Supporting our researchers to compete on the international funding stage
This article is the first in a four-part series showcasing UCT's research-supporting units and departments.
Research is expensive, and in a highly constrained national funding environment like South Africa, UCT researchers need to be able to compete internationally for funding grants. This is why the Faculty of Health Sciences (FHS) Research Office (FRO) has a team dedicated to helping the faculty’s researchers find and secure international funding.
This unit, known as the Research Development (RD) team, provides training, proposal development support as well as support for UCT’s internal pre-award process. In any given month the RD team interacts with up to 120 researchers, giving guidance and support.
“Our mandate is to support and grow the health sciences research enterprise,” said Dr Rob Huddy, Proposal Development Project Manager. “To meet this mandate, we have a range of training and support mechanisms in place to help our researchers prepare and submit competitive grant applications to a range of funding agencies.”
With FHS researchers submitting up to 20 new proposals to international funders monthly, this work is critical to the sustainability of the faculty’s research.