This Research Administration and Management Programme (RAMP) training session organised by the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM) was held from October 28th to 30th, 2024.
The participants of this workshop were 22 administration staff from CRID and 02 from the Centre for Sex Health and HIV AIDS Research (CESHHAR) in Zimbabwe. For three days, they gathered at the United Hotel Yaoundé to acquire skills in research administration. The training course was structured in three main chapters: Project management, Finance and Administration. It was facilitated by a team of experts namely: Martina Savio, Ann Marie Hand and Eunice Ngundo from LSTM, accompanied by Melissa Kwenkeu from the Douala General hospital, who was participating in the Training of trainers’ programme. The training team started by showing to participants the importance of support staff in research progress and success. In his introductory remarks, Prof Charles Wondji invited the attendees to maximise this opportunity to learn, in order to create a conducive research environment at CRID.
On the first day, focus was placed on Project management, looking at the Grant lifecycle, the Constraint triangle, Logframes and Grantt charts among others. Key points of day-2 were Budgeting and forecasting, financial reporting and Value for money. It was punctuated by a cultural exchange session, during which all attendees had the opportunity to showcase particular aspects of their tradition. It was a fusion of Cameroonian, Zimbabwean and Italian civilizations. On the last day, participants were coached on electronic filing, version control, task management and logistics.
CRID’s team was composed of Project managers, members of Communication team, Finance and Human resource units, as well as researchers and Heads of Departments. They were proud of the knowledge they had acquired, which would make their work easier. For Nadege Ngala, internal controller, “One new thing I learnt during the RAMP training was version control of documents. I used it to reorganise files in my computer and now I can find documents easily. I am really happy to have learnt such a technique”. Paul Fossouo, finance officer appreciated the topics under administration. “I gained an understanding of managing a diary according to priorities, and writing emails in a professional context”, he says. For his part, Ivan Misonge learnt mostly on the finance management and logframe construction. “With the new tools of administration management I discovered, I am now equipped. In case I have to start a new project, I will know how to proceed with the different elements”, adds the project manager.
At the end, participants received certificates, evidence of the notions they had acquired through-out the training. One of the outcomes of this workshop for them would be to become trainers in the future. Ultimately, CRID is better equipped to save lives through quality research
