Round 4, Track 4: Extensions for Multi-Year Projects Financial Year 2022/2023

BACKGROUND

Funding opportunity description: Makerere University received special funding from the Government of the Republic of Uganda, to support high impact Research and Innovations. The Financial Year 2022/23 is the fourth year of this fund’s availability. The fund illustrates the increasing importance that the Government attaches to Research and Innovation as a driver of socio-economic transformation. The objective of the fund is to increase the local generation of translatable research and scalable innovations that address key gaps required to drive Uganda’s development agenda. The fund is therefore aimed at complementing available funding to address unfunded priorities critical to accelerating development. Over the last three Financial Years (2019-20 and 2020-21 and 2021-22), government appropriated 89 Billion Uganda Shillings. Between the three years, MakRIF has funded a total of 775 projects across all sectors critical for development. In the current Financial Year (2022/23), Makerere University expects to receive about 30 Billion Uganda shillings (about US$ 8,100,000) under the Government Research and Innovation Fund (RIF). Of this, at least 25 Billion Shillings will fund new ideas that respond to a widely consultative Research Agenda focused on national priorities while the rest will fund extension of multi-year projects, needs based projects, PhD research projects and commercialization/scaling of prior funded projects. The Makerere University Research and Innovation Grants Management Committee (GMC) therefore announces the RIF Round 4, Track 4 (Extensions for Multi-Year Projects Grants). Available funds are obligated for the Financial Year 2022/2023, with an expectation of actionable results that speak to the National Research and Innovation Agenda. The GMC therefore invites applications with original ideas that demonstrate a clear link to key thematic areas of the National Research and Innovation Agenda. 

This funding call is specifically targeted to multi-year projects awarded under RIF-1,2, and 3 seeking extension funding. The Grants Management Committee announces a special round of awards targeted to support the extension of previously awarded projects that indicated a need for multi-year funding. This is a closed call and you have been contacted because during your application for which you were awarded an earlier RIF Grants, you indicated that your project was multi-year.

Grant amounts and estimated number of awards: The GMC estimates to award the following number and amount of extension funding grants based on RIF-1 categorizations (These are proportionate to the percentage of awardees in each category during RIF1):

Applicants should note the following:

• A multi-year applicant can only apply for funds within the funding category for which they were awarded in the Phase 1 funding. For this application, categories 2 and 3 have been combined into one category
• The amounts indicated for this award are only estimates and the GMC retains the discretion to determine the amount and number of awards based on the actual funding that government/MakRIF funders will make available. 

Eligibility

The extension grants will only be open to RIF-1,2,3 awarded projects that indicated a multi-year implementation span during their application, and projects that have received prior Extension funding not more than 2 times. Only the PIs of these projects are eligible to apply. Eligibility for extension funding will not be automatic and the GMC is not under obligation to provide extension funding to all multi-year projects. Selection for extension funding will be governed by performance in the previous award and availability of funds. Therefore, in addition to the multi-year specification, eligibility for the new grants will be based on the following criteria:

1. During the application process for Phase 1 funding, applicants were asked to indicate the specific objectives, deliverables and anticipated impacts for Year 1. Applicants of multi-year projects were expressly informed that although their project required multiple years for full implementation, the available funding for the previous award was given for only one year. In line with this, all applicants for the extension funding should have completed and closed out Phase 1 of their project (or any follow-on extension funding phases) by the time of the selection process for this new extension awards, as evidenced by the submission of a full close-out report.
2. Demonstration that the objectives that were funded during Phase 1 (or any follow-on extension funding phases) were realized as well as the expected deliverables and intermediate outcomes expected for the Phase. This will be cross-checked from the information submitted close-out reports
3. A clear demonstration of what is planned for the next phase of funding, with clear objectives, activities, outputs and outcomes. This will be assessed in the new extension funding request that the PI submits.
4. Applicants for the extension funding should not have any balance of funds unaccounted for from the previous award. This will be cross-checked by the GMC at the time of the final selections.

Only PIs that led the respective multi-year projects are eligible to apply. A PI cannot therefore substitute the leadership of their project by appointing another PI in her/his place unless under the approval of the GMC.

GRANT GUIDELINES

Multi-year applicants will submit a competitive proposal for the available funding. The short proposal builds on what was implemented during the Phase 1 funding (or any follow-on extension funding phases) and shows what you intend to do during the new phase of the project. The proposal ought to specify the objectives for the new Phase of extension funding applied for as well as the intended deliverables/outputs, outcomes and impacts. Specifically, the proposal will address the following areas as guided by the application form:

The research problem: The research problem for your project was already articulated during the Phase 1 award. However, in the extension request, you can edit it if you want to align it to the objectives of the new phase of requested funding.

The proposed solution: Researchers should present the proposed solution of focus for the new phase of extension funding. This could be a new dimension to the study or an aspect that builds on what was accomplished in Phase 1 (or any prior follow-on extension funding phases). This subsection should be written afresh, to reflect the novelty of the ideas to be implemented in the new phase of extension funding. However, it should reflect how the proposed solution builds on the previous Phase(s) solution.

In the details of this section of the proposal, researchers will articulate the objectives of the planned research and the proposed solutions specific to the extension funding period. Researchers should also describe the critical content of the solution (i.e., the ‘research methodology’ for projects that are primarily research, or the ‘technical approach’ for projects that are innovation based, or the content of the planned enhancement for projects targeting R&I ecosystem enhancement). Researchers/innovators should also demonstrate that the research is feasible and will result in tangible results within one (1) year of implementation of the extension activities. Research projects that require  additional multi-year implementation beyond the current extension award will only be considered if they can show actionable intermediate results attainable within 1 implementation year of the current extension period for which they are applying. 

Apart from a summary of the proposed approach, researchers will provide a more detailed description of their technical approach to enable a robust assessment of the rigor of the proposed methodology. For research-based projects, researchers should describe clearly but concisely the methods proposed, demonstrating scientific merit and rigor, as well as alignment to what was attained in the previous phases of implementation. For innovation-based projects, researchers should describe concisely the design approach to be used and the stage of the solution proposed, again with alignment to previous funding. For R&I ecosystem enhancement-based projects, a description of the content of the enhancement (e.g., Establishment of  field labs, specialized training activities or specialized equipment to be procured, its installation, specialized training in its use) should be provided. (Note: Training in basic research skills or procuring simple routine equipment shall not be considered unless it is part of a holistic system upgrade).

Outputs, outcomes and impact: Because this is a new phase of the project with stated specific objectives for the phase, researchers should articulate the output, outcomes and anticipated impact of the project in the extension period. They should state the primary (Direct) and secondary (Indirect) beneficiaries of the new phase of the project. State the anticipated outputs (the immediate outputs of the activities of the new project phase) and the outcomes (the outcomes of achieving the results of the new project phase). State the anticipated impact of the new phase of the project (Note: Impact might not be achievable in one or even a few years in which case the current phase only contributes to it). Since this funding is specific to the current financial year, projects must demonstrate clearly the deliverables they expect within one year, matching the level of investment made and attainable in the 1-year timeframe. Being a multi-year project, your project might require funding for an added year – however, for this application, focus on what is to be attained over the current extension period of 1 year. Needs for future subsequent extensions will be presented when future opportunities arise in the coming financial year.

Translation and dissemination for impact: This plan was articulated in your previous proposal. However, researchers can update the information in the section to align it with the new deliverables for Phase 2. In updating this section, researchers should also describe how the findings from the new phase are expected to impact on policy and programs, the scalability of the results (tangible products, services, policy proposals or capacity enhancements that may reach scale either in the public domain or the private sector.

Ethical implications: The implications of the research to human subjects, animal subjects and the environment were articulated in the Phase 1 proposal. Researchers may update this information if new ethical/environmental issues arise in Phase 2.

Budget: Researchers will prepare a summary budget for the new phase of their project as well as a detailed budget. Budgets should be submitted in the official currency (Uganda Shillings).  Because these are university funds, academic units (Departments, Schools and Colleges) will not charge institutional overheads to any of the research funds. Budgets should not spread beyond one Financial Year. Even if the projects to be funded under this mechanism are multi-year, researchers should provide a budget for only one Financial Year. The budgets will include the following sections:

1.0 Personnel costs

2.0 Travel

3.0 Supplies and services

4.0 Equipment

5.0 Program activity costs

6.0 Dissemination

Under Personnel costs, applicants should not budget for ‘Salaries’ for staff who are paid a salary by Makerere University or another Government of Uganda institution (whether on permanent or contract terms) as this would constitute double payment from government funds. However, such researchers can budget for ‘activity-based’ time input or ‘level-of-effort-based’ costs for their additional time input into the project. The latter should be justified by specifying the extra-time demands from the project for each individual involved. 

Researchers can budget for salaries for critical project staff that are not paid by Makerere or the Government of Uganda e.g., Project Coordinators, Administrative Assistants, Research Officers etc. Regular Personnel costs excluding field research assistants should not exceed 33% of the budget. Field research assistants (or Data collectors) if needed should not be included under ‘Personnel costs’ but should instead be included under ‘Program Activity Costs’. All salaries and all repetitive allowances will be subject to mandatory statutory deductions at source, to pay the relevant taxes. 

In addition to the summary budget, research teams will be required to attach a detailed budget (As an MS Excel attachment) that breaks down all expenditure line items, inclusive of a budget justification that explains the rationale behind the different budget items. The total budget in the budget summary should exactly match that in the detailed breakdown. You should budget within the category that your project was funded in RIF-1. Budgeting in another category will lead to disqualification. The total budget should not exceed the highest amount indicated for the respective funding category in which your project lies. Exceeding the indicated category maximum can result in disqualification.

Workplan: Researchers will provide a list of key milestones for the project clearly demonstrating the deliverables expected at each point during the extension phase of the project. These milestones will be used as the basis for tracking implementation of activities towards project goals and outputs. Given the one-year time-frame for the awards, it will be important that researchers commit to a clear time-bound set of deliverables all achievable within one year for the main deliverable targeted during the current period of funding. Failure to articulate a one (1) year plan will imply inability to utilize the grant funds within one (1) year.

GRANT PROCESS

Submission of applications: Submission of the applications will be online at http://rif.mak.ac.ug/multi-year.  All submissions must be online and must be made within the stipulated period. To access the application form, the PI will be required to sign into their MakRIF account. In your account, select ‘Extension Funding’ which will lead you to the current call. This feature will only be available for projects that indicated a multi-year status during their RIF-1 application. Once in, an abridged version of the application form will be accessible for you to fill. Fields that are required as original content will be blank, Fields that build on what was previously submitted will already have the previous text from your project available. You can then edit accordingly.

Rules governing applications: All applications should be written in English. All applications should be submitted via the online portal mentioned above. Complete applications must be submitted not later than 11.59pm East African Time on the closing date. No submissions after closure of applications will be accepted. Any attempt at solicitation of acceptance beyond this date will not be entertained. The Grants Committee bears no responsibility for submissions that are not completed in time and incomplete submissions will not be considered. If none of the submitted applications meets the requires to receive a grant, the call may be reopened at the sole discretion of the Grants Management Committee. An individual researcher should not submit more than ONE application as a principal investigator. However, it is allowable for a PI on a submitted project to be a team member on up to two other submitted projects.

Participants agree to assume any and all risks, and to waive claims against Makerere University and the Grants Management Committee for any injury, death, damage, or loss of property, revenue, or profits, whether direct, indirect, or consequential, arising from their participation in this grant implementation. All awards are subject to availability of funds.

Evaluation and selection of projects: Applications will be reviewed by the GMC. Submission of an application does not mean the project must be funded. The GMC will evaluate three main aspects of the project:

1. The attainment of planned activities, outputs and outcomes of the previous phase of the project with clear deliverables and potential for scaled impact. This information will be obtained from the close-out report for the previous Phase. 
2. No arrears of un-submitted accountabilities from the previous period
3. Quality of the current proposal in terms of the relevance and innovativeness of the proposed solution for the extension period, the articulation of a sound methodology, tangible deliverable and potential for impact

Notification of successful applicants: Successful applicants will be informed by email to their designated point of contact.

Grant timeline:

To submit an application, login to http://rif.mak.ac.ug/portal, select one of your multi year projects that has been completed and fill out the application form.