NORTHWESTERN-UNIJOS MENTORED PROGRAM FOR ENHANCED RESEARCH ADMINISTRATION (NUMPERA)

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PROJECT SUMMARY The University of Jos has a total of 1,612 academic staff with over 350 engaged in intensive or sponsored researches. In the history of international grant-supported researches in the university, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) have sponsored more projects, yet mostly sub-contracts. Jos has a history of NIH funding, both as prime and as a subaward with the majority of awards being subawards, from Fogarty, NCI, and recently received its funding from National Institutes Allergies of Infectious Diseases (NIAID), the Sequelae of Lasser Fever awarded in 2018 and the West African Centre for Emerging Infectious Diseases (WACEID) awarded in 2020. The University has 15 faculties (colleges/schools): Seven of these are clinical and biomedical sciences and the most active in securing grants locally and internationally. The clinical/biomedical science faculties require vigorous research administrative support to perform maximally. The 8 Faculties spreads through humanities, education, law, physical and earth sciences, engineering, computer sciences, agriculture and social sciences and require support too. The pre- and post-award activities for all faculties at University of Jos are supported by the Office for Research Development (ORD) which is responsible for all grants management activities except for financial management. Financial management is led by one person who supports both University of Jos and Jos University Teaching Hospital. To support these faculties, the lead administrators from ORD and for financial management will be trained in the NIAID/NIH grant funding and management practices and practical experience at Northwestern University Chicago. These trainings will be stepped-down to the ORD staff, mentoring programs developed for junior RAs and fora to enhance faculty members understanding of NIAID/NIH guidelines. The program will deploy enhanced business approaches for ORD to support faculty members in developing successful research grant applications as well as administrative efficiency in managing researches. The NIAID funding will also help reposition the units of the ORD, establish some departmental research offices and train them, develop policies for research operations, institute sustainability of research administration and management. The investment in work tools will enhance the performance of the research office, provide electronic solutions for efficient research enterprise and extend training on the NIAID/NIH grants management policies and funding opportunities to some local research institutions in Nigeria. The expected outcome of this program is an improved system of research administration in UNIJOS, increased NIAID/NIH funding, adherence to grants management policies and positioning the ORD to effectively galvanize and coordinate the institution to a research intensive