessions were facilitated by Dr. N. Nakkeeran, Dr. Deepak Saxena (Additional Professor, IIPHG), Dr Bharati Sharma (Associate Professor, IIPHG), Dr Ritu Rana (Assistant Professor, IIPHG), Dr Somen Saha (Assistant Professor, IIPHG), Mr Bharat Panchal (Senior Accounts Officer, IIPHG), Dr. Madhuri Dutta (Head of Research Grants Administration at the Public Health Foundation of India, Delhi) and Dr. Barna Ganguly (Professor & Head Dept of Pharmacology, Head, UNESCO Bioethics Unit Gujarat P.S. Medical College, Karamsad, Gujarat). Brief profile of resource persons Prof. Dileep Mavlankar has been heading the Indian Institute of Public Health Gandhinagar as its Director since 2012. Prof. Mavalankar received an MBBS and MD in Preventive and Social Medicine from Gujarat University in Ahmedabad, and MPH and Dr. P.H from the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health, USA. His work experience includes faculty and research positions in NHL Municipal Medical College, Ahmedabad, National Institute of Health in Bethesda, USA, Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad, India and Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, NY, USA. He has worked as consultant to many agencies including Columbia University, Mother Care Project (USA), the WHO (Geneva, Western Pacific Regional Office), UNICEF (New Delhi), DANIDA, UNDP/World Bank (India), the Aga Khan Foundation, CEDPA etc. Prof. Mavalankar has authored several publications. He has been adviser to key academic and government organizations and NGOs. Prof. Mavalankar is actively involved in research focused on improving management of EmOC in rural hospitals, strengthening reproductive health programme management, improving quality of care in family welfare including maternal health, health policy analysis and implications for programme management, management training for health & family planning, government, NGO collaboration in health programmes, management of service sector and quality of services. Prof. Mavalankar has achieved various honours & awards, including Paul Harper Award 1990, Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health, Baltimore, USA; Hewlett Foundation Fellowship for doing Doctor of Public Health at Department of Population Dynamics, Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health, 1984; nominated to the membership of Alpha Chapter of Delta Omega, The Honorary Public Health Society, USA, 1983; and National Science Talent Award, NCERT, New Delhi, 1975. Prof. Mavalankar was appointed by the Prime Minister to the high level Missions Steering Group of the National Rural Health Mission constituted by the Government of India in 2005. He is the Chair of
Technical Working Group on Maternal Health by Government of India. He is also a member of the Steering Group on Health for the 12th Five year Plan of the Planning Commission of India. Dr. Madhuri Dutta has a PhD in Molecular Biology and postdoctoral experience from University of California at Los Angeles and Weill Cornell Medical College, New York in neuroscience. Soon after her research training abroad, she wanted to build a career in science policies and research support in India. In 2009, she worked under the supervision of Professor Nirmal K Ganguly at the National Institute of Immunology, New Delhi, on revising the Stem Cell Research policy for the Department of Biotechnology. In 2010, she joined the Wellcome Trust/DBT India Alliance as a Grants Adviser, a position that required her to review research applications and assist the selection committees. From 2013, she is the Head of Research Grants Administration at the Public Health Foundation of India, where her responsibilities include amongst other things, advising researchers on grant applications, coordinating applications for peer review and developing policies for research conduct at the institute. Dr. Madhuri has 14 years of experience in research and research support. She brings in an understanding of research methods and study designs and importance of evidence based research to any programme. Her career as a biologist and public health research support, integrates the two important sides of life-science research. Dr. Barna Ganguly has got 22 years teaching experience in a medical school involved in teaching and training of both undergraduate and post graduate students both in Pharmacology and in Bioethics. As BioethicsExpert, she is associated with various Institutional Human Research Ethics Committee, since August 2003 Member secretary & Chairperson. Dr.Ganguly has undergone a lot of training programs like 2 days-workshop for members of Ethics Committee on Research ethics sponsored by WHO in Maulana Azad Medical College, New Delhi in 2003, Long Term Training Program On Bioethics Organized by ICMR supported by NIH - Fogarty International, USA, 2008. She completed Post Graduate diploma Course on Bioethics, supported by NIH Boston and ICMR in 2012. Dr. Ganguly attended PRIM&R Advanced Ethical Research Conference on 2012& 2013 in USA as Scholarship holder and presented poster on Research Ethics. She had also attended 12 World Bioethics Congress, Mexico in 2014 as Speaker with full scholarship from NIH, Bethesda, USA. She developed & introduced Bioethics curriculum for MBBS students in P.S.Medical College, Karamsad, S.P University, Gujarat. Now as Head, UNESCO Bioethics Unit of Gujarat (since September 2014) is involved in strengthening Bioethics teaching for undergraduate medical curriculum. She has recently been selected as a member of International Forum of teacher of Bioethics by UNESCO.
VII. Teaching methods Participant centered, practical, interactive and interesting methods were used to make the workshop more engaging and participative. Along with teaching the finer points of grant writing and imparting knowledge about different stages and components of proposal development, it also gave hands on experience where participants developed a proposal in groups. Participants were made to present their proposal developed in groups and they were commented by the rest of the group. Exercises were conducted after each session for better understanding of the theoretical sessions on various aspects of grant writing. IIPHG faculties and resource persons assisted as mentors during these exercises. Mentors also reiterated that future support for individual proposal development will be offered. VIII. Course Materials At the end of the workshop, each of the participants was provided with workshop material loaded in the pen drive. At the end of the workshop, the participants were felicitated with a certificate of participation and a copy of group photograph. IX. Participant Feedback Feedback from the participants was sought using the evaluation forms distributed to the participants at the end of the workshop. The feedback forms inquired information on participants learning on grant writing from this workshop, the relevance of the sessions to their current work, appropriateness of the time allotted to sessions, group exercises in terms of method used, time and discussion, teaching methods used, etc. Participants shared their key lessons from the workshop - Importance of conceptualisation of research idea and careful planning of each step of grant writing process - Importance of ethical in research and developing and managing a grant budget - Got to know about choosing appropriate study designs while writing proposal - Learnt about art and style of writing proposals - Came to know about the national and international funders - Developing a research management plan - Be clear about the institutional norms as well as knowing the funder policies Almost all the participants were satisfied with the overall usefulness of the workshop and found the workshop to be very useful and relevant for their current or future work engagements.
Most of the participants felt the teaching material used was appropriate and useful. Some have mentioned that addition of more of interactive discussion sessions, inclusion of some more examples and some review exercises of successful proposals would have added more value. All of them were well satisfied with the time given for questions and discussion after each sessions and also the sessions on practical exercises gave them hands on experience of writing proposals. All the participants appreciated the logistical arrangements and food and accommodation facilities arranged for the workshop The participants recommended that - The duration of the workshop should have been 5 days with more emphasis on each of the topics covered - More of review exercises and examples of successful grant proposal should have been shared - Reading materials could have been shared in advance