AWARD’s training courses reflect our commitment to unlocking the potential of scientific innovation for agriculture-driven inclusive growth and prosperity. Our courses empower researchers and managers, while strengthening institutions to pursue cutting edge agricultural research.

Mentoring Orientation Workshop

This five-day workshop is designed to help mentees and their mentors establish productive working relationships centred on the mentee attaining specific and measureable career goals. The mentees and mentors, who are typically colleagues from the same institution but at different career levels, work closely together over the course of a year in pursuit of the mentee’s goals.

The workshop introduces fundamental principles of formal mentorship to both mentors and mentees, which enables them to start building crucial professional relationships. As mentees grow more confident about their work and career paths, institutions can count on growing visibility for their emerging researchers, as well as succession planning for institutional sustainability.

Course objectives

By the end of the course, participants will be able to:

• Clarify roles and expectations of both mentors and mentees
• Establish solid working relationships for mentors and mentees
• Create a supportive and collaborative network among mentors and mentees
• Identify measureable career goals for mentees and a plan for the mentor’s support

To enhance their sustainability, agricultural research institutions need to be proactive and deliberate in preparing entry, middle and senior-level professionals for roles of increasing responsibility. AWARD offers four distinct but complementary leadership courses designed to improve the performance and empower professionals across their institutions.

Leadership for Agricultural Research and Development

This course is intended for both male and female middle- to senior-level managers in agricultural research organisations. The course strives to reconnect the visions of agricultural research institutions to their policies through a leadership curriculum that is based on such values as inclusiveness, transparency, integrity and efficiency.

The five-and-a-half-day course has four unique characteristics:

• A focus on gender responsiveness;
• It is rooted in the African context and values;
• It is grounded in real-life experiences and challenges; and
• The course embraces best practices in global leadership.

Course objectives

By the end of the course, participants will be able to:

• Identify personal and other leadership styles and know how to apply them strategically
• Identify their own personality preferences, particularly as they pertain to emotional intelligence, including increased self-awareness and understanding of how they are perceived by others
• Strengthen their ability to lead diverse groups
• Improve their ability to engage in and contribute to challenging professional conversations and negotiations.

Women’s Leadership and Management Course 

As more women take up senior positions in agricultural research institutions, there is need to help them make an impact as soon as possible. This seven-day course is designed to specifically address the challenges and opportunities faced by senior women in agricultural research. It strengthens their leadership and managerial effectiveness by building skills for teamwork, conflict management, creating alliances, and leveraging diversity for good research and business results.

Institutions are then able to create pools of qualified, capable internal candidates for promotion and address gender imbalances that may prevail at upper levels. This training also helps to build a rich network of women professionals in agricultural research who can benefit from better information exchange and professional support.

One special feature of this course is that it incorporates a 360-degree review of participants’ current management and leadership skills. It also provides insights into broader gender issues that women encounter in the workplace.

Course objectives

By the end of the course, participants will be able to:

• Use information gained from skill and style inventories to strengthen their leadership and managerial effectiveness
• Practice essential communications skills, i.e. feedback and facilitation to enhance their leadership effectiveness
• Build and sustain effective team performance
• Constructively manage interpersonal conflicts.

Enhancing Negotiation Skills for Women

This four-day course equips women in supervisory positions, including board members, with the ability to negotiate for their teams, organisations, and themselves. Effective negotiators work for the promotion of their institutional interests as they build collaborative relationships with different stakeholders, manage change and come across conflict situations.

This course is ideal for women who work for national, regional and international organisations as it opens them up to better understand hidden contexts, barriers and opportunities.

Course objectives

By the end of the course, participants will be able to:

• Recognise the fundamentals of different negotiation models
• Understand the multiple ways gender plays out in shadow negotiations
• Assess their own bargaining strengths and weaknesses
• Use proven strategies to position themselves as effective negotiators.

Leadership Skills for Career Development

This five-day course targets emerging male and female scientists and administrators with entry-level responsibilities. It focuses on building their leadership capacity within their organisational settings and results in a strong and loyal workforce that can grow from “within” when new (or vacant) positions become available.

Participants learn how to navigate organisational gender issues, leverage team talents, manage conflicts, and appropriately use their influence.

Course objectives

By the end of the course, participants will be able to:

• Strengthened self-esteem, assertiveness, and confidence;
• Increased ability to actively listen and conduct feedback sessions;
• Improved negotiation skills; and
• Stronger presentational skills.

Many scientists lack needed skills, which while often not taught comprehensively at university level, are a requirement for professional success

Science Writing and Publishing Skills Session

AWARD’s six-day Science Skills course covers a general introduction to research methodology, research ethics, and gender issues in agricultural research. It includes communication and presentation skills, social competence, and personal branding. Presenting their work at conferences increases scientists’ visibility while enabling them to expand and exploit new and existing networks, building their confidence to “sell” their research ideas to peers and funding agencies. The course also is designed to build participants’ capacity to effectively explore and use electronic libraries and reference management software.

Participants also learn aspects of linking research to policy by “translating” research evidence that may inform agricultural policy development. An important part of the course that participants appreciate is basic skills in gender-responsive research and gender-disaggregated data collection and analysis. The course also covers different forms of science writing for various audiences, including proposal writing to attract grants to conduct research.

The course is hands-on, involving fieldwork and using participants’ actual draft manuscripts and proposals.

Course objectives

By the end of the course, participants will be able to:

• Identify different forms of scientific writing, including policy briefs
• Display competence through hands-on use of electronic libraries
• Display basic skills in gender-responsive research and gender-disaggregated data collection and analysis
• Evince confidence in diverse environments, and improve presentation and personal branding skills
• Show increased understanding of research ethics
• Identify and align the elements of their research that are important for creating an appealing pitch to donors and collaborators.

Research Proposal Writing Session

Participants learn the basic skills required for effective research proposal writing. This includes the steps that should be followed in developing a research proposal from a concept note and writing with clarity and purpose.

Participants are required to provide in advance the idea, problem, objectives, methodology, and justification why their concept note should be funded, and are encouraged to bring a draft proposal they are working on to refine during the hands-on training.

By the end of the session on Research Proposal Writing, participants will have:

• Developed a successful concept note that includes the central research problem, objectives and methodology, results framework, and budget
• Gained skills to turn their concept note into a full proposal following donor guidelines.

Science Writing Session

Participants gain the skills and tools required to write and edit science papers, and to “translate” research evidence into language that can inform agricultural policy development. The session addresses the importance of publishing research findings to attract funding, and the relevance of establishing a personal scientific track record.

Participants are required to provide in advance a draft paper they are working on for use during the hands-on training.

By the end of the Science Writing session, participants will have:

• Acquired skills in clear communication for science writing that targets specific audiences
• Strengthened their critical thinking and analytical capacity when writing papers for peer review
• Improved their ability to prepare posters and presentations for various audiences

AWARD envisions an agricultural research landscape that is gender responsive, with organisations, policies, technologies, and programmes that include and respond to the voices of both women and men.

Gender Training for Senior Managers

AWARD offers a half-day course that is ideal for busy senior leadership staff. It is important for leaders and decision makers in agricultural researchinstitutions to understand the payoffs of gender-responsiveness and to allocate resources accordingly. This course introduces key concepts of gender responsiveness, delving not only into the “what” and “why”, but also the “how”.

Course objectives

• By the end of this course, participants will:
  Have a common understanding of gender concepts as they pertain to agricultural research
• Understand the implications of gender responsiveness in agricultural research institutions
• Appreciate the relevance of including gender considerations in planning and implementing
  agricultural research
• Know how to identify and respond to gender issues, including at the personnel level, as they arise.

Engendering Agricultural Research for Development

This three-and-a-half-day training course is focussed on enabling researchers to understand, recognise and take advantage of gender concepts in every aspect of their work.

Participants learn the relevance of gender roles and dynamics in research in order to get the best possible results. They also gain knowledge and skills in the different tools and approaches required for effective gender-responsive research.

Course objectives

At the end of the course, participants will be able to:

• Articulate and work with the different gender concepts
• Select and use appropriate tools for gender-responsive research
• Make informed decisions on which approaches to include in their research
• Effectively incorporate gender issues in their research efforts and generate publications.