IFS as a valuable scientific partner

In 2021, IFS was jointly engaged in nine virtual events with a variety of strategic partners or alumni associations across a spectrum of topics. Most of these virtual workshops were in response to requests from grantees and partners. The development of IFS’s virtual meeting tools that started in 2020 also continued throughout 2021.

The overall objectives of these workshops were to:

> Strengthen early career researchers’ scientific skills to develop a scientific proposal, publish in scientific journals, and communicate their results to the public at large (including scientists, politicians and policy-makers, donors and private interest groups) > Enhance capacity to conduct original research that relates to genuine problems and that generates fundamental and/or applicable scientific knowledge that can be put into use > Contribute to science literacy > Influence science priority setting > Network and collaborate with the global research community to shape research agendas, both local and global, and > Position participants in international research, to carry out regional projects or to develop their own networks.

The workshops conducted in 2021 included (descriptions below):

> Online Course on Statistical Computing with R > Online Training Course and Competition for International

Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) Cap Dev Grand Challenge > ILRI and the International Veterinary Vaccinology Network (IVVN) Online Workshop on Integrating Gender into Livestock Research > ILRI Online Workshop on Science Communication for Nontechnical Audiences > IFS Online Workshop on Designing Online Training Events and Preparing a Research Budget > ILRI Online Workshop on Blogging for Impact > International Science Programme Online Workshop on Gender, Diversities and Unconscious Bias: How to master the playground rules in Academia > Food Systems for New Realities - Agri4D 2021 > African Women in Agricultural Research and Development (AWARD) Webinar on Scientific Publishing/Proposal Development and Funding

Online Course on Statistical Computing with R (February-March 2021)

Organised by IFS SAC Member Prof Eugenio Parente (Università degli Studi della Basilicata), 44 IFS grantees registered and enrolled in this course, including 17 women. Given that one of the weaknesses in almost all applications that IFS receives is statistical design and analysis, and while it is true that there is plenty of material on R available on the web, there is no systematic course for food science, agriculture and applied biology. The purpose of this course was to fill this gap. More than 60% of participants attended the online lectures and/or watched the online recorded lectures, which is relatively high compared to the average rate for attendants expected at free online events such as webinars (40–50%). Almost all the participants benefitted from receiving the course material, with 3/4 of them using more than 80 percent of materials for their wider studies and research. Participants reported an increase in their proficiency in all aspects covered in the course, especially in the fundamentals of working in R, including data visualisation, data wrangling, and programming, as well as in using statistical tests such as ANOVA, DOE, and Linear Regressions. Those who attended either all of the online lectures or viewed all of the recorded lectures reported higher levels of proficiency scores across the board.

Online Training Course and Competition for International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) Cap Dev Grand Challenge (March 2021)

IFS nominated 11 participants (including six women) to participate in the Capacity Development Grand Challenge (ILRI CapDev Grand Challenge) where a total of 46 participants attended. The Challenge is a 10-month process designed to equip young researchers with the requisite people and leadership skills as they transition from graduate training mode into actors in national research and extension systems. The CapDev Grand Challenge process aims to equip these next-generation livestock sector professionals with the leadership and interpersonal skills they need to be effective leaders, science communicators and influencers after their academic/technical training. The 11 IFS grantees participated in the three-minute research pitching contest where they presented their research projects and findings to a panel of judges comprising at least one donor, communications expert, journalist, development policy expert, M&E expert and researcher, all of whom are well-informed of ILRI’s mission and scope of research. The judges selected 22 participants with the most successful pitches, including four IFS grantees, two of whom were women.