By Sam Sophorn
The Department of Higher Education held a workshop in Kampot province over June 13th-15th, 2014, regarding the necessity to increase research capacity in HEIs and focused on writing successful grant proposals.
The fi rst point raised by Dr. Nith Bunlay, Deputy Director General of Department of Higher Education, was that not enough universities have been utilizing the grant programs available to them. For example, in July of 2013, a conference was held regarding grant proposals and it was expected that all HEIs present would submit proposals over the next year, however only fi ve HEIs had actually submitted proposals. The DHE expressed the importance of building research capacities within HEIs in Cambodia and encourages all HEIs to take advantage of these workshops and available grants to improve their institutions.
In his opening speech, Dr. Nith Bunlay discussed the importance of building research capacity in every HEI. He was specific in mentioning that research personnel should be long term staff members, allowing them time to build an understanding of grant proposal writing and criteria of funding agencies.
Following the opening remarks, each university who had prepared a grant proposal, presented them to the conference and received feedback. The message conveyed from these presentations was the idea that HEIs need to focus on turning research problems into research objectives. In order to reframe the problems, HEIs must start looking at contextual, theoretical and methodological problems in the system and working to find new ways of approaching these issues.
In conclusion, Dr. Nith Bunlay presented an optimistic closing speech to the conference. He commended those universities that shared their proposals with the conference and applauded the sharing and collaboration apparent throughout the conference. He also shared his hope that each HEI will take advantage of the grants available to them and to expand their research departments accordingly.
