The ‘Research Funding and Grants including Faculty Research Vertical (Vertical-III), team, Institute of Eminence (IOE) Pillar II – ‘Exemplary Research and Innovation’ of Manipal College of Nursing (MCON), Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE), organized the ‘Workshop on Grant Writing: Series 2’ on 2nd December 2024. The program commenced at 9 am with a prayer song followed by a brief overview of the workshop and welcome to all the members of the workshop by Ms. Mitchelle Shilpa Lewis, Lecturer, Department of Fundamentals of Nursing and a member of Vertical III.

The first session focused on the ‘Pre and post-management of grants, procedures, and documents required for grants’ by Mr. Royal Monteiro, Coordinator - Grants Office, MAHE, Manipal which was followed by a session on ‘Collaboration with researchers through PURE’ by Dr. Yogendra Nayak, Associate Professor, Dept of Pharmacology, Manipal College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Coordinator of 'Centre for Research on Research' and 'Certificate Course on Research Orientation' at MAHE, Manipal. He emphasized the role of the PURE portal as a way forward for the establishment of research collaboration for active researchers. Explaining through his vast experience he also briefed his substantial contribution in introducing the PURE portal at MAHE, Manipal. The participants also had the opportunity to hear from his collaborator Dr. Prabhakara Nagareddy, Professor, Section of Cardiovascular Diseases, Dept. of Internal Medicine, Adjunct Professor, Department of Biochemistry and Physiology, Adjunct Professor, Department of Pathology, The University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center (OUHSC), Oklahoma City, US. The significance of collaboration from an international perspective was highlighted in his talk. The third session of the day was on the topic ‘Statistical requirements for grant proposals’ which was dealt by Dr.VaniLakshmi R, Assistant Professor (Senior Scale), Head of Department-Health Technology and Informatics, Quality Coordinator (Prasanna School of Public Health), Coordinator (MSc Digital Epidemiology), MAHE, Manipal. It was an exciting session with viable insights from the perspective of statistics as the core aspect for the success of grant proposals.

The post-lunch sessions commenced with an interactive session on ‘Budget preparation for applying for grants’ by Dr. Shama Prasada Kabekkodu, Professor and Head, Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, Manipal School of Life Sciences, MAHE, Manipal. The intricacies of the budget for funding were made clear by his talk due to his rich experience of handling the funded projects including the DBT/Wellcome Trust India Alliance grant for which he is the first recipient from MAHE, Manipal. Following this session, the participants were teamed into various groups to materialize the protocols prepared on thrust areas that were decided during the Workshop series -1 namely, Non-Communicable Diseases, Simulation, Maternal health, Elderly care, Infection control, and Learning disabilities, which were facilitated by Dr. Melita Sheilini, Ms. Mitchelle S Lewis, Dr. Sonia RB D’Souza, Mr. Vinish V, Assistant Professor-senior scale, Department of Community Health Nursing, Dr. Anjalin D’Souza, Asst.Professor-selection Grade, Department of Child Health Nursing, and Mr.Renjulal Yesodharan, Asst.Professor-senior scale, Department of Mental Health (Psychiatric) Nursing, MCON,MAHE, Manipal respectively.

The program was concluded by Dr. Sonia R B D’Souza, senior advisor of vertical-III, IOE Pillar II, MCON, MAHE, Manipal with the closing remarks. The workshop ended at 4.30 pm with the vote of thanks by Dr. Melita Sheilini, Chairperson of Vertical III and the Organizing secretary for the workshop. Ms. Mitchelle Lewis, Lecturer, Department of Fundamentals of Nursing, MCON, MAHE, Manipal compered the workshop proceedings. A total of 27 participants, including research scholars and the faculty members from various institutions of MAHE, Manipal participated actively in the workshop. The workshop was well appreciated by the participants and was aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) - 4, i.e. Quality education. The overall coordination of the workshop was done by Dr. Melita Sheilini with the support from Dr. Sonia RB D’Souza, senior advisor, and team members of Vertical III (Dr. Anjalin, Mr.. Renjulal, Mr. Vinish and Ms. Mitchelle Lewis) under the guidance of Dr. Tessy Treesa Jose, Associate Dean and Chairperson - IOE Pillar II and Dr. Judith Angelitta Noronha, Dean, MCON, Manipal.