EXPERIENCE OF MANAGING RESEARCH FUNDS PAPER PRESENTED AT A SYMPOSIUM ON RESEARCH FUND MANAGEMENT BY OLUFEMI Oluwatoyin Abike 31st October, 2017

INTRODUCTION There is a University Research Committee (URC) that is in charge of coordinating research activities within the University. All research grants i.e. internal grants, external grants and consultancy is accepted and approved by the Vice-Chancellor or his representative. The source of funds for internal research is from the Federal allocation, that for external research is from external/foreign donors and that of consultancy could be internal or external. The Bursary Department of Obafemi Awolowo University is in charge of managing financial transactions /disbursement of Research Funds (both Internal and External) on behalf of the University and Researchers. The division of Grants and Agency is dedicated for the processing of research grants and it operates like a subsystem.

DEFINITIONS RESEARCH - Systematic investigation or experimentation aimed at discovery and interpretation of facts. - Revision of accepted theories or laws in the light of new facts. MANAGER - A Person in charge of a group of tasks or a certain subset of a company. - A person who possess the skill in managing resources. FUND MANAGER - A person responsible for implementing a fund’s investing strategy and managing it’s portfolio trading activities. ROLE OF FUND MANAGER – Managing the funds investments and ensuring that the fund’s strategy is aligned with it’s goals.

PROCEDURE OF OPERATION OF EXTERNAL RESEARCH FUNDS Acceptance of Grant Submit letter of transfer of funds, M.O.U. & specimen signature Grants to carry out all necessary documentation Principal Investigator (PI) is to raise necessary vouchers with supporting documents for payments Vouchers raised are forwarded to Internal Audit for verification Queried vouchers are sent back to PI, while vouchers not queried are processed further for payments Payments from the account is authorized by the PI

PROCEDURE OF OPERATION OF INTERNAL RESEARCH FUNDS Researcher prepares proposals through their departments to the University Research Committee for consideration and approval. Committee meets to consider and approve or reject proposal Approved proposal may be granted a global amount not necessarily the requested amount. Approval is communicated to the researcher with a requirement to complete a contract agreement (a bond). When bond is completed, Grants division is notified. Grants to carry out all necessary documentation. Researcher can assess the fund. Payments from the account is authorized by the Project Leader

PROCEDURE OF OPERATION OF CONSULTANCY The procedure is similar to that of external research, that is, making contract proposal and subsequent funding. The financial aspect is broken into two: - Operational Expenses (i.e. cost of consultancy field work) - Consultancy charges/fee due to consultant

PRACTICAL EXPERIENCES CARNEGIE BILL AND MELINDA CARTA AFRICA CENTRE OF EXCELLENCE

CHALLENGES Treasury Single Account (TSA) Federal Government Allocation to Internal Research Administrative charge

WAY FORWARD The Bursary Department is looking into solving the issue of TSA by creating a grants account under the University TSA. The URC is to look into alternative sources of funds for the operation of the committee The University should look into coming up with a sharing formula for the administrative charge accrue from external grants

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