Call for proposals: thematic areas and interdisciplinary character

Transcription

1 School of Agriculture and Biotechnology Call for proposals for interdisciplinary research Research strategy of SAB The six departments that make up the School of Agriculture of the University (SAB) of Eldoret 1 have committed themselves to an ambitious research program in order to provide society and scholars with the best knowledge and learning. It is a priority of the SAB to carry out research that is directly responding to the current challenges that the rural and urban communities face and agro based industries, in particular those in West Kenya where SAB is geographically positioned. SAB therefore seeks to engage in interdisciplinary research, and in collaboration with stakeholders. This collaboration ranges from consultative to participatory, with farmers and other private sector actors, development practitioners and policy makers, and is further operationalised through the outreach program of the SAB. The needs and challenges of local stakeholders in the West Kenyan region are captured in the priority research themes of SAB: food security, sustainable resource management and value chain development. These themes are further elaborated and operationalised in the departmental research programs in order to be effectively tuned with the academic educational program and linked with the relevant scientific debates. Call for proposals: thematic areas and interdisciplinary character In the light of the formulated SAB research strategy, the research committee of SAB wishes to use available resources of the Nuffic supported Niche program to solicit proposals for interdisciplinary and gender sensitive research in the following three key thematic research fields of agriculture: Food security Value Chain Development Sustainable Agricultural Resource Management Deadline for submission: May 6, 2016 (see: submission of the concept note). Food security Food security exists when all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life (World Food Summit, 1996). Under the food security thematic area, research and outreach projects that will sustainably improve availability, access and use of sufficient and healthy food by vulnerable groups such as rural smallholder farmers and urban poor will be supported. Food 1 Animal Science, Biotechnology, Family and Consumer Studies, Seed Crop and Horticultural Sciences; and Soil Science. 1

2 security is an overarching theme and objective: itlinks for example into issues of sustainable land use, application of innovative ideas for improved productivity and the use of traditional knowledge with the participation of small holder farmers; supporting farmers to access the market and become active players in Value Chain Development. In addition, the SAB highly values research that pays attention to reducing the risks associated with natural disasters for farmers (for example, seed security, diversification), ensuring agricultural diversification to improve farmers incomes for example by introduction of new varieties of crops like orange fleshed sweet potatoes and other fortified products, value addition by use of various methods of preservation for seasonal crops such as indigenous vegetables and also animal products. Proper utilization of food through adequate diet is a topic that the SAB strives to explore with other societal partners. Management of diseases and pests that affect crops and livestock and reduce the quality of crop and animal products is also encouraged. These issues are examples that demonstrate the need to engage in interdisciplinary approach. Value Chain Development Value chain development implies a commodity orientation, encompassing a range of actor, from farmers, service suppliers, processors, intermediaries to consumers; from production to use and marketing. Under this theme the call seeks proposals that enhance the organisation and participation of the different actors that play a role in the value chains that are currently and potentially important in western Kenya. In particular research projects that seek to understand how actions are coordinated, what conditions hinder or favour the functioning of value chains and experimentation with improvements are sought. These could also lead to the creation of value chain platforms. Sustainable Agricultural Resource Management Proposed research under this theme should contribute to improving sustainable management of resources for agricultural production within the broader west Kenya (the former Rift Valley, Nyanza and Western provinces). Agricultural resources in this context are defined as material or organismsderived from nature, e.g. land and/or soil, water, crops, livestock and microbiota interacting with them (insects, fungi, bacteria, etc). These resources have to be used effectively and sustainably to provide livelihoods to the people using them. Use of minimum inputs that allow efficacy of scarce resources such as fertilizer, water and amendments such as lime will go a long way in affordably improving crop yields in West Kenya. Having a wide genetic base of crop and animal resources ensures that useful genes that can be used in breeding programmes are conserved. Indigenous vegetables, fruits, medicinal and plants of value come in handy here. Within this research theme, groundnuts and simsim are important crops. They represent a high nutritional value and are understudied in terms of resource usein western Kenya. However, their production is constrained. Another important research topic under this theme is seed, referring to all planting material that farmers use, including those of vegetatively propagated crops. In Kenya, where about 80% of seed is from the informal sector farmers face many challenges in accessing good seed. Projects that are interdisciplinary and seek to improve the sustainable management of seed, soil and water are targeted in this call: more efficient water management is implicit in sustainable land management systems and the potential for improved productivity. This call seeks proposals for interdisciplinary research on the biodiversity, seed, agronomy, mycotoxin contamination and integrated soil fertility management aspects, of producing groundnuts and simsim. The use of indigenous technical knowledge and scientific explanations would also fit in here 2

3 Interdisciplinarity and gender sensitivity Challenges that society faces these days are characterized by complexity and can not be solved by the efforts of scientists alone. Needles to point out that all research disciplines have a responsibility to contribute to identifying alternatives, generating improved practices and developing more effective technologies. However, for these contributions to become useful, they need to be integrated with contributions of other disciplines, and into the real life situations of rural and urban people. All starts out with the formulation and implementation of integrated research. Such research requires the surpassing of the boundaries of disciplinary wise departments in academics. Engaging in interdisciplinary research means that unifying vocabulary needs to be used, a combination of research methods that needs to be identified that fit the purpose. In addition it needs advanced skills of coordination, teamwork and personal performance. Through this call the SAB wants to advance the expertise of its staff in this type of research. SAB emphasizes the need for inclusiveness of her research and education. This means that gender sensitivity is an important element in the research that is proposed in response to this call. This expresses itself in the composition of the research team, the collaborators and targetted benificiaries, as well as in the research topic. Concept Note Scope The concept note has to propose interdisciplinary research that fits the SAB research priority themes. It needs to take into account the conditions of the research that will finally be proposed: it should be realistic in ambition, feasible with the budget and time span. See further: the final proposal (annex 1) The concept note needs to have an overall research question and 2 3 sub questions that can be used to organise the research in sub projects without losing the interdisciplinary focus. This means that sub projects need to be interdisciplinary and/or must be clearly needed to be able to answer the overall research question. Each sub research question must be followed by a short elaboration of the research needed to collect the data for answering the research question Structure of the concept note The concept note must follow the following structure Title Description of the topic of research and problem statement (max 800 words) Overall question Sub research question 1 (with max 200 words elaboration) Sub research question 2 (with max 200 words elaboration) Sub research question 3 (with max 200 words elaboration) Interdisciplinary character of the research (max 200 words) Reference list Participating staff members and their affiliation Coordinating staff member (+ ) 3

4 Submission of the concept note The concept note has to be sent before May 6, h (midday, Kenyan time), 2016 to Conny.Almekinders@wur.nl, with in the subject line: NICHE SAB concept note. Evaluation and selection of the concept note A maximum of eight concept notes will be selected by a selection committee, consisting of Dr. Helena Posthumus, Dr. Conny Almekinders, Prof. Dr. Julius Ochuodho and an additional member of Eldoret University (still to be identified). The concept notes will be evaluated on: i) the originality, ii) clarity of interdisciplinary aspects, iii) feasibility and iv) quality of the writing. The selection of concept notes will be communicated on May 20 to the coordinators and may be accompanied with suggestions for modification, orientation or incorporation of proposed research by others. The coordinators of selected proposals will be expected to further their ideas on the research after communication of their selection. In the week of June 6 10, 2016, they will be invited to a workshop to support further elaboration of the proposal. The final proposal is to be submitted on July 1, 2016 For further information on the schedule, conditions and support to the elaboration of the final proposal see Annex 1. 4

5 Appendix 1. The tentative scheme for the final proposal Conditions of the final proposal The final proposal will meet the following conditions: be coordinated by a project team of 2 or 3 staff members, of respectively 2 or 3 different SAB departments; one of these departments should be a social science department. propose research that is carried out under supervision of these staff members, in the form of one sub project per staff member. describe the added value of the combination of the two or three sub projects in one single proposal (in terms of interdisciplinarity and, where relevant, otherwise) describe how the research will be implemented within a period of one year, from September 2016 to September This includes the writing of the research reports (in the form of a draft publication) and of thesis es of MSc students involved. Include clarification of responsibility, coordination and a supervision plan for involved MSc students Include a budget that indicates the breakdown of research costs per sub project, with specified contribution of a maximum of E 6000 in total from the Nuffic resources (see appendix 1 for Eligible Costs) Involved candidate MSc students should have paid their tuition fees, have completed their MSc course work before September 1, 2016 Format final proposal The proposal should not exceed the total of 8000 words. It has a general part with an overall problem statement (max 1000 words), research questions and separate sections which describe the individual subjects in the form of a problem statement, research question, data collection methods (max 3000 words each). There should be a budget that indicates the breakdown of research costs per sub project, clarifying who implements the various activities A time planning should be included, specified per subproject, and including supervison activities. The proposal should indicate: o Names of staff members and their affiliations o Potential names of research assistents/msc students with a 1 page CV It is further expected that the proposal indicates the way MSc students have been involved in the development of the proposal, how other stakeholders are made part of the research and what their added value to the research is, and if and how other additional resources for this research have been mobilised. Support to the elaboration of the final proposal In the week of June , all participants of selected concept notes will be invited to a learning workshop with master classes and hands on support for the elaboration and writing of the final 5

6 research proposal. Partipants are expected to develop the final version of the proposal in the period of June Submission and evaluation of the final proposal Proposals must be sent in digital form to BEFORE 1 st of July 2016, h (Kenyan time). The evaluation and selection will be carried out by the selection team that involves two members of the SAB research committee and two members of the Nuffic Niche team. The evaluation criteria will be made available upon the selection of the concept notes, May 20, Results of the selection will be communicated to all applicants on July : all applicants will receive the results of the evaluation of their proposal. Coordinators of the selected proposals may be asked to adapt or modify the proposal on indicated points. Evaluation of the final proposals Upon the selection of the concept notes the evaluation committee will also present the information on the evaluation criteria for the final proposals Appendix 2. Eligible costs The costs that the research budget can cover are presented in the following; all other costs must be specified including their alternative funding source. Meetings and data collection at local communities with stakeholders related to the identified problem to be researched. Most of the proposals will be focused on solving actual farmers problems and impacting the communities. Transport for students and supervisors: The research projects will require that we carry out baseline surveys and/or participatory rapid appraisals with the participation of the students, supervisors and Government extension staff. This will require that we hire the vehicles used, fuel and pay for the drivers and extension staff. The students and faculty will also be paid subsistence while in the field. Purchase of samples: While doing these surveys/appraisals, samples will be taken/bought from the farmers (could be chicken, eggs, seeds, feeds etc) for further experiments either in the laboratory, greenhouse and or on station or on farm field experiments. Cost of experiment inputs and casual labour: While carrying out field experiments there are costs like fertilizers, chemicals that are incurred. The crops are taken care of planting, weeding etc. till harvest. Some of these activities are done by casual laborers Laboratory consumables: These costs depend on the type of tests done; if molecular, the costs could be so high that they are inhibitive to the initiative. 6