Insight Series: How to overcome boundaries, and add value, in global research projects
“Since the colonial period, more than 90% of the forests in Northern Nigeria have been lost” Professor Aliyu Barau explained in our latest Insight Series session.
To counter this deforestation, a team in Bayero University, Nigeria, came up with the idea of reintroducing indigenous trees after they have been cut down, recultivating from the root stocks that remained underground.
In this year-long project, an international team from Bayero University, University of Leeds, and University of York sought to help re-establish native trees in the depleted drylands of Northern Nigeria, working with local communities to support education and capacity building.
Here are some of the key learnings taken from the experience of running this project, shared by Aliyu and Professor Martin Dallimer at our Insight Series session, March 2023.
Overcoming rejections for funding
Aliyu: “We went to the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund), and they objected, but then this opportunity came up with Martin and Lindsay and we submitted to them the same idea. Our researchers needed to understand that you may get rejected in one place, but it will grow to be something you will be happy with one day.”
Build your networks
Martin: “You need to build your international networks and your contacts early. Take every opportunity that you can do this. There is never enough time when a call is announced to build a network that’s strong enough to compete for some of these calls. For this project, the team built on some well-established collaborations. And those existing collaborations and personal links meant new team members could come on board to fill gaps in expertise.”
Invest time in your working relationships
Martin: “Make sure you invest time in meetings and listening to, and learning from, each other. It takes time to build understanding. Make sure you’re talking about the same things and understanding concepts in the same way. Also take time to develop initial ideas into a proposal. So even when deadlines are tight, investing the time and talking with the overall project team is really very important.”
Local knowledge is important
Martin: “I think another thing that really struck me through the year working on this project, and subsequently is how working with local knowledge, local norms, customs and expectations can help you rather than hinder you. It’s really important not to work against what is normal practice for where you’re doing your work. So really heed the advice that you’re given from your local contacts.”
Aliyu: “Working with local communities, we developed a consent form that we shared with participants. They sign it to participate, and this is normal and something that goes with ethics in doing research. There is sometimes this vast gap between universities and communities, but in this project we used consent, and prioritized the use of local language, so people really opened up and allowed them to express themselves. I think this really helped us.”
Actively address inequality and engage all parts of the community
Aliyu: “We had a series of meetings on Gender Equality and Social Inclusion. We held classes designed to engage women, to show them videos and teach them silvicultural skills, how they can restore and support trees on their farms. We also took a group of women to farmland, where we showed them how to handle those trees.
“The aim of this was to give women an even bigger voice so, when they see their friends and relations, they can speak their minds. Sometimes, in rural areas, when you don’t do this, men will dominate the discussion and some of the women would have to draw back.”
Recognising the potential of youth engagement
Aliyu: “One of the things we did was to organise a special day where we invited children to come and display their skills in arts. This helped us inculcate in them a love for nature. You cannot talk about sustainability of landscapes in drylands without really engaging future generations, future farmers, policymakers, decision makers.”
Trust and delegation
Martin: “You need to be able to delegate and place trust in others to lead and own parts of the project and develop them in ways that align with their interests and expertise, and their skills and motivations. And I think one of the reasons why we were successful both in the application and the implementation was the strong network of stakeholders that the team in Nigeria already had.”
Flexibility
Martin: “With this particular funder, we had almost no flexibility in terms when in the year activities were taking place, or what we could spend the money on. And this did mean that I think important opportunities to develop the project and to develop links, more widely were missed. So, if you do have opportunities, do try and be flexible and do embrace any unexpected opportunities that arise.”
Creating the right systems
Aliyu: “When we started, Leeds was asking us to start the project, and then they reimburse us. This is not normal for Nigerian Universities. We knew there was no way our university would release some funds for us to execute this project and wait for reimbursement from Leeds.
“Fortunately, Martin and his colleagues were able to convince University of Leeds that, while this condition exists, we can’t kickstart the project successfully, and they were able to release some funds.”
Martin: “It’s important to recognise that institutions need time for learning. Universities are not often well set up to facilitate international partnerships and collaborations. Working internationally with things like contracts and payments can be slow and difficult. Working out finance and how you distribute funds is important, and when the systems do get up and running you need to be as supportive of them as you can and provide the information that those systems need from you as quickly as you can.
“You may be familiar with how your institution works, but other institutions won’t be, so it’ll be important to get your different pieces of the institutional jigsaws together. Get the finance teams talking to each other, as early as you possibly can. And so as soon as the people who are responsible for that side of things can contact each other and the process of sorting out contracts, sorting out payments goes much more smoothly. And it can reduce a lot of the stress from your perspective, but it will still take time.”
Respect each other’s time
Martin: “Everyone’s schedules are very busy and as somebody leading projects, your priorities are likely to be more focused on the project you’re leading. In planning ahead to deadlines, you’re allowing time in everyone’s busy schedules so everyone can contribute and give the best of that they can do. It is an important thing, because not everyone will have the same priorities for your project as you do.”
Communicate with your funders
Martin: “Listen to your funders, learn about their reporting requirements and how they work. Reporting requirements and financial reporting, and all this kind of stuff will vary hugely across funders. But I think it’s important not to underestimate how much time may be taken up with financial progress reporting. It can be confusing, and certainly time intensive, but it did, in a way, keep us on track. It made sure that we delivered what we said we were going to do, roughly, when we said we were going to do it, and certainly within budgets.”
Manage your expectations
Martin: “Recognise that all projects will end way too soon. You’ll get to the end of your funding, and many of the things that you hope to do will not have reached their full potential. And this is this can be quite disappointing. On the flip side of that, we have some strong relationships and good understanding of how we work and how well we work together. So as future opportunities emerge, we’re much better placed to be able to address them and pull a team together at relatively short notice to think about new applications. So, there’s always a positive side even when things end earlier than you’d hope.”
Keep the long view in mind
Aliyu: “Your project may have a deadline, but as a researcher, your vision for the future is longer and broader. So, in your project may have restrictions or deadlines, but then you always have hope that in the future, I’m going to do that. Hopefully, in the future, we would think of how to build on the kind of experience and evidence that we were able to gather from this project.”
Find out more on this project on the University of Leeds website
Professor Aliyu Barau is a Professor in Urban Development and Management at the Department of Urban and Regional Planning, Bayero University Kano, Nigeria. He currently heads Environment and Livelihoods Theme (ELITE) at the Centre of Drylands Agriculture, a World Bank Centre of Excellence. He is a transdisciplinary researcher with keen interest in climate change, landscape ecology, energy, sustainability, informal and formally protected ecosystems, inclusive and innovative planning.
Professor Martin Dallimer is a Professor in Environmental Change in the Sustainability Research Institute, School of Earth and Environment at the University of Leeds. He has led and worked extensively on interdisciplinary projects centred on global environmental challenges, such as sustainable agriculture, urbanisation, land degradation and biodiversity conservation, both based in the UK and internationally.
