The World Bank, Africa Region
Africa Centers of Excellence
Proposal Submission Form
Please complete the Form (electronically), taking into account the Africa Centers of Excellence
(ACE) Project description and evaluation criteria.
The maximum page limit is 40____
This proposal template consists of 13 sections:
1.
Basic Institutional and Proposal Information, including a half page summary of the proposal
2.
SWOT Analysis of the Proposal
3.
Development Challenge to be addressed by the Center of Excellence and ACE
Objectives
4.
The Results of the ACE
5.
ACE Actions Plans for each core activity:
5.2
Learning excellence
5.2 Research excellence
5.3
Equity dimensions
5.4
Attracting regional students and faculty
5.5
Regional and national academic partners
5.6
Regional and national sector partners
5.7
International partners
5.8 Management and governance
5.9 Sustainable financing
6 Use of Existing Physical Resources
7 Faculty Resources and Training
8 Implementation Capacity, Arrangements and Plans
9 Implementation Plan of Each Action Plan
10 Main Costs of the Proposal
11 Risks
12 Additional Information
13 Agreements with Key People
Attachments:

Strategic Plan

Curriculum Vitae of key personnel: o The proposed Center and Institutional Leader o The 2-4 Principal teaching and researcher members

Letters of Supports: o From regional and national partners o From companies and knowledge partners involved in the sector o From international universities and institutions

List of other large projects to be implemented by the institutions over the 2013-2016 period including total cost of projects in $USD

External auditor reports for the last two fiscal years
1

Section 1: Basic Institutional and Proposal information
Originating Institution (s):
Center of Excellence Name (and acronym):
Total Amount Requested (US$):
Co-Financing from other sources both cash and in-kind contributions (including core funding) (US$):
Main Departments involved in the Center
Contact Details
Position
Head of Institution
Name Address Office Phone Mobile
Proposed Center
Leader
Deputy Center
Leader/Principal investigator
Basic Institutional Information (this institutional data should include data from the last 5 years):
Main Departments participating in the center of excellence
Name of
Department
No. of
Faculty ( Full time equivalent)
Non-
National
Faculty Qualifications
PhD
(% of total)
Master
(% of total)
Bachelor and below
(% of total)
Total
2
Email
No. of Students
Female
(% of total)
Non-national
(% of total)

Academic Programs offered for 2013/14 relevant to the Center of Excellence:
No.
Title of
Programme
Level (Bachelor,
Master or PhD)
Duration
(Years)
Enrolment
2013/14
(all classes)
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Note: add rows as required.
Institutional budget (in national and international (where applicable) currency):
No. of
Graduates
2012/13
Program Accreditation
(Yes/No)
Total budget government subvention
Tuition and other student fees
Revenue from consultancies*
Other revenue (if large include source; include international funding for both education and research projects/programs with from international partners)
Note: include the budget year
* Only consultancy revenue that is available for the institution (audited)
3
Last Year of
Accreditation

Section 2 SWOT Analysis of the Proposal.
Briefly provide a SWOT analysis of the proposal using on the table below:
Strengths Weaknesses
Opportunities Strategic question: which opportunities can be explored through the strengths of the institute?
Threats Strategic question: how can the institute/center use its strengths to reduce its vulnerabilities?
Strategic question: which opportunities may help overcome weaknesses?
Strategic question: to which threats is the institute/center particularly vulnerable and how can the center overcome these?
Guidance: The strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats that arise from internal and external sources: government policies, industry needs, international best practices. This should be an analysis at the institutional level (lead institution).
4

Section 3 Development Challenge and Center-of-Excellence Objectives
.
1.
Briefly state the development challenge that the proposal is designed to address in your institution.
Guidance: Describe the importance of the development problem
2.
Describe how this proposal if funded would contribute to addressing the development challenge
Guidance: In the description kindly keep in mind expected results from the project, notably describe how graduates, applied research and outreach/collaboration proposed will address the development challenge
3.
Describe the role of partner institutions in successfully addressing the development challenge, jointly with and under the guidance of your own institution
4.
Describe existing similar centers of excellence in your country or in neighboring countries with the same objective (if any)
Guidance: Describe (i) initiatives by other higher education institutions in West or
Central Africa that train and perform research within the proposed areas and (ii) to which degree are these institutions part of the proposal?
5.
Describe how your Center’s proposal fits into (i) your Institution’s overall Strategic Plan,
(ii) your overarching/parent institution’s Strategic Plan and (iii) your country’s or regional organization’s Strategic Plan (attach Strategic Plans if and when appropriate).
5

Section 4: The Results of the Center of Excellence
Guidance: Please provide the full results framework with a specific focus on PDO indicators (see the Project Appraisal Document [PAD] and its Project
Development Objectives [PDOs], as well as its ‘Results Framework’). Insert annual targets and milestones. All proposed activities should align to this.
Objective Indicator Annual Targets (2014) Annual Targets (2015) Annual Targets (2016) Annual Targets (2017)
1.Strengthen N# of new students
Baseline(2012) Baseline
(2013)
Education
Capacity excellence – quality and productivity in ACE courses
(30% must be regional students*):

New PhD students

New Master students

New short term (min. 40 hours)

No of regional students
2.Strengthen
Education
Capacity &
Development
Impact
No. of Students and/faculty with at least 1 month internship in a private sector company or a local institutions relevant to their field/ sector
6

3.Strengthen
Research
Capacity excellence – quality and productivity
No. of internationally accredited education programs including subregional accreditation
Increase of internationally recognized research publications in disciplines supported by the
ACE-Program
4.Strengthen education and research capacity
(through increased financial sustainability) and demonstration
Amount of externally1generate d revenue by the
ACEs2
1 External revenue could include funds from the private sector or any of the ACE´s Partner Institutions, governments etc. – however, would exclude governmental subsidies.
2 The externally generated revenue would need to be certified as part of the financial audit (see also Indicator No. 12) .
7

of value to students and partners
8

Section 5: Center of Excellence Action Plans (Limited to 18 pages in total – 2 pages maximum per action plan)
Guidance: Develop, for each action plan, key activities that will be undertaken during the project, their purposes, and the ways in which they will interact (based on your institution´s results framework for this proposal). This should include, for instance, a description of new courses and electives to be offered as part of the Centers of Excellence; the credentials, role, and length of stay of any visiting professors or technical experts; the contribution of any visiting professors; use of any requested pedagogic and library materials; and the role and expected use of any laboratory equipment requested.
5.1 ACE Action Plan to achieve Learning Excellence (Maximum 2 pages for this section)
Guidance: Describe key activities that are needed for achieving learning excellence. These include offering new master programs, new electives, short term courses for industry and government professionals, finishing courses, new and innovative ‘teaching & learning’ approaches (e.g. team-based learning) and/or methods, revising curricula (both the content (what they learn) and the context (how they learn), institution and/or program accreditation, investment into new labs, purchase of learning equipment, and minor rehabilitation of existing facilities, upgrading of faculty, amongst others. Please include the use of ICT in delivering Learning
Excellence
Describe briefly which Objectives and Results this action plan will contribute towards:
Describe in detail what this action plan entails:
9

5.2
ACE Action Plan for Research Excellence (Maximum 2 pages for this section)
Guidance: Describe key activities that are needed for achieving research excellence. These include scaling-up PhD programs, industry and/or international research collaboration, joint research programs, purchase of research equipment, faculty development, research grant pools, incentives based on achievement such as publications in highly ranked journals, and field studies, amongst others. (Note incentives do not have to include direct monetary benefits, but can include study abroad, research visits and other non-salary incentives). Please include the use of ICT in delivering Research Excellence
Describe briefly which Objectives and Results this action plan will contribute towards:
Describe in detail what this action plan entails:
10

5.3 ACE Action Plan regarding Equity Dimensions (Maximum 2 pages for this section)
Guidance: Describe key activities that are needed to ensure an equitable distribution of excellent and high-quality teaching & learning and research efforts among qualified national and subregional academic partner institutions. Include the leading role of the ACE to ensure broadbased scientific capacity-building across the country and possibly sub-regionally, preventing isolated academic ivory-tower excellence, ensuring social relevance and enhancing as wide a joint scientific constituency as possible.
Describe briefly which Results this Action Plan will contribute towards:
Describe in some detail what this action plan entails, either comprehensively across sectors and academic disciplines, or individually per sector and academic discipline, or by scientific topic selected:
11

5.4 ACE Action plan for attracting Regional Faculty and Students (Maximum 2 pages for this section)
Guidance: Describe key activities that are planned to attract regional faculty and students. These include information outreach/marketing to potential students, faculty and researchers from around the region, potential student, faculty and researchers flows from academic partner institutions in the region, partnership agreements with companies (regarding both R&D relevant to the companies concerned and targeted education for graduate needs of the companies concerned), sector organizations, and governments for short term training of working professionals, etc. This section could also describe the activities planned to facilitate broad regional student attendance, such as language support and support for relocating, as well as institutionalized faculty exchange or regional research projects. Similarly out-reach programs to strengthen academic partner institutions in more remote areas or neighboring countries may be included here.
Describe briefly which Objectives and Results this action plan will contribute towards:
Describe in detail what this action plan entails:
12

5.5
ACE Action Plan for Regional and National Academic partners (Maximum 2 pages for this section)
Guidance: Describe key activities that would engage with and contribute to enhanced learning and teaching performance and research performance in national academic partner institutions
(specific national academic partners – e.g. by discipline or specific inter-disciplinary orientation), as well as , where suitable, regional academic, scientific or professional partner institutions (e.g. in neighboring countries).
Describe briefly which Objectives and Results this action plan will contribute towards:
Describe in detail what this action plan entails:
13

5.6 ACE Action Plan for Regional and National Sector Partners (Maximum 2 pages for this section)
Guidance: Describe key activities that would engage with and contribute to enhanced learning and teaching performance, and research performance, in national sector partner institutions
(specific national academic or research sector partners – e.g. by sector or specific inter-sectoral orientation, such as national agricultural research institutes or national medical research institutes that may not be directly affiliated with an academic or university establishment), as well as, where suitable, regional academic, scientific or professional sector partner institutions (e.g. in neighboring countries). This also includes collaboration with line ministries.
Describe briefly which Objectives and Results this action plan will contribute towards:
Describe in detail what this action plan entails:
14

5.6
ACE Action Plan for Collaboration with International Partners (Maximum 2 pages for
this section)
Guidance: Describe key activities envisaged to ensure close collaboration with high-quality international partners. These include both short-term and long-term faculty exchange and joint research projects and scientific publications between the ACE and universities and research institutions elsewhere in Africa and in other continents worldwide.
Describe briefly which Objectives and Results this action plan will contribute towards:
Describe in detail what this action plan entails:
15

5.8 ACE Action Plan for Management and Governance (Maximum 2 pages for this section)
Guidance: Describe key measures, structures and activities (to be) undertaken to ensure that academic governance remains free from political or ‘special interest’ influence (e.g. regarding academic appointments) and allows the pursuit of both learning & teaching and research in as free an academic and scientific environment as possible. In addition, describe management activities designed to enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of teaching and research performance, including the enabling environment for both. Please include the use of ICT management and governance of the grant.
Describe briefly which Objectives and Results this action plan will contribute towards:
Describe in detail what this action plan entails:
16

5.9 ACE Action plan for Sustainable Financing (Maximum 2 pages for this section)
Guidance: Describe key activities that are needed to ensure sustainable financing. These include core financing, tuition for popular professional development courses, research consulting fees, funding for joint international research projects and programs, fundraising and donations.
Describe briefly which Objectives and Results this action plan will contribute towards:
Describe in detail what this action plan entails:
17

Section 6: Use of Existing Physical Resources
List existing, relevant, major resources in your department, unit or institution that will be used in the project. These may include special equipment, existing labs, library collections or journal subscriptions, available human resources from other departments (including administration, financial management and procurement), etc. These will be important for judging the proposal’s potential contribution to efficiency improvement.
Resource Currently used for and by Proposed Project Use
18

Section 7: Faculty Resources, Capacity Building and Visiting/Industry Faculty Plan
First, please summarize the main existing faculty expertise that the Center of Excellence will use and further built upon to provide up-to-date high quality teaching to students and conduct novel applied research (Reference could be made to the CVs attached).
Second, please list in summary form, the main areas for faculty development/training of existing staff, planned use and benefit of visiting faculty from within the region and from international collaboration as well as use of industry faculty to teach. (Relate these to the relevant action plans in Section 5).
Type of faculty
(existing, visiting, new, industry etc.)
Area of expertise Comment (benefits)
Note: Add lines as needed
19

Section 8: Implementation Capacity, Arrangements and Plans
1. Describe the overall implementation capacity and arrangements set up to implement this proposal.
Guidance: Describe which colleges/academic departments will be involved in the operations of the Center of Excellence, how will the coordination be managed, and specifically who will be in charge of the center. (ii) Describe actions, if needed, to ensure adequate capacity, including necessary hires, systems, purchases, policy changes, or training programs.
2. Academic management
Guidance: Describe how academic quality will be ensured in research and teaching. Will the university’s existing policies apply to the center? Will existing university offices have a monitoring function? Specifically which offices and which functions will be involved?
3 Administration, including financial, procurement, and environmental aspects
Specific questions on Financial Management include: a) Provide the qualifications and experience in accounting of the staff who will account for the Centers of Excellence (CoE) funds. b) Provide the audited accounts and management letters for the last two years of the institution
Specific questions on Procurement include: a) Provide the qualifications and experience of the procurement staff (procurement officers, head of procurement departments and other responsible designated officials) who will process purchases for the proposed center of excellence b) Please provide a typical example of a recent challenge in procurement at your institution (for example how bottlenecks are overcome, how timelines in procurement are adhered to, how technical requirements are prepared, if an outside technical consultant is used, how laboratory equipment is purchased, etc)
Guidance: How will the administration of the center be undertaken? Will the university’s general administrative policies apply to the center? Will the center management have the necessary fiduciary capacity in terms of staffing and in terms of knowledge, including financial management, procurement and environmental capacity? Summarize prior experiences with donor-funded projects to the extent relevant.
20

Section 9: Implementation Plan of each ACE Action plan
Description of Activities
1 st
Qtr
Year 1
2 nd Qtr. 3 rd
Qtr.
Example:
Start of short term training programs of faculty of nursing schools in emergency obstetrics
Example: Start of new electives
/courses in petroleum engineering
Program design and outreach
Curriculum design and visiting faculty
Cont.
Lab and equipment procurement
4 th
Qtr.
1 st
Qtr
Start of one week course one week course
Cont. Installation Offering to3rd year students
2 nd
Qtr.
Year 2
3 rd
Qtr. one week course
Cont. 2 PhDs enrolled in the new area
4 th
Qtr.
1 st
Qtr one week course
2 nd
Qtr.
Year 3
3 rd
Qtr. one week course
Offering to 3rd year students and start of new
Master program
Cont. In-service program for prof. engineers
4 th
Qtr.
21

Section 10: Main Costs of the Proposal
Provide an indicative list all major budget items above US$ 200,000 along with a statement of their purpose and a teaching, learning, or management related justification for their inclusion in the proposal. One budget item could be a grouping of a number of separate items. For instance, installation of a hydrology lab, modernization of soil testing lab, or costs from international collaboration with X university, including travel, visiting faculty, short term PhD travel scholarship, etc., or costs from academic and research partnership with Y.
Add additional lines as needed.
Action Plan
List major Items/group of items that are required to carry out each action plan in Section 5
Estimated Cost
US$
1.
Total
2.
Dollar equivalent of national currency total
3.
Total value of Proposal budget in US Dollars
Note: The total dollar value of the proposal should be inserted in the appropriate space at the top of page 1. Approved expenditures in national currency will be disbursed to ACE account in the tertiary institution.
Section 11: Risks (Maximum ½ page)
Guidance: Describe risks to the successful implementation of the center of excellence and steps that will be taken to mitigate these risks. Note: this differs to a SWOT analysis in that the SWOT analysis is focused on the institutional level, while the risk analysis is focused on the level of the center of excellence.
22

Section 12: Additional Information Relevant to the Evaluation of this Proposal (Maximum one page)
Please provide any additional information that was not covered previously and that is of importance for the evaluation of this proposal.
23

Section 13: Agreement of Key Members of the Proposal Implementation Team to
Collaborate
Chairman of the Governing Body
Head of Institution
Proposed Center Leader
Head of main departments/colleges involved
We the undersigned Project Participants have agreed to collaborate on this Project
____________________________________________________________
Name and Role Signature: Date:
_____________________________________________________________
Name and Role Signature: Date:
_____________________________________________________________
Name and Role Signature: Date:
_____________________________________________________________
Name and Role Signature: Date:
24

Attachments:

Strategic Plan, including table with basic institutional indicators

Curriculum Vitae of key personnel: o The proposed Center Leader o The 2-4 Principal teaching and research members

Letters of Supports: o From regional and national partners o From companies and knowledge partners involved in the sector o From international universities and institutions

List of other large project implemented by the institutions over the 2010-2016 period

External auditors Statement for the last two fiscal years will be requested if the Proposal is short-listed and selected for a site-visit
Guidance for attachments:
Attachment 1: Most recent version of the institutional Strategic Plan
Attachment 2 - CVs of key persons for the proposed Center of Excellence
Provide abridged curriculum vitae of not more than 4 pages per key person. The CVs for the proposed Center Leader and the 2-3 principal faculty members/researchers are mandatory. The
CVs should briefly describe relevant academic qualifications, pertinent professional experience, relevant publications, current positions and other relevant information.
Attachment 3 - Letters of Support
Name of Partnership organization/firm:
Basic Characteristics of the Firm:
Number of Employees:
Area of Proposed Collaboration:
Budget:
Main products:
Annual revenues:
Firm’s Contribution toward the Center:
Potential funding, provision of guidance, provision of internships, provision of industry teachers, etc.
Expected Benefits from the Collaboration:
25

Letters of support should be signed by senior management of the partner institutions
The letter of support or the proposal must include a contact person from each main partner (with phone and email contacts)
26