Guest Post: From an AuthorAID Workshop Grant Recipient

[This post is from Saut Sagala, who recently received an AuthorAID workshop grant. Thank you! —Barbara]

Through support from the AuthorAID program under INASP, the universities in Bandung city, Indonesia, had a chance to gather and share their experience in writing proposals for research grants. The participants were from four leading universities in Bandung: University of Padjajaran (Unpad), University of Parahyangan (Unpar), Indonesia University of Education (UPI), and University of Widyatama.

This two-day workshop was a collaboration between Dr. Saut Sagala as the main facilitator (Institute Technology of Bandung, ITB) and Resilience Development Initiative (RDI). RDI is a think tank initiative in Bandung that aims to contribute resilience knowledge through research and publications. RDI acts as a hub for academicians in Bandung as it partners with universities and NGOs. As for the venue, University of Widyatama kindly provided the facility for the workshop.

In addition to increasing the knowledge of the participants regarding proposal writing, this event served as an excellent means to initiate collaboration between the participants as well as the respective universities. The basics of proposal writing were covered in the first half of the first day; extensive discussion of possible collaboration between universities or academicians followed. On the second day, we drafted up the ideas from the first day’s discussion along with a road map for research.

In the end, the workshop provided not only knowledge of proposal writing but also the network needed for this purpose. We are thoroughly thankful to INASP and AuthorAID for making this opportunity possible for the researchers in Bandung, Indonesia.