CARTA designed these sessions to inspire participants to improve institutional systems and drive transformation to attain world-class research in African universities in particular, but the training is effective in research institutions anywhere in the world, as a one-week workshop or over time, for faculty and administrative staff.

Within a single institution or a group of several, the sessions create a forum for those who seldom collaborate collectively. Here, they discuss:

• How different functionaries can be more responsive to and supportive of research, research training and doctoral and postdoctoral participants.
• Ways in which they can strengthen the training of doctoral and postdoctoral participants and at the same time strengthen the capacity of the institutions.
• The rationale for a strong research agenda, including the positive linkages between good research and development.
• The important role of a supportive network of research administrators.
• Clear distinctions between different roles and functions.
• The need for funding and technology transfer, particularly in Africa.
• Knowledge management, defined as the process of creating and sharing information.
• The ethical use of social media as a platform capable of enhancing credible knowledge generation.
• Other relevant topics such as repository policies (especially in open access journals) and copyright issues.

By the end of a Graduate Grant-writing workshop, participants can:

• Write a successful proposal that addresses a research question that is in the participant’s area of expertise and that they want to answer.
• Understand how to structure and write the proposal, including literature review, methodology, methods including analysis plans and impact plans.
• Understand the process of developing a research proposal including identifying funding sources; Tailoring a proposal to funding sources; drawing on expertise; and developing a budget, management plan, and dissemination strategy.
• Seek and receive critique of research ideas and plans and integrate feedback into a proposal.
• Successfully work to a submission deadline.

Various modes of delivery are possible: in-person residential, virtual, blended, over a single week or over a longer period. However, CARTA recommends a core week of activity completed in an intensive residential model, because:

• Writing requires separation from other distractions and commitments.
• The on-site model allows for a more natural model of mentorship and consultation, which is often brief, graduate-initiated bursts of conversation. In the in-person mode, participants can connect with facilitators and each other without delay.
• For co-facilitators, on-site mode enables vicarious modelling and shared experience, as each facilitator gets to watch others struggle, find solutions, and gain confidence.
• On-site presents the greatest flexibility in modes of communication (presentation, body language of reaction, graphic and written presentations).
• On-site permits rapid shifts from full group to one-on-one or small break-out groups. The same modes may be achieved online, but require far more scripting and coordination.
• In person, there is greater sense of cohort camaraderie among participants and with facilitators who are also academic peers.
• In person, there is greater opportunity for contact to lead to collaboration between participants and between participants and facilitators both during and beyond the workshop.

The CARTA approach is problem-posing and participatory, acknowledging the skills, and experience that people bring into the workshop. Each session presents situations and poses problems. Participants work with each other and with inputs from the facilitator to find solutions. Problem-posing education bases itself on creativity and stimulates true reflection along with action on reality (Freire, 2020). It is different from the transfer or transmission of knowledge or facts to the passive learner, where the trainer is seen as possessing all essential information, and trainees as ‘empty vessels’ needing to be filled with knowledge.

The choice of participatory method is deliberate: there is a coherence between values and the approach to sharing them. From the beginning, this curriculum recognizes all participants as thinking, creative people with the capacity for action. Each person is a contributor, bringing different perceptions based on their own experiences. This requires that you, as facilitator, make a conscious effort to use participatory methods to enable participants to grow in awareness.

Watch this video for more insight into CARTA’s approach.

Some people assume that facilitating a workshop will be an easy process, until they try doing it. The participatory method means that you and your co-facilitators guide the workshop while appreciating that the participants are in charge. Your responsibility is to create an enabling environment that allows participants to learn from each other, come to an understanding, and pool their collective wisdom in resolving issues.

A good co-facilitator works as an ally to help you ensure that meetings, seminars, planning sessions and workshops, deliver the intended and desired outcomes. It is very difficult to facilitate a meeting yourself, when you also want to participate in it as an equal. But not all facilitators are alike. Identify co-facilitators who have the personality and aptitude to understand the goals, objectives, and expected outcomes of this curriculum. CARTA recommends you look for co-facilitators with these attributes.

Lead coordinator/s
Lead co-ordinator(s) of a Graduate Workshop must be accomplished academic leaders and demonstrate leadership abilities to:

• Ensure the recruitment of graduate participants is effective and equitable.
• Recruit and retain qualified and motivated facilitators.
• Recruit a large list of international external peer-reviewers from across a broad range of methodologies and subject areas reflecting the diversity of research areas of the participants.
• Work with administrative staff to ensure effective coordination.
• Evaluate the impact of the workshop on individual participants, on a graduate’s early-scientist career, and on the larger research community in Africa and globally.

Co-facilitators
Recruit facilitators with:

• Experience with the peer-review process.
• Experience with student-centred teaching models including methods of active learning and delivery models designed to develop independence and critical thinking. Examples include case-based learning, dialogic teaching or other models.
• Flexibility to work with graduates across a range of specific research areas.
• Methodological training and ability to critically appraise research proposals.
• Availability and willingness to participate fully in the workshop, beyond their responsibility for specific sessions. Facilitators should prepare to engage in the workshop over multiple days allowing them to follow the progress of multiple participants over the course of the workshop.
• Commitment to the tasks of evaluating the impact of the workshop on individual participants at the end of the workshop, on a graduate’s early-scientist career, and on the larger research community in Africa and globally.

As a team, the facilitators must include a range of disciplines, areas of research, and methodological expertise (including qualitative, quantitative research and mixed methods; descriptive research and implementation sciences; and laboratory and basic sciences).

At least three weeks before the in-person workshop (or sessions), hold a series of conversations with the group of participants and ask them to complete some tasks and submit the results. This ensures that instructions are clear, that the graduates are able to identify opportunities for research funds and early career placements, and that the time for writing and revision will be is well spent.

Outcomes
By the end of the pre-workshop activities, participants have:

• Identified one or more appropriate calls for funding or opportunities for research-focused post-doctoral fellowships or comparable early-career placements.
• Identified potential supervisors and locations for early research appointments.
• Familiarised themselves with eligibility requirements with respect to applicant, subject area, context of proposed work, and methods.
• Created a summary of the eligibility criteria and instructions to peer reviewers.
• Identified relevant methodology resources to refer to as they develop a research plan.
• Begun the literature review.

Preparation
Establish a learning management platform for document delivery, uploading of tasks, online annotation and feedback, live webinar collaboration, and break-out rooms.

Assessment
Review participants’ materials and provide feedback and support where necessary to complete the tasks.

Individual writing.
Table-top work in small groups
Flip-chart pin-up presentation with peer-to-peer comments and questions.
Brief pop-up presentations by facilitators.