Excellence is a state of mind and a way of doing business Proposal preparation The art of writing a winning proposal Country Date, 2015
What you are up against 8 – 9 Countries 50 Universities 250 Faculties 1,000 Departments ~ 75 – 100 proposals EU calls <10 % probability, ACE ~ 25 – 33 % probability 2
Strategic decisions 1&2 eligible/competitive Number 1 – are you eligible to be a Center of Excellence (CoE) host? • Are you a public or private university from a participating country • Do you have ongoing Master and PhD programmes and • Are they within the priority topics If this is YES, YES, YES – continue to number 2 Number 2 – are you competitive enough to become a CoE host? • Are you regionally competitive within one or more of the priority topics • Do you have the people on the ground (Faculty) to do the leg work If this is YES, YES – you are good to go! If you have a single NO on this slide, you should not opt to become a CoE! 3
Strategic decisions 3&4 – if running for an ACE Once you have decided to compete for an ACE Number 3 – how to run the internal process? • Top down with managers setting priorities or • Bottom-up with faculties setting priorities • If bottom-up will there be an internal screening process • If so, how will it run (evaluation criteria, evaluators, deadlines) Number 4 – how much to invest? (staff time and funds) • How many recourses will you (the university and the faculty) invest • What makes faculty eligible to tap into these resources • What are the procedures to follow to get the resources • How is priority made if there are more need than resources 4
Strategic decisions 5&6 – if not running Once you have decided NOT to compete for an ACE Number 5 – do you want to partner with an ACE host? • Are you regionally relevant within one or more of the priority topics • Do you have the people on the ground who are interested and committed If YES, YES continue to question 4 Number 6 – whom to partner with? • Which institution(s) that you have existing partnership with is the ‘best bet’ for a regional CoE within your priority topic(s) • Why would you partner with them – what do you expect to gain • Why should they partner with you – what is your competitive advantages 5
How to write a competitive ACE proposal Academic excellence is not your competitive advantages it is merely the entry ticket to the race Start with choosing and contacting your key partners University Private sector Public sector Civil Society National Regional International 6
Remember this is business unusual 7
Set the right proposal writing team Strong visionary leader 1 – 2 young (mentally) energetic faculty members from relevant faculties in-house 1 – 2 Key partners Competent facilitator (especially for workshops, might be available among the persons above) Good proposal writer (might be available among the persons above) 8
Design an inclusive proposal process Core team Workshop Initial Brain First Validation Final idea storming draft draft 9
Invest – Allocate time and resources The core team (3 – 5 people) needs to be released from their normal duties so the can concentrate on writing a competitive proposal. Probably a total of 8 – 10 weeks for the whole team Resources need to be allocated to have broad internal and external (including core partners) at the two workshops Resources for 1 – 2 writing retreats for the core team might be a good investment 10
Focus on what matters Excellence is a state of mind and a way of doing business Money alone can’t buy you excellence but excellence might buy you money 11
Do's and don'ts (experience from ACE1) Education versus Research ACE aims at producing high quality relevant post graduates. Post graduate education is research based so research in ACE is predominantly student centered. Projects with faculty focused research will not get high scores. Equipment versus Institutional Reforms Equipment is a mean to obtain a goal, not an end goal in it self. Proposals that focus on becoming an excellent equipped center producing an inferior product will not get high scores Problem and Solution The suggested solutions must in a convincing way address the stated problems. 12
Plan backwards: Step 1 – a new end product Start with your vision, what is the characteristics of 2020 prototype graduate from your ACE 13
Step 2 – adjust the production line In order to produce the desired output what adjustments/ changes are needed in the “production line” = curriculum and approach to learning 14
Step 3 – upgrade faculty and system In order to perform the new curriculum and approach to learning what kind of Faculty staff capacitation/upgrading and incentives are required In order to run things in the new way what kind of administrative procedures and learning environment upgrades are required 15
Step 4 – bringing in partners and support In order to achieve all of this which strategic partnerships are required and where is there need for external support to strengthen the in-house capacity 16
Step 5 – legal framework and management Is the current legal framework and management system in sync with the new way of doing business. If not what adjustments are needed 17
Implement forward – Develop a road map You are now more than half they through your proposal preparation, all that remains it to clearly describe how you move from where you are today to where you want to be in 5 years as a Regional Center of Excellence in post graduate education within your field of expertise 18 A B
Implement forward – Holistic approach (1:2) Areas that need do attention • Legal framework • Management structures • Administrative system • Physical environment 19
Implement forward – Holistic approach (2:2) Areas that need do attention • Partnerships • Staff capacity • Learning paradigm • Learning environment 20
Good luck! Comments / Questions? World Bank ACE II Project support: Carl Larsen clarsen@worldbank.org 21
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