Guest Post: Two-Day Research Writing and Proposal Writing Workshop in Uganda

[This post is from Mr. Emmanuel Odama, who received an AuthorAID workshop grant. Thank you! —Barbara]

The AuthorAID-funded workshop “Appropriate Packaging of Research Results for the End User” was organised by the National Agricultural Research Organisation of Uganda. Held on November 12 and 13, 2014, the workshop was conducted at Abi Zonal Agricultural Research and Development Institute (ZARDI).

The workshop drew agricultural research scientists, academicians, and students from the Institute and some local universities—Uganda Christian University and Islamic University in Uganda. Journalists from some local media houses also attended. The workshop facilitators were Dr. John Stephen Tenywa (a professor at the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Makerere University, Kampala) and Mr. Emmanuel Odama (a research scientist at Abi ZARDI).

The major objective of the workshop was to enhance the capacity of participants to disseminate research results to various end-users in an appropriate manner that can ultimately spur positive change and development. Among other aspects of preparing scientific publications, participants received instruction on how to write winning grant proposals and how to translate research findings into sustainable local development, particularly in rural settings.

At the end of the inspiring 2-day workshop, participants made the following commitments as a way of putting to practice what they had learnt and continuing to tap into the rich resources and mentorship opportunities provided by AuthorAID:

• Register with AuthorAID for mentoring by January 2015
• Form a writers’ club by February 2015
• Write and submit a proposal by March 2015
• Prepare and submit manuscripts for publication by March 2015