The Science Granting Councils (the Councils) play critical and strategic roles in supporting research and innovation that contribute to the social and economic development of any country. As a creation of the law, the Councils are charged with the responsibility of research funding, quality assurance, policy and decision-making, knowledge exchange, and training/capacity building of the science system actors to ensure that outputs from the research and innovation endeavours are used to inform policy and practice. Given this important role, and in view of the dynamic nature of research and innovation developments, their capacity to perform these responsibilities to achieve desired goals needs to be continuously strengthened. In recognition of this need, the Science Granting Councils Initiative (SGCI) in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is providing support that will strengthen the national research and innovation funding agencies in West Africa.
Compared to other regions in Africa, only a few countries in West Africa have established agencies responsible for research and innovation funding. There is now a deliberate effort by the SGCI to strengthen the national research and innovation funding agencies where they already exist (Burkina Faso, Senegal, and Côte d’Ivoire) to improve their performances as well as support the development of institutional frameworks/mechanisms for the development of new research and innovation funding agencies in countries where they do not currently exist (Ghana, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone). It is based on this timely opportunity provided by the SGCI that the African Technology Policy Studies Network (ATPS) and its partner, the African University of Science and Technology (AUST) proposed to work together in a joined-up approach with other Collaborating Technical Agencies (CTAs) to deliver on the project titled: “Strengthening the National Research and Innovation Funding Agencies in West Africa (SRIFA)”.
The aim is to provide the requisite training and technical support to strengthen the national research and innovation funding agencies or their equivalents in the six participating West African countries. The project goal is to strengthen the agencies where they already exist to efficiently deliver on their mandates and support the development of institutional frameworks/mechanisms for establishing new research funding agencies where they do not exist. With support from the Science Granting Councils Initiative (SGCI), the UK’s Foreign Commonwealth Development Office (FCDO), the South Africa’s National Research Foundation (NRF), the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA), the German Research Foundation (DFG), and the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad), the SRIFA Project, therefore, aims to provide training and technical support to strengthen these national agencies to achieve their mandates, especially in areas such as monitoring research projects, financial reporting, institutional risk assessment, institutional communications capacity, mainstreaming gender in granting, Council internal processes, and using research results to inform government policy and private sector practice.