ACE PROPOSAL
PREPARATION GUIDELINES
NUC WORKSHOP FOR NIGERIAN
UNIVERSITIES ON THE WORLD BANK-
SUPPORTED AFRICAN CENTRES OF
EXCELLENCE PROJECT
16 th JULY 2013
M. T. Usman

ACEs will be competitively selected and charged with the responsibility to promote regional specialization among participating universities in areas that address regional challenges and strengthen the capacities of these universities to deliver quality training and applied research

Beneficiaries of demand-driven regional services

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•
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TECHNICAL EVALUATION
Potential for regional development impact
Potential for excellence
Sustainability
Social responsibility
Quality and consistency
TOTAL
25
25
10
5
5
70

On-Site and leadership evaluation Marks
Institutional leadership and vision (based upon interview of the head of the institution, chair of the board and existing institutional strategic document)
5
Center leadership and administrative capacity (based upon interview with the proposed center leader and review of existing and planned administrative capacity)
5
Institutional ownership of proposal as evident from faculty and student awareness and inclusion
5
Government involvement to support the institutional proposal and alignment to strategy
5
Consistency between the submitted proposal and the reality on the ground as observed by the visit evaluation team
5
Financial management and procurement track record and capacity 5
Total 30

The qualifying universities (within their specialized topic and knowledge, and focusing on regional development challenges), will specifically:
 Strengthen post-graduate programs for a regional student body;
 Offer specialized courses for industry professionals in the region;
 Establish a regional faculty body, improve their faculty and attract additional top-level faculty;
 Provide learning resources, labs and minor rehabilitation of existing facilities;

The qualifying universities (within their specialized topic and knowledge, and focusing on regional development challenges), will specifically:
 Establish linkages with companies, government agencies, and research centres for workplace learning, input into curricula, consultancies and joint research; and
 Collaborate with partner institutions as a means of sharing the benefits of the investments. For instance, sharing through training of faculty, sharing of curricula and sharing of learning resources.

 Number of Local and International students in new PG programmes or short courses.
 Percentage of females in these programmes
 Number of Internationally accredited programmes
 Number of students/faculty with at least one month internship in Industry
 Quantum of externally generated revenue through the programmes
 New collaborations with regional and international institutions
 Number and depth of collaborations with industry

ACE- Ts & Cs for Winning Proposals
 Proposals must tie into national development priorities and to extant policies and guidelines in the sector to show how the
ACE will contribute to national development.
A history of working relationship(s) with relevant MDAs in the field of interest is a strength that should be emphasised.
Indications of how these will be utilised to support proposed research and training programmes would be boosters.

ACE- Ts & Cs for Winning Proposals
 Proposals must tie into subregional and continental development priorities to show that they can contribute to the larger aspirations of the continent.
A tie-in into the goals of the ECOWAS strategy for Higher Education development and of the AUC as enshrined in the second decade of education for Africa, the AU-
CAPST, etc.

ACE- Ts & Cs for Winning Proposals
 Proposals must have linkages with industry to demonstrate relevance of training and research programmes to industrial growth and consequently, job creation and poverty alleviation
Existing linkages with relevant industry players should be emphasised. Where none exist, evidence of plans to initiate new linkages (e.g. for internships) and how they will help achieve PDOs should be stated and supported with documentation.

ACE- Ts & Cs for Winning Proposals
 Proposals must show strong existing academic collaborations and how these will be utilised to enhance quality postgraduate training and research competencies
Proposals are required to be;
 inter-disciplinary
The bigger the resource pool,
 multi-departmental the better.
 multi-institutional
 International
 multi-lingual (bridge the anglophone – francophone bridge) – the NUC is available to facilitate links where necessary

Country
Ghana
Senegal
Togo
Benin
Cameroon
Burkina
Faso
Ministry in charge of
Higher
Education
National
Commission for Tertiary
Education,
NCTE
MoHE
MoHE
MoHE
MoHE
MoHE
Focal Point from
Govt/MoHE/National
University Commission
Prof Mahama, Executive
Secretary
Email Address mahama_duwiejua@yahoo.com
Oumar SOCK Professeur titulaire des Universit és,
Classe exceptionnelle Directeur
General de l'Enseignement
Superieur/Senegal
Prof Koffi Mawunyo
Agbenonto Secretary
General
Martin Ogoussan Deputy
Director of Planning and
Prospective
Marcel Fouda (Advisor to the Minister of Higher
Education)
OUIMINGA Salifou
K Directeur Recherche et
Coop
ération Universitaire oumarsock@yahoo.fr
rectorat@univ-zig.fr
mlaurenta@yahoo.fr
ogoussanmartin@yahoo.fr
marcel.fouda@yahoo.fr
salifou_ouiminga@univouaga.bf
Salif0477@yahoo.com

ACE- Ts & Cs for Winning Proposals
 Proposals must demonstrate existence of requisite learning and research resources in staffing and equipment.
Emphasis on the acquisition of new heavy equipment will be a big minus
 Proposals should flaunt the credentials of interdisciplinary teams of experts
 Proposals should flaunt state-of-the-art equipment
 Proposals should flaunt high-impact journal articles and other publications in the area.

ACE- Ts & Cs for Winning Proposals
 Proposals must demonstrate institutional capability and readiness to sustain proposed training and research programmes
 Include evidence of previous institutional sustenance of development-partner-supported activities
 Include evidence of counterpart funding of such activities if any
 Show plan/readiness to utilise existing funding opportunities to sustain project

ACE- Ts & Cs for Winning Proposals
 Proposals must be socially and environmentally responsible, e.g. be gender-inclusive in the implementation of outreach activities
 Include plans for social inclusiveness through; direct and indirect benefits to the poor and the disabled, (gender) affirmative action, etc
 Show adherence to environmental guidelines (applicable laws & guidelines, World Bank safeguards)

ACE- Ts & Cs for Winning Proposals
 Proposals must demonstrate consistency with institutional strategic plan
 Show aspects of current institutional plan that the project ties into. Where a current plan is not in place, show links to old plan(s) and to institutional statutes/laws and provide evidence of ongoing activities to review the plan, if any

ACE- Ts & Cs for Winning Proposals
 Proposals must demonstrate institutional leadership commitment. A statement of which should be part of the submission
 A Vice Chancellor’s statement of commitment to support the proposal is a big plus. The VCs are to be interviewed as part of a verification process to ascertain this level of engagement

ACE- Ts & Cs for Winning Proposals
 Competing institutions should ensure project awareness campaigns are conducted on their campuses to secure buy-in and cooperation during institutional evaluation
 Members of the University community will be interviewed to gauge awareness levels. This will form part of the assessment of the level of institutional readiness

 Introduction of new or enhancement of existing curricula
 Postgraduate programmes
 Short courses
 In-service
 Skills acquisition
 Through
 Curricula development workshops
 Hosting of Professors/industry experts
 Development/Acquisition of content and/or LMS
 Facilitation of access to partner contents

 Limited refurbishment of facilities
 Opportunity for demonstrating counterpart funding capabilities
 Leverage ICT to promote extensive collaboration while limiting travel costs
 Opportunity to illustrate the complementarity of the NgREN project and institutional ICT investments
 Opportunities for Staff exchange with local and international partners
(institutions/industry)

 Organisation of, and/or participation in, training workshops/seminars/conferences
 Plan to attend others’ events but plan to host too to underscore peer acceptability
 Opportunities for Staff exchange with local and international partners
(institutions/industry)
 Plan to activate existing MoUs or pursue new ones
 Propose knowledge transfer partnerships with industry

 Development of research activities as bases for;
 Collaboration
 short-term training visits or fieldwork
 PG and PostDoc scholarships
 Provision of Research internships
 industry-based internships
 Publication of research findings
 Target top-tier journals
 Link to existing citations credited to ACE Team members

 Outreach activities
 Communication
 Community engagement
 Local and international Staff and student recruitment drives
 Coordination of collaboration between partners
 Emphasise use of ICT infrastructure for easy and less costly coordination
 Language services
 Propose complementary roles for all partners