The University of Ibadan invites members of its faculties and research teams to submit concept papers and innovative proposals for research and capacity building as part of a new World Bank Initiative for African Centers of Excellence.

The World Bank in partnerships with The Governments of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroun, Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal and Togo, is launching African Centres of Excellence (ACE) Initiative for Higher Education and Research in Africa.

The objective of the ACE Initiative is to promote regional specialization among participating universities within areas that address particular regional and national development challenges. The initiative aims to strengthen the capacities of universities in the region to deliver high quality training and applied research to address the regional development challenges.

Nature of the Initiative

Grant awards (maximum US$ 4million per proposal for 3 years) will be made to lead institutions with collaborating partners to support innovative research and capacity building projects meeting the priorities of the initiative. Each lead institution can be awarded a maximum of two projects in the competition but may apply for up to two proposals per priority field. Proposals must address specific regional and national development challenges using advances and opportunities within the following priority fields:

· Science, Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM)

· Health Sciences

· Agricultural Sciences

The initiative places significant emphasis on multidisciplinary research involving multiple institutional collaboration and engagement of industry partners. Regional collaborations across the languages (Anglophone/Francophone) as well as international linkages are strongly encouraged.

Individuals and research teams at the University of Ibadan are invited to submit proposal in order to participate in the initiative.

Letters of Intent/ Concept Papers (maximum 3 pages) describing objectives and plans of the proposed projects should be submitted to the Research Management Office (rmo-office@mail.ui.edu.ng; desmosol@hotmail.com) or the University of Ibadan Research Foundation (yengozi@yahoo.com) by Sunday 28th July, 2013. Concept papers should include objectives; a short rationale; list of lead investigators and proposed regional, national and international partners that will collaborate on the project. Unique innovation that will make the proposal competitive at the regional level should be highlighted. The leaders of selected research ideas will be requested to submit full proposals by Saturday 3rd August, 2013.

Proposals will be peer reviewed and selected by panels constituted by the University of Ibadan for submission to the National Universities Commission, Abuja.

Duration of projects: Maximum of 3 (Three) years

Award amount max: US$4million (limited budget for equipment)

Important Dates:

Deadline for Letters of Intent/ Concept papers Sunday 28th July, 2013

Deadline for Proposals Saturday 3rd August, 2013

For further details, please contact:

Dr. Eme T. Owoaje 08166379978 rmo@mail.ui.edu.ng; emeowoaje@yahoo.com

Prof. A. Ogunniyi 08023038583 aogunniyi53@yahoo.com

Mr. O. A. Olaoye 08055265713 yengozi@yahoo.com

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Project Information and Protocol for information Committee

Template for the Proposals