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First Workshop Research & Innovation Capacity Development in Sead West

07-01-2022

Mid November 2021 the first research and innovation for capacity development workshop took place in the SEAD West project under the lead of Prof. Meine Pieter van Dijk in Rwanda.

The SEAD projects have, broadly, three lines of intervention of which one is to strengthen the research & innovation capacities of the beneficiary institutions. This Research Innovation Capacity Development trajectory (RICD), is a component in the project that seeks to strengthen the capacities of partner institutions in applied research and innovation by taking selected participants through a series of 3 workshops in which they are getting acquainted with the fundamentals of scientific research.

During the workshops participants are to identify research & innovation topics that circle around challenges within the horticulture & hospitality value chains, including cross cutting themes such as gender, sustainability, climate smart agriculture, or nutrition sensitive agriculture. For this kickoff workshop, selected research teams were invited and taken through the first steps of research methodologies, fine-tuning their proposal templates and discussing with facilitator how to strengthen them.

The participants of the workshop were coming mainly from IPRC’s and TVETs in Rwanda such as Sead West beneficiaries Bumba and Gisovu TVET School and IPRC Karongi. In total 68 participants took part which were split in groups of two. The first group took part in the workshop from Monday until Wednesday morning and the second group of participants started the workshop from Wednesday afternoon until Friday. There was a lot of interest in the workshop and the SEAD West team was happy to welcome such a large group of participants.

An interactive workshop where learning and sharing knowledge was key
The participants were welcomed by Yves Rutayisire from the Rwanda Development Board who in partnership with Maastricht School of Management is responsible for the implementation of the Sead West project. In his opening speech, Mr. Rutayisire explained the RICD trajectory, the objectives and deliverables of the workshop. After the welcome Prof. Van Dijk kicked off the workshop by diving into the topic of ‘Research Methods for Business Students’ followed by an interactive session where the participants pitched their research ideas.

Over the 2.5-day workshop per group, the participants determined the research gap & their research topic. Learned about the importance of reviewing literature, how to formulate a hypothesis with arguments for the logical relations in the conceptual or analytical framework. Furthermore, the participants discussed with Prof. Van Dijk on how to commence their literature review and ensure the findings of the review are properly applied in their proposal.

On the basis of the newly gained knowledge the participants took home the assignment to work on their literature review that had to be handed in to the professor to be reviewed. On the basis of the handed in literature review the participants for workshop two are being selected which has the topic ‘How to write a proposal in a week’. This second workshop will be delivered by Prof. Van Dijk at the end of January 2022.

About SEAD West
The Rwanda Development Board (RDB) in partnership with the international consortium led by Maastricht School of Management (MSM) is implementing the SEAD West project: Strengthening Education for Agricultural Development. Through the project, the education & training institutions (IPRC Karongi, TVET Gisovu, TVET Kivumu, and TVET Bumba) are capacitated to better address the needs of the stakeholders in the agriculture sector with a focus on the Agri-Tourism value Chain.

The SEAD West project has, broadly, three lines of intervention: 1) Curriculum Development/Revision, both formal and non-formal; 2) strengthen the Applied research & innovation capacities of the partner institutions and 3) strengthen the outreach services, more specifically the offer of tailor-made training, and establishment of Service, Training, and Innovation Center in Agri-Tourism focusing on the Horticulture value chain and hospitality.

Orange Knowledge Programme
This project is part of the Orange Knowledge Programme (OKP) which is funded by the Netherlands’ Ministry of Foreign Affairs and managed by Nuffic. For more information click here.

MSM's Expert Centre for Emerging Economies

This institutional collaboration project is part of MSM's Expert Centre for Emerging Economies. The department is an expert centre on local economic development in emerging and developing markets. We capacitate managers and professionals from government, private sector, NGOs, and post-secondary education in Africa, Asia, Middle East, and Latin America. We offer consultancy and customized training programs, and we manage complex projects in key sectors, e.g. water, agriculture and health. For more information click here.

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Research & Innovation Capacity Development | Maastricht School of Management