TP1. Researchers

Individual career goals

Plan

“I will ensure individual time management.”
“I will ensure enough time to do research through own well-disciplined time management.”
“I shall ensure time to attend the meetings.”
“I will ensure an individual long-term planning with measurable mile-stones.”

Apply for reserch grants

“I will seek knowledge to know how to apply for research grants and how to invest them well, so that my career is promoted and not destroyed.”
” I will send grant application to donors supporting research and scientific meetings.”
” I will identify appropriate grant giving institutions.”
” I will seek funding from the government.”
“I will send grant application to the government.”
” We shall arrange a Grant Club where we support each other with seeking research funding; set times, venue and appoint a coordinator.”

Publish

” I will seek knowledge to know how to publish.”
” We shall arrange a Publishing Club where we support each other to publish; set times, venue and appoint coordinator.”

Manage the English language. Manage an English Club; weekly, set time, venue. With English teacher. Coordinator appointed. Homework: learn three new words per day.

Change attitude related to lack of motivation due to limited financial support

“We shall change attitude from focusing on money to focusing on research output.”
“We should be motivated from that we make the investment in ourselves.”
“Team work can also motivate.”

Perform high quality research

Motivation

“We shall believe in ourselves.”
“The prolonged provision of aid became a problem since it discouraged creativity, innovation and creative thinking as the researchers focus on the money rather than the impact of the research.”

Deliver

“We shall develop novel ideas.”
“We shall develop products and services.”
“We shall develop patents.”
“We shall do more research even with the available inadequate pieces of equipment.”

Collaboration & networking

“I shall seek opportunities to do things together.”
“I shall capture opportunities for collaboration.”
“We shall share knowledge and experiences with each other.”
“We shall create knowledge sharing platforms.”
“I shall ensure time to attend meetings.”
“I shall have a positive attitude to all contributions by others.”
“I shall  help other people to become more motivation.”
“I shall address team building.”
“I shall build research teams.”
“I shall network among research teams.”
“We shall increase the direct research collaboration through identifying authors as new potential collaborators.
“In order to have reliable and functional research teams it is necessary that objectives of the projects that the team shall work on  are well defined.”
“We shall arrange with collaborative platform between researchers, students and technicians.”
“We shall partner with departments of the same discipline worldwide.”
“We shall build a network of all African scientists.”
“We shall establish pan African networks with regular meetings in domains without. “
“We shall build networks of all African scientists in order to do basic and applied research together.”

State-of-the-art knowledge

“We shall seek knowledge and ensure to be up-dated about the state-of-the art.”

Practical research

“We shall ensure that we have access to a quality laboratory with functioning advanced equipment and well educated technicians.”
“We shall identify quality pieces of equipment that are suitable for African conditions.”
“We shall create a good atmosphere and a collaborative platform between researchers, students and technicians.”
“We shall develop a proper business situation around laboratories.”
“We shall convince the authorities through policy-briefs and Round table sessions to equip the laboratories at academic institutions.”

Address the needs of the civil society

“I shall analyse the mind-set of the community.”
“I shall benefit from and collaborate around local knowledge when developing products and services.”
“We shall develop products and services appropriate to and useful for the local civil society, for example to use local material as pigment and traditional medicine to overcome health problems in Africa.”
“I shall sensitise the local community on development.”
“I shall promote the usage of developed products.”

Collaborate with policymakers

“I shall support policy development.”
“I shall support politicians to develop national policies in order to promote community development.”
“We shall lobby among the politicians.”

Collaborate with the private sector

“We shall address the needs of the private sector.”

Disseminate scientific findings

Scientific meetings

“We shall increase the amount of disseminated results through workshops and conferences.”

Publish

“We shall publish more.”

Share with the government

“We shall inform about scientific findings through policy briefs.”
“We shall inform about products and services through Round Table discussions.”
“We shall prove ourselves useful to the government in order to motivate them to invest more in scientific research.”

Implement scientific findings

“We shall work in research areas with practical applications.”
“We shall reach out more to the society.”
“We shall have more knowledge of the areas of research required by the society”
“We shall have knowledge about the problemof the society before starting the research work.”
“We shall focus on impactful research for the society.”
“We shall discuss with industries to identify  gaps and then research on on topics relevant for the industry.”
“We shall work in collaboration with research beneficiariesin order to come up with impactful research topis”.
“We shall communicate and compare with others in order to ensure interdisciplinary collaboration that will promote implementation.”
“We shall implement results directly after publication.”
“We shall establish local research institutions, besides the universities and the governmental institutions, to promote implementation.”
“We shall adopt competency based training.”

Sustainable economy

“We shall analyse how money raised can generate further income.”
“We shall avoid to be depending fully on aid.”

Develop businesses

“We shall improve our service delivery.”
“We shall take responsability for generating the necessary start-up capital while doing boot-strapping.”

Enable talents

“We shall ensure tuition fees for all ambitious students.”
“We shall ensure gender equity regarding scientific careers.”
” We shall empower women by ensuring women researcher role-models.”
“We shall promote African researchers at other continents.”