Over the years, Nigerian university lecturers were accused of lopsidedness in research works, but while they attributed their inaction to paucity of fund, TETFund emerged to provide succour through grants. MARTIN PAUL writes on the criteria for accessing the grants.
One of the mandates of TETFund is the promotion of research in public tertiary institutions made up the universities, polytechnics and colleges of education in the country.
On research works, the Fund uses two major areas to reach out to lecturers and institution through Institution Based Research (IBR) and the National Research Fund (NRF).
Institution Based Research
The IBR was established with the objective of resuscitating research activities in the tertiary institutions in the country because the culture of research, over the years, has been dwindling in most of higher institutions. The outcome of which would be the revival of quality research among lecturers in tertiary institutions.
How to Access and Utilise the Institution Based Research
TETFund gives allocation for IBR annually. This allocation, however, is domiciled in TETFund account and only released for execution of the project after the proposal has been approved. After the approval, TETFund disburses in total of 100 per cent in thematic areas for IBR in Arts, Humanities, Science and technology, Education without an iota of restriction.
Eligibility and Criteria for the IBR
All lecturers in all public tertiary Institutions in the country are eligible to access the
IBR find for research and the research must be conducted in the Institution where the lecturer is an employee.
Submission of research proposals
Submission of research proposals is done at two levels institutional committee levels.
At the level of the Institutions
Research proposals shall be submitted to the Institutions’ Committee on Research (ICR) where they are screened and approved.
Approved proposals shall be duly signed by the Chairman of the Committee as having satisfied the Committee based on the scoring criteria such as:
Having followed the prescribed format, quality of content of proposal could be assessed based on Executive Summary, Title, Introduction, Objectives, Literature review, Methodology, that can be replicated including methods of data analysis, detailed budget not exceeding the amount specified by the fund.
Approved proposals shall be given back to the researcher(s). Where there are corrections, such proposals shall be vetted by the ICR for compliance and thereafter signed by the Chairman of the Committee. Approved proposals shall then be submitted in five copies to TETFund.
Checklist of documents by Researcher(s)
All researchers must ensure that all required documents are attached as non-inclusion could delay the process or lead to rejection. The following is a checklist, which include covering letter to TETFund by the principal researcher through the Head of Department, the chairman (ICR) and the head of institution or his representative requesting for funding for the approved proposals.
It also includes minutes of meeting of the (ICR) in which the proposal was approved, evidence of approval of proposed research project by the ICR, an approval page which clearly states that the research proposal has been screened and considered worthy of funding by TETFund and is hereby approved by the committee and signed by the chairman of the Committee before the proposal can be considered by TETFund for funding.
In addition, it would require five copies of the approved research proposal in the prescribed format (including the budget and work plan indicating the expected date of commencement and completion).
Detailed profile/CV of the researcher (s).
All documents must be neatly bound and paginated for ease of reference and filing and to avoid loss of documents.
Submission to TETFund
Here, the proposals will be further screened to ensure that the format has been followed, the required documentations are provided; the content and quality of the proposal. This will be done by an ad-hoc committee in TETFund.
Approval at the Institution level does not necessarily translate to approval at the TETFund level; final approval is dependent on the outcome of the screening by the ad-hoc committee which is dependent on the following:
Provision of the full complement of required documents as indicated under the checklist above.
Use of prescribed format, Proposal not exceeding the funding limits by researchers
Cost of approved proposals not exceeding the maximum allocation to the institution (where the Institution’s submissions exceeds their allocation, the checklist becomes a critical factor in which proposal is funded or not).
Submission of Reports
Two types of reports will be submitted: Progress report will be submitted in the middle of the period approved for the research.
These reports from the researcher (s)should be submitted to TETFund through his/her head of department, the Chairman of ICR and the head of Institution who will forward the report to TETFund with a covering letter duly signed by him.
Final Report
At the completion of the research, a final report using the attached template (annex 3) will be used to write the final report.
For the final report to be accepted by TETFund, it must be submitted by the principal researcher to the Institution’s Research Committee. This final report must contain the certification page which will indicate that the project has been completed by the researcher(s) to the satisfaction of the following: Head of department, ICR (Chairman). These will now append their signatures on this page. The researcher will also sign the final report.
The submission of the final reports shall be accompanied by a covering letter duly signed by the researcher, the Head of department, the Chairman of ICR and the Head of Institution.
Five copies of the final report bound should be submitted to TETFund.
Detailed Requirements for Institution Based Research
Disbursement of funds shall be in full i.e. 100 per cent and the requirements to access the funds include covering letter (request for approval of proposal), executive summary (research outline, synopsis/abstract and statement of the problem/challenge
Institution -Based Research (IBR) lead researcher profile form, completed annexure 1 form, detailed profile of researchers, minutes of meeting of institution’s committee on research, evidence of approval of proposed research project by the committee and institution-based research project shall not exceed N2million, but the national-based research is exempted from this limitation.
Time table is referred to as period of commencement and expected date of termination of research work), cost estimates for development of abstract (field work, report writing, conferences, publications in relevant journals and cost estimate of other research materials.
