Welcoming, registration and introductions

• Mekitie Wondafrash (Research and Publication Advisor, SPIRHR)
• Delayehu Bekele (Director, SPIRHR)
• Mitiku Getu Moges (CPD Director, SPIRHR)

Room: Hall 5 and Hall 2 • Objective: Analyze grant types (research, service delivery, career development), evaluate funder profiles, check eligibility, and apply principles of persuasive proposal writing • Activity: Lecture with PPT presentation and plenary discussion.

Session 1: Principles of effective grant writing and funder profile alignment

• Minyahil Tadesse (Researcher, Armaur Hansen Research Institute (AHRI))

Room: Hall 5 and Hall 2 • Objective: Analyze grant types (research, service delivery, career development), evaluate funder profiles, check eligibility, and apply principles of persuasive proposal writing • Activity: Lecture with PPT presentation and plenary discussion.

Morning Health Break Room: Hall 5 and Hall 2

Session 2: Navigating funding databases and opportunity analysis

• Minyahil Tadesse (Researcher, Armaur Hansen Research Institute (AHRI))

Room: Hall 5 and Hall 2 • Objective: Leverage specialized funding search engines (IDRC.CRDI, World RePORT, NIH Fogarty, Grant Forward, Pivot, Trialect, etc.) and analyze eligibility and submission windows. • Activity: Interactive web-searching lab and database navigation exercise.

Lunch break Room: Hall 5 and Hall 2

Session 3: Grant writing strategy-sponsorship vs. strategic partnership

• Minyahil Tadesse (Researcher, Armaur Hansen Research Institute (AHRI))

Room: Hall 5 and Hall 2 • Objective: Differentiate time-bound sponsorship from sustainable partnerships, and apply donor retention strategies to build institutional trust. ***Proactive versus reactive partnership/donor/ mapping, consortium formation.*** • Activity: Presentation followed by small group case study analysis.

Afternoon Health Break Room: Hall 5 and Hall 2

Session 4 & Hands-on Exercise I: Demand creation vs. RFPs and concept note drafting

• Minyahil Tadesse (Researcher, Armaur Hansen Research Institute (AHRI))

Room: Hall 5 and Hall 2 • Objective: Compare unsolicited demand creation with responding to calls (RFPs), and draft a 2-3 page concept note. • Activity: Group work to draft concept notes (Problem Statement, Objectives, Approach, Outcomes), followed by plenary pitching.

Day 1 Recap and reflection

• Minyahil Tadesse (Researcher, Armaur Hansen Research Institute (AHRI))

Room: Hall 5 and Hall 2 • Activity: Plenary recap of Day 1 concepts

Session 5: Clarity in technical writing-problem statements and SMART objectives

• Minyahil Tadesse (Researcher, Armaur Hansen Research Institute (AHRI))

Room: Hall 5 and Hall 2 • Objective: Formulate data-driven problem statements with counterfactuals and construct SMART project objectives. • Activity: Technical presentation and interactive writing exercise.

Health Break Room: Hall 5 and Hall 2

Session 6: Project design, logical frameworks and ethics/compliance annexes

• Ewenat Geberehanna Woldearegai (Vice Provost for Research and Community Services, St. Paul's Hospital Millennium Medical College)

Room: Hall 5 and Hall 2 • Objective: Build a full results chain and integrate M&E plans, IRB human subject protection, and gender/vulnerability safeguards. • Activity: Workshop exercise: Constructing a Logical Framework matrix for a health project scenario.

Lunch break Room: Hall 5 and Hall 2

Session 7: Learning from Reviewers' Comments and Scoring Rubrics

• Ewenat Geberehanna Woldearegai (Vice Provost for Research and Community Services, St. Paul's Hospital Millennium Medical College)

Room: Hall 5 and Hall 2 • Objective: Deconstruct funder scoring criteria (e.g., CRDI, NIH criteria, Global Fund TRP criteria, etc.) and learn to address complementary and critical reviewer feedback. • Activity: Presentation and case study analysis of real-world reviewer summary statements.

Health Break Room: Hall 5 and Hall 2

Session 8 & hands-on exercise II: peer-review and mock-review panel simulation

• Ewenat Geberehanna Woldearegai (Vice Provost for Research and Community Services, St. Paul's Hospital Millennium Medical College)

Room: Hall 5 and Hall 2 • Objective: Understand why mock review sessions matter and gain practical experience evaluating proposals from a reviewer's perspective. • Activity: Group simulation playing the role of a review study section to score and critique sample proposal excerpts.

Day 2 Recap and reflection

• Minyahil Tadesse (Researcher, Armaur Hansen Research Institute (AHRI))

Room: Hall 5 and Hall 2 Activity: Plenary recap of Day 2

Session 9: Financial management and strategic grant budgeting

• Mirkuzie Woldie Kerie (Deputy Director, Evidence to Policy, Fenot Associates)

Room: Hall 5 and Hall 2 • Objective: Calculate full project costs, differentiate direct vs. indirect costs, address cost-sharing, and ensure 100% alignment between technical activities and budget lines. • Activity: Presentation with practical demonstrations.

Health Break Room: Hall 5 and Hall 2

Hands-on Exercise III: Budget building and cost justification workshop

• Mirkuzie Woldie Kerie (Deputy Director, Evidence to Policy, Fenot Associates)

Room: Hall 5 and Hall 2 • Objective: Develop detailed itemized project budgets and draft narrative budget justifications. • Activity: Hands-on spreadsheet exercise building budgets and writing justification notes for sample health implementation projects.

Lunch break Room: Hall 5 and Hall 2

Session 10: Grant execution and post-award management Room: Hall 5 and Hall 2 • Objective: Plan rapid post-award initiation (team assembly, stakeholder engagement, M&E setup), manage reporting milestones, and maintain transparent donor communication. Discuss consortium formation and the role of negotiation and conflict management skills in grant management. • Activity: Lecture and scenario role-playing (managing project scope/budget adjustments).

Health Break Room: Hall 5 and Hall 2

Session 11: Institutional action planning

• Minyahil Tadesse (Researcher, Armaur Hansen Research Institute (AHRI))
• Mekitie Wondafrash (Research and Publication Advisor, SPIRHR)

Room: Hall 5 and Hall 2 • Objective: Translate workshop learnings into personal/institutional grant development roadmaps and measure skill growth. • Activity: Individual action plan drafting, post-test administration, and workshop evaluation.

Wrap-up, evaluation, and closing

• Delayehu Bekele (Director, SPIRHR)
• Mitiku Getu Moges (CPD Director, SPIRHR)
• Mekitie Wondafrash (Research and Publication Advisor, SPIRHR)

Room: Hall 5 and Hall 2