by Adeniyi Adeyemo, V-RAMP Program Manager at AKTH
Aimed at promoting effective leadership by strengthening skills and competencies of university research and grant administration leaders who work on funded programs in collaboration with VUMC, the Vanderbilt-Nigeria Research Administration and Grant Management Training Program (VRAMP) conducted a two-part V-RAMP Research Administration Leaders Pre-Award Practicum at Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital (AKTH) in Nigeria in July and September 2023.The workshop was a collaboration between the Vanderbilt Institute for Global Health (VIGH), AKTH, and Bayero University Kano (BUK). Both workshops had 17 Research Administration Leaders in attendance selected from BUK, AKTH, Muritala Specialist Hospital, Kano, and Barau Dikko Teaching Hospital, Kaduna.
The practicum was led by AKTH research administrators who previously participated in V-RAMP, Global Research Administration Practicum (GRASP), Grant Administration International Network (GAIN), and Society of Research Administrators International (SRAI) trainings, alongside Holly Cassell (Assistant Director of Collaborative Relations) and Chelsea van Wyk (Senior Population/Public Health Manager), both research administration and grant management veterans from VIGH. The practicum focused on teaching the skills necessary to support research, faculty, and organizational development through a hands-on active learning practicum course structure that developed core pre-award leadership competencies to increase participants’ effectiveness as research and grant administrators. Also in attendance were professors Muktar Aliyu, Bill Wester, Zubairu Iliyasu, and Aliyu Abd.
Both parts of the practicum included deep dives into the grant lifecycle, finding funding strategies, the basics of grant budgets and development, and the component of biosketches required for submission to the NIH, including practical assessments of these skills.
The Chief Medical Director of AKTH, Professor Abdurahaman Abba Sheshe, represented by his deputy, declared the workshop open opening that “AKTH and BUK have now started gaining mastery in research administration.” Professor Zubairu Iliyasu, a Principal Investigator on the V-RAMP program and chairman of the National Health Research Ethics Committee (NHREC) in Nigeria, considered the workshop “A thorough practicum in every sense of the word”. Participants expressed their appreciation for the practicum structure of the workshop, which allowed for extended hands-on practice of key pre-award skills.