The Office of Grants and Research (OGR) of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) in collaboration with the IREX Catch Them Young (CTY) Project has formally opened a two-day Grant Financial Management Training Workshop for stakeholders involved in grant managing and external research funds.
The two-day workshop, targeted at accountants, auditors, procurement officers, principal investigators (PIs) and project managers in the university took place at the Regional Water and Sanitation Centre, Kumasi (RWESCK).
According to the Director of the OGR, Professor Jerry John Kpornyo, his outfit has the responsibility of ensuring that grants that come to the University are well managed. And in every institution, the key actors are the PIs, finance officers, auditors and all the people who matter as far as the grant is concerned. The training therefore brings all these key actors together to learn best practices in grant financial management, policies in grants administration to enhance performance and to ultimately attract more grants for the University.
Professor Kpornyo encouraged participants to utilize what they have learnt at the workshop and to work together to manage grants effectively to attract more grants for the University in executing its research mandate.
In his submission on “Application of Efforts and Compensation Policy, Senior Accountant at the University Payroll, Emmanuel Ebo Ocran, stated that in grant management, one essential component is the indirect cost, which is the cost, not part of the actual project cost such as the internet facilities, office spaces and other facilities provided by the University. He further explained that there is a scientific way of calculating such costs and this workshop provided insight into the concept of indirect cost component in research projects.
Mr. Ebo Ocran continued that for this workshop, accountants and auditors would be exposed to the determination of the indirect costs, the distribution and correct calculation of indirect costs as well as the computation of the indirect costs of research projects. Mr. Ocran hoped that the knowledge gained will enable financial managers of research funds to correctly and efficiently help compensate the University for the use of its facilities. Again, he added that indirect costs also help compensate and retool the Principal Investigator on a project.
Giving a background to the background of the event and the collaboration with funders, The Principal Investigator of the IREX-CTY Project, Hannah Adom Eyison, stated that the workshop was funded by the IREX-CTY Project after her participation in a research management fellowship in an earlier programme by the IREX (International Research & Exchanges Board) in partnership with the Carnegie Corporation of New York, Mrs. Eyison said that she applied for a grant to help train others in what she learnt in her fellowship by the funders in the United States of America. She stated that the OGR had organized similar training for research managers. However, for this workshop, the focus was on the finance professionals.
“The idea is to catch them young, train them in managing research finances”. In addition, to discuss and find solutions to challenges confronting them in managing grants, she added.
By Irene Sakyiwaa-Siaw