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The Strides concept
Strides training and grant support brings professional benefits
STRIDES uses a real time audit scientific training and research innovation platform supported by The STRIDES Foundation Ltd (UK) and Navatec Systems providing effective portfolio management and total oversight to stakeholders engaging with multidisciplinary research teams working towards sustainable management and efficient use of biological and water resources in low income countries. Emphasis is placed on improving standards of needs and gaps analyses, reduced risk project design by observing due diligence procedures, tight planning and managing of the executed project plan using a comprehensive project cycle management system recorded by a unique web-based real-time audit approach which provides total oversight to all parties resulting in an envisioned extension strategy to make appropriate downstream use of the results of the collaborative research outputs.
To qualify for support, researchers must be willing to be active members of cross-disciplinary research teams which aim to carry out advanced applied scientific research so as to drive innovation in this sector and help create new opportunities for reducing poverty in their respective countries. Once a full research and innovation proposal is completed and submitted, the funding required will be sought by The STRIDES Foundation to support the well-designed and relevant research. Each team can consist of up to, but no more than, five active researchers for a period of three years. Extensions to successful projects may be supported provided that the previous granting period has produced demonstrably successful research outcomes in which there is a strong innovation component and that the team has built a sound communication infrastructure involving relevant stakeholders throughout the whole research project cycle.
(i) Nature of support to be provided by the STRIDES platform
Biological and water resources need to be managed in the immediate and long term interests of people while ensuring environmental and social sustainability. This requires stakeholder participation. The diversity and complexity of natural systems combined with the different motivations, objectives and conditions of stakeholders creates significant challenges in conceptualizing, designing, planning and managing outreach through collaborative team efforts.
Training and research communication support will include the free use of an advanced project cycle management system using cloud-based real time audit (RTA) that will enable and enhance sensitization of researchers to stakeholder needs and allow direct collaboration between research teams supported under the initiative and stakeholders. The real-time monitoring and evaluation system (RTA) has been designed to give all actors, including stakeholders, the grant holders and donors, a continual oversight of progress on every part of the research-implementation chain as it applies to a given approved project. It also builds and provides increased learning experiences while working on planned tasks.
Small, micro- and medium enterprises and associated business activities in Science Parks close-by or on university campuses will, wherever possible, be involved in hosting some of the research carried out under the STRIDES initiative. Potentially synergistic industrial funding/partnerships with relevant industries will also be actively pursued. These actions will assist the private sector to identify early- and mid-career scientists whose research demonstrates commercial potential. At the same time, the initiative will stimulate researchers to address their investigations towards sustainability issues associated with global change, disrupted food supply chains, impacts of natural and man-made disasters, environmental recovery and livelihood rehabilitation and potential conflicts concerning water and biological resources.
Training workshops will be mounted in collaboration with targeted African organizations, research networks and international organizations such as the CGIAR Consortium, where appropriate, and will be adjusted to suit the researchers. There will be also provision of mentoring from a team of experienced research practitioners. This is expected to be supportive of those researchers who might have to, due to their location of work, undertake important investigations as part of a team’s research activities in comparative academic isolation. Complements to the grant and mentoring programmes will be workshop- and open learning resource-based training in science communication at local, national and regional training hubs, particularly on how to manage stakeholder/innovation platforms.
(ii) Target researchers and thematic research focus of Strides
Collaborative research teams will be supported who are composed of up to five scientists of appropriate age (i.e. under 45 years) who have sufficient proven research experience (preferably a Ph.D qualification in a relevant discipline from a recognized university or at least a minimum of a Masters level degree obtained through research and taught courses) and who propose relevant applied research relating to the thematic priority issues summarized below. Combinations of technical, social, economic and development policy aspects to the investigative work proposed by collaborative teams are the declared preference for the type of collaborative scientific research supported by The STRIDES Foundation. Furthermore, it will be mandatory for applicants to pay particular attention to the implications of their proposed research regarding relevant social, economic and political issues pertaining to their local, national and regional situations. Factors such as poverty reduction, value chain function, food security and nutritional health, climate change adaptation (resilience), gender mainstreaming and empowerment of women, advocacy and policy development will be the sorts of issues to be considered and taken into account in this context.
Improved standards of project design should have the purpose of generating and communicating new knowledge in a form useful for stakeholders. This requires an understanding of stakeholder requirements in the context of the social and economic processes whereby they access and use old and new traditional knowledge and technologies. It is important for researchers to identify the main constraints on poverty reduction and to improved livelihoods. The details of how constraint mechanisms operate requires a wide analysis covering many knowledge domains. Constraints can include resource tenure and rights including among other things land, fisheries, water resources and forests. Cultural approaches and traditional activities and habits related to gender can be of significance. Other considerations include: the conditions for access and marketing of biological products, alternative sources of income, regulatory environments, social protection mechanisms for vulnerable groups and social issues arising from conflict of interests.
Although under normal circumstances this can be a daunting task, Strides’ integrated support methodologies and standards make this process both manageable and transparent. This facilitates a timely and productive relationship with stakeholders at the conceptualization and formulation stages of investigations and throughout the implementation phase. Participants in Strides projects will have access to advanced project resource management tools to maintain effective stakeholder involvement and communications in support of the project design process. Project design emphasizes lower risk, sustainability, lower cost and a timely implementation of planned activities. The application of STRIDES methodologies and standards, through RTA, will provide a project level management system that can improve the performances of collaborative team projects as well as donor portfolios. It will also be able to produce a comprehensive real time audit of the evolution of the implementation of a project that compares the project plan to on-going achievement. This system provides on-demand analysis and reports on individual project status as well as the level of the donor portfolio. Real-time analysis and reporting supports a proactive management style at project and overall donor project portfolio level. Throughout all stages of the project application cycle, project design and post-funding operations, RTA will provide full transparency for all stakeholders through password-mediated direct access to all project information on a read-only basis using a web browser.
STRIDES Foundation-funded researchers will benefit from training and unparalleled practical experience in transforming research administration into the role of manager of an efficient innovative process geared towards making an effective contribution to local and national welfare.
Strides research themes
The team research efforts of STRIDES will be focused primarily on the following over-arching themes that require inputs of combined expertise and research knowledge/interests in a range of scientific and economic disciplines. The four themes to be promoted for STRIDES research are as follows:
· Sustainable Use and Conservation of Biodiversity · Sustainable Water Resources and Sanitation · Sustainable Food, Fiber and Feedstock Production · Sustainable Alternative/Appropriate Energy Generation
Theme 1: Sustainable Use and Conservation of Biodiversity
This theme intends to cover a broad area of research on natural products, especially those with medicinal and other potential industrial uses e.g. biofuels, or otherwise. Conservation management and biodiversity research issues in forestry, oceans, estuarine, coastal and littoral eco-systems and services associated with their current and predicted management will be encouraged.
Theme 2: Sustainable Water Resources and Sanitation Research into water resource management for clean drinking water, adequate sanitation and pollution prevention; management of water resources through appropriate land-use allocation to commercial and natural and ecosystem components; efficient use of irrigation for agriculture, horticulture and other operations, especially those near urban and heavily populated districts.
Theme 3: Sustainable Food, Fiber and Feedstock Production This covers all aspects of agricultural productivity and efficiency and communication issues across the value chain of food production, nutritional issues, underutilized crops, biotechnology, soil fertility and erosion. Aspects to be considered within upgrading of value chains include seed systems, productivity, storage, value addition, marketing and safety of processes used in food production systems. Appropriate management of aquatic and marine resources for efficient food and feedstock production should address also their role in increased food production in and around cities.
Theme 4: Sustainable Alternative/Appropriate Energy Generation Alternative energy generation and energy saving (i.e. outside of a country’s national grid) will be a key focus and will include production of biofuels on marginal lands which are otherwise unsuitable for crop production and other traditional agricultural activities.
Common requirements within each thematic application All proposals under any of the above thematic areas, will be required to provide information and evidence that support the propositional logic in terms of setting out the feasibility of the proposal in terms of safeguarding the environment and ecosystems on the basis of full statements of quantified project impacts in the following principal areas of consideration: economics, finance, environment, social acceptance, regulatory implications as well as a clear statement as to how sustainability within these areas of consideration will be achieved.
Common analytical perspectives There is a need to ensure that sufficient information is collected and analyzed so that critical and relevant factors have been taken into account during project design. This is to assess outcome sensitivity, risk, implementation and post-implementation sustainability. It is then necessary to select the most promising project options from the standpoint of relative costs and timeliness. There is a basic set of Decision Analysis Perspectives (DAPS) which cover most of the key considerations required on natural resources projects. These include the deterministic relationships between biota, abiota, physical input-output relationships of activities and technologies, economics, financial analyses, social acceptability, environmental impact, and constitutional and regulatory issues. The project design system possesses appropriate guidance and information management covering DAPs. This provides a transparent oversight for team leaders and stakeholders of the contribution of each type of analysis to the identification of the final project. This assists research team leaders coming from any discipline, for example socio-economics, identify the additional expertise required by his/her proposed assembled collaborative research team to cover such analytical perspectives adequately.
*Details given on www.boolean.org.uk/standards.htm
(iii) Hosting of Strides
With sub-Saharan African countries being the initial focus, the STRIDES training cycle activities will be based in Eastern, Southern and Western Africa at universities, innovation hubs and National Councils of Science and Technology. Training events will be facilitated by a senior training and research advisory team drawn from various Strides partnerships with sub-Saharan and international organizations. Each team member of the advisory team has extensive experience in conducting field research and supervising young researchers in low to lower-middle income countries, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. Some have experience also of the private sectors within and outside of the regions. Scientific advisors and research assessors who provide on a regular basis mentoring advice and scientific evaluations to competitive research grant schemes administered by international organizations will also help the Strides programme to assess the relevance and feasibility of collaborative team proposals submitted for financial support.
The Strides web-based platform and databases provided by Navatec Systems will also serve, when appropriate, as a node for distance learning (e.g. a portal for information, for example, on what information is required to design a project, the relationship between a proposal’s logic and assembled ion on biological and water resources). Furthermore, the web-based platform will be designed to facilitate interactive communications between Africa’s young scientists associated with Strides before, during and after research activities. Rolling calls and announcements for cross-disciplinary team research proposals will be reviewed and revised on a regular basis so as to take account of changing research priorities in different countries and these will also be posted on the Strides website.
(iv) Key steps in the training and research grant support of The STRIDES Foundation
The various interactions between scientists and stakeholders promoting innovation, and the likelihood of better levels of take-up of research results, will be facilitated by STRIDES through six steps as follows:
Step 1: Preparation and submission of a research concept note by potential team leaders
African scientists based in their home countries in the sub-Saharan African region will be invited to submit a concept note, based on a short electronic pre-formatted form accessed via the Strides web site. Applicants will submit a short description on the need for the proposed research, basic administrative and contact details and the types of stakeholder and beneficiaries likely to be involved in the type of research that is being proposed. The applicant will also be required to state how she/he intends to identify relevant stakeholders to guide and relate any planned research to their future plans for implementation. Once submitted, concept notes will be evaluated on the basis of scientific feasibility and their relationship to development brought about by the proposed innovation. Only those concept notes providing appropriate information demonstrating that the research proposed has potential for innovation with a developmental impact will move to the next step where the prospective team leader will be invited to attend a Strides Launchpad Workshop which is a key training event facilitated by a team of highly experienced trainers.
Step 2: Strides Launchpad Workshop and training
Step 2 will comprise a Strides Launchpad Workshop by potential team leaders identified through the concept note process in Step 1. Workshops will be located within a specific district, country or region close to the potential team leaders’ workplace to minimize costs. This will be possible since potential team leaders will be scientists based at one of the training partner institutions. Attendees will receive training in the use of the project cycle management system (RTA) consisting of:
· The Navatec communications platform · The Navatec project design, planning and management system · Real time monitoring with on-demand analysis and reporting using Navatec tools.
The Navatec communication platform is used to establish, sustain and manage stakeholder contributions for optimal orientation of the research to be identified and undertaken by each cross-disciplinary team member. Stakeholders will be identified according to their roles and interest in specific components of the value chain, relevant to the research topic in question and will provide their inputs into the extension take-up stage of the Strides cycle.
The Strides project design system provides tools and methods to maintain a high standard of decision analysis in the process project identification, specification of options and selection of the best option. The real-time monitoring with an on-demand analysis and reporting systems will be used during the project preparation and implementation phases to maintain an effective oversight of all activities by all stakeholders including assembled research teams and donors. Stakeholder participants could be representatives from government, local entrepreneurs and industry, relevant NGOs and universities, scientists with special relevant local knowledge, representatives of beneficiary communities, farmers and relevant constituencies of value chains, commercial organizations with a direct interest in the proposed research topic, and other key role-players.
Attendees at each Launchpad Workshop will be provided with a comprehensive set of guidelines as to the methods, terms and calculations used in the pre-formatted Strides full research team application formats and the RTA system. This will be accessible following issue of a specific account name and password on the STRIDES web site to help applicants make more effective progress in completing and submitting the subsequent full team applications submitted following the activities proposed for Step 3 below.
Step 3: Assembly of a full cross-disciplinary research team and project design
Potential research team leaders who attend a Launchpad Workshop, and who have undertaken a clear commitment to apply the Strides’ methods and standards for the project design, stakeholder management and subsequent real-time monitoring, will be required within the space of a few months to accomplish five things:
1. To initiate stakeholder consultations in the context of sustainable development issues in the natural resources sector, so as to identify and prioritize their specific needs; 2. To identify stakeholders who wish to participate in contributing to the whole research – innovation cycle; 3. To begin to identify and build a scientific team, the members of which will have appropriate levels of experience and expertise to tackle the identified research tasks; 4. To design with the identified stakeholders and researcher colleagues a project with experimental plans which address the most important issues identified by the needs analysis, and 5. To select the most suitable project plan, complete the online full proposal application and submit this to The STRIDES Foundation.
An important part of project design is the methodology for managing the contribution of stakeholders. Under normal circumstances, this can be a daunting task. However, the RTA system uses a process model to describe project activities that contribute to final output. Whether stakeholders are involved in project implementation or in subsequent downstream activities, the same model can be used to ensure that project output is appropriate to the type of downstream transformations which need to be applied to create useful products and services. In either case, stakeholders need to be involved in the project design phase.
In order to maximize the communications and utility of the stakeholder involvement, the process model is divided into discrete units containing activities in a time sequence (supply chain) and these activities can take place within the project environment or at some other geographic location (e.g. stakeholder’s business or market). The responsibility for the development of the specifications of inputs and outputs to each unit is allocated to named individuals, be they team members or stakeholders. This allows stakeholders to take ownership and control of what they understand and helps them fashion their unit into a realistic representation based on their practical experience and knowledge. This assists communication concerning upstream project impacts of downstream requirements and vice versa and it provides a realistic description or model of the project upon which an effective stakeholder dialogue can take place. This personnel allocation procedure modeled on standard information requirements within each module, greatly simplifies the management of the project on the part of the team leadership through enhanced transparency and a genuine contributory participation on the part of stakeholders. activity in project design components contains records of the principal relevant considerations in design known to the RTA system as DAP’s (Decision Analysis Perspectives), including abiotic and biotic relationships, technical input-output, economics, finance, social acceptance, environmental considerations and regulatory constraints. See www.boolean.org.uk/standards.htm.
Because this modular data is arranged in a coherent fashion in a database, the project management can traverse all of the modular data to trace possible dependencies and constraints implying risk as well as modifying parameters to reduce risk and identify an optimized project design including critical paths. All design data is held in an e-dossier that holds the records of the accepted concept note application and all subsequent working notes and analyses contributing to the final proposal application.
Following consultation and formulation of an agreed research plan with stakeholders (the best selected option26), the researchers in each assembled team will then complete a full research application form on the Srtides online system taking care to comply with the standards outlined in the STRIDES guidelines. The full application will be made in a pre-formatted application form accessible at the Strides administration website.
Step 4: Submission and evaluation of a full team grant application
The full range of necessary considerations will be contained in the Strides’ guidelines provided online for use during the completion of full research grant applications. Proposal assessment will pay particular attention to a clear explanation of the needs being addressed and agreed by all stakeholders. The information submitted needs to support the propositional logic or arguments. There needs to be an adequate assessment of project sensitivity, risks and sustainability and a demonstration that the proposal represents the most economic and timely design option. The application needs to also contain sound experimental strategies and plans together with agreed and clearly stated milestones (on a three-month timescale) and specific actions to be undertaken as agreed with colleagues of the collaborative research team and the relevant stakeholders. Research teams will be expected to have accommodated also special communication needs, such as inclusion of team members who have the necessary knowledge and competence in communicating in the relevant languages and dialects needed to engage fully stakeholders in certain districts where research is to be conducted.
The applicants will need to also consider carefully how their proposed project relates to the issues of technical feasibility and economic, social and environmental sustainability and a full exposure of the likely environmental impacts their research or its outcomes might have. All project activities must have an identified person as being responsible to ensure effective communication, performance assessment and to clarify individual contractual obligations in the case of successful applications.
Applications will be reviewed and evaluated by a team of highly experienced gender-balanced scientific evaluators who, where possible, will be representative of government, the private sector, relevant NGO’s, tertiary education and leading research institutions and, when available, experienced stakeholders with relevant experience. Assessors will have on online access to the application form content, as well as the associated e-dossier which contains all contributory analyses and work records. Assessment will be conducted online and recorded in the same e-dossier so that applicants receive a fully considered response within a relatively short period. This enables a productive and supportive feedback in cases where applications require some revision and a resubmission. The relatively short turnaround aims to assist the ability of researchers to start their investigations at their pre-planned dates to avoid any delays which might otherwise occur in carrying out seasonal-dependent types of field research.
Following approval by assessors and the agreement of research team members upon receiving comments from assessors on the project design and other relevant aspects of a submitted application, a signed contractual agreement will be drawn up between the Stakeholders (or their appointed representatives), the researchers and Strides as to the undertakings and the obligations required to carry out what is proposed for the various stages of team research. Potential outreach activities will be identified, where relevant, as an essential part of the grant administration process. An important detail of achieving an effective implementation of a project is a clearly specified identity of the individuals responsible for defined activities. These details are elaborated as part of project design but there needs to be a contractual undertaking on the part of each individual identified as being responsible for activities through a confirmation of their role and understanding of their obligations concerning individual responsibilities within the research team.
Step 5: Real-time monitoring and evaluation
This step includes the management of relevant information for continuous monitoring and evaluation of research progress. The pre-formatted full research proposal application form guidelines provide orientation for researchers in how to design lower risk and more efficient project plans. Because this data is held electronically, it is directly accessible to the real time audit project cycle management system (RTA). Once a grant is approved, awarded and planned activities initiated, the research scientists supported by Strides will be required to maintain the information on research progress in a regularly updated status. This provides all stakeholders with the ability to use the on-demand analysis and reporting system to monitor progress remotely using a web browser.
The RTA will be able to provide real time comparisons of the project plan with on-going achievements. This enables a rapid response to changes in conditions that might compromise the success of a project, thereby combining monitoring and evaluation with proactive project management.
Step 6: Innovation cycle management – best practice
This step deals with the collective appraisal of previous assumptions and conversion of scientific results to technology and techniques (products and services).
This is the concluding step in the Strides research granting support and will involve the participation of researchers and stakeholders in an end-of-project downstream event. This will give consideration to how best to follow up results – be it to carry out further research or to develop an implementation strategy with sponsorship from other sources (like industry, if appropriate). Where relevant, redesigns of value chain financial structures could be attempted to improve financial sustainability of promising lines of investigation. Proceeds of royalties, licenses and other intellectual property rights could be used also to support further independent research and adoption activities. Sustainability of funding for non-value chain and non-commercially orientated research is likely to also benefit from the increasing support of stakeholders who will be able to advocate changes in policy at both local and national government levels, thus increasing leverage of further funding for on-going research with potential benefits to society and the environment.
Lessons learned will arise in the light of “what worked” in the case of successful projects and “what to look out for” or “what to avoid in future projects”. There will also be a review of all “terminated” projects, if any, to analyze why such events took place. Lessons learned will be used on a continuous basis to upgrade Strides eligibility standards and improve methods to detect specific issues in project design that were inadequately handled in previous projects. An important aspect of this work is to involve assessors so that they can review the information on the whole evaluation-outcome cycle. This exercise can also help assessors remain abreast of decisions to upgrade Strides’ operational standards.
An important objective of Strides is the establishment of effective leaders in natural resources research and development capable of communicating effectively to society and policy-makers. One natural outcome of the Strides’ approach will be a change in what constitutes appropriate science communication strategies. The decision analysis perspectives approach adopted in project design and in activity and event recording will greatly facilitate the provision of analytical evidence. This can be used to shape communications to address key related issues:
· relationships between biota and abiota; · new technologies and techniques (input, output); · economic benefits and impacts; · financial costs and outcomes; · social expectations and acceptability; · environmental impacts; · constitutional issues; and · regulatory issues.
The last two are essentially policy related and gain from transparency founded upon the evidence gathered in the other analytical perspectives. Therefore training, based on the research output material, can help increase the footprint of science communications across a wider constituency, including the policy level, without compromising the logic or quality of content. This documentary and other forms of communications output will remain accessible by all stakeholders providing a wealth of reference material that can act as guidance to future Strides’ applicants proposing research on similar topics. Any renewal applications of research grants will be subjected to the current rigorous evaluation procedures as for first-time grants and the reasons for continuation would have to be well justified in the contexts of both adoption and sustainability.
Incentives will be created by Strides to recognize and reward those research teams carrying out projects which lead directly to opportunities for them to generate income through registration of patents, licenses or intellectual property rights, the income from which may be able to sustain financially continuing research and development activities. Nominations for awards from existing innovation incentive schemes such as the “Innovation Prize for Africa” initiative (http://innovationprizeforafrica.org/)
Using the procedures outlines above, the Strides initiative is designed to maximize the delivery of innovative outcomes and increase the scientific research capabilities of young- to mid-career scientists based in sub-Saharan African countries. It will enable individual scientists trained to a postgraduate level in low- to lower-middle income countries in the region to become involved in cross-disciplinary team research activities that can address urgent issues related to poverty alleviation and livelihood improvement. The positive effects of experienced, individual mid-career team members being in a position to mentor their less experienced younger colleagues will also be expected to enable the Strides’ programme to have a strongly beneficial multiplier effect on scientific capacity and capability building in the region.
Use of new management tools like RTA and scientific communication and research uptake training (including science communication techniques) will place the scientists in a much stronger position in the longer term to deliver higher standards of applied scientific research in combination with an increase in their interactions with key stakeholders before, during and after their investigative work.
In conclusion, the Strides initiative will contribute to progressively improving practice in innovation cycle management with better designed and efficient projects that contribute directly to economic and social development. This will raise the quality of donor project portfolios and produce increasing numbers of scientists in the sub-Saharan region able to manage research team projects effectively with stakeholder interests in mind. Furthermore, in those cases where development aid is handled through budget support regimes, the Strides approach can significantly contribute to the enhancement of absorptive capacity contributing to efficiency and effectiveness in the use of public funds.
Why Strides? Can it make a difference?
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International Development Advisors |
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Building training and research standards for innovation and sustainable outcomes |
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Copyright Nakhlatec 2018® 01 January 2018 |