The World Bank, Africa Region

Africa Centers of Excellence

Proposal Submission Form
Please complete the Form (electronically), taking into account the Africa Centers of Excellence
(ACE) Project description and evaluation criteria.
The maximum page limit is 40____
This proposal template consists of 13 sections:
1. Basic Institutional and Proposal Information, including a half page summary of the
proposal
2. SWOT Analysis of the Proposal
3. Development Challenge to be addressed by the Center of Excellence and ACE Objectives
4. The Results of the ACE
5. ACE Actions Plans for each core activity:
5.2 Learning excellence
5.2 Research excellence
5.3 Equity dimensions
5.4 Attracting regional students and faculty
5.5 Regional and national academic partners
5.6 Regional and national sector partners
5.7 International partners
5.8 Management and governance
5.9 Sustainable financing
6 Use of Existing Physical Resources
7 Faculty Resources and Training
8 Implementation Capacity, Arrangements and Plans
9 Implementation Plan of Each Action Plan
10 Main Costs of the Proposal
11 Risks
12 Additional Information
13 Agreements with Key People
Attachments:
Strategic Plan
Curriculum Vitae of key personnel:
o The proposed Center and Institutional Leader
o The 2-4 Principal teaching and researcher members
Letters of Supports:
o From regional and national partners
o From companies and knowledge partners involved in the sector
o From international universities and institutions
List of other large projects to be implemented by the institutions over the 2013-2016
period including total cost of projects in $USD
External auditor reports for the last two fiscal years

Section 1: Basic Institutional and Proposal information

Originating Institution (s):
Center of Excellence Name (and acronym):
Total Amount Requested (US$):
Co-Financing from other sources both cash and in-kind contributions (including core funding) (US$):
Main Departments involved in the Center
Contact Details
Position
Name
Address
Office Phone
Head of Institution
Proposed Center
Leader
Deputy Center
Leader/Principal
investigator
Basic Institutional Information (this institutional data should include data from the last 5 years):
Main Departments participating in the center of excellence
Name of
Department

No. of
Faculty
( Full time
equivalent)

NonNational

Faculty Qualifications
PhD
Master
(% of total)
(% of total)

Bachelor and
below
(% of total)

Mobile

Total

Email

No. of Students
Female
Non-national
(% of total) (% of total)

Academic Programs offered for 2013/14 relevant to the Center of Excellence:

Duratio
Enrolment
No. of
Title of
Level (Bachelor,
No.
n
2013/14
Graduates
Programme
Master or PhD)
(Years)
(all classes)
2012/13
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.

Program Accreditation
(Yes/No)

Note: add rows as required.

Institutional budget (in national and international (where applicable) currency):

Total budget

government subvention

Tuition and other

student fees

Revenue from
consultancies*

Note: include the budget year

* Only consultancy revenue that is available for the institution (audited)

Other revenue (if large

include source; include
international funding for
both education and
research
projects/programs with
from international
partners)

Last Year of
Accreditation

Section 2 SWOT Analysis of the Proposal.

Briefly provide a SWOT analysis of the proposal using on the table below:
Strengths

Weaknesses

Opportunitie
s

Strategic question: which opportunities

can be explored through the strengths of
the institute?

Strategic question: which

opportunities may help overcome
weaknesses?

Threats

Strategic question: how can the

institute/center use its strengths to reduce
its vulnerabilities?

Strategic question: to which

threats is the institute/center
particularly vulnerable and how
can the center overcome these?

Guidance: The strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats that arise from internal and
external sources: government policies, industry needs, international best practices. This should be
an analysis at the institutional level (lead institution).

Section 3 Development Challenge and Center-of-Excellence Objectives

.
1. Briefly state the development challenge that the proposal is designed to address in your
institution.
Guidance: Describe the importance of the development problem

2. Describe how this proposal if funded would contribute to addressing the development
challenge
Guidance: In the description kindly keep in mind expected results from the project,
notably describe how graduates, applied research and outreach/collaboration proposed
will address the development challenge
3. Describe the role of partner institutions in successfully addressing the development
challenge, jointly with and under the guidance of your own institution
4. Describe existing similar centers of excellence in your country or in neighboring countries
with the same objective (if any)
Guidance: Describe (i) initiatives by other higher education institutions in West or
Central Africa that train and perform research within the proposed areas and (ii) to which
degree are these institutions part of the proposal?

5. Describe how your Centers proposal fits into (i) your Institutions overall Strategic Plan,
(ii) your overarching/parent institutions Strategic Plan and (iii) your countrys or regional
organizations Strategic Plan (attach Strategic Plans if and when appropriate).

Section 4: The Results of the Center of Excellence

Guidance: Please provide the full results framework with a specific focus on PDO indicators (see the Project Appraisal Document [PAD] and its Project
Development Objectives [PDOs], as well as its Results Framework). Insert annual targets and milestones. All proposed activities should align to this.
Objective

Indicator

1.Strengthen
Education
Capacity
excellence
quality and
productivity

N# of new students
in ACE courses
(30% must be
regional
students*):

2.Strengthen
Education
Capacity &
Development
Impact

New PhD
students

New Master
students

New short
term (min. 40
hours)

No of regional
students

Baseline(2012)

Baseline
(2013)

Annual Targets (2014)

No. of Students
and/faculty with at
least 1 month
internship in a
private sector
company or a local
institutions
relevant to their

Annual Targets (2015)

Annual Targets (2016)

Annual Targets (2017)

field/ sector

No. of
internationally
accredited
education
programs including
sub-regional
accreditation

3.Strengthen
Research
Capacity
excellence
quality and
productivity

Increase of
internationally
recognized
research
publications in
disciplines
supported by the
ACE-Program

4.Strengthen
education and
research
capacity
(through
increased
financial
sustainability)

Amount of
externally1generate
d revenue by the
ACEs2

1 External revenue could include funds from the private sector or any of the ACEs Partner Institutions, governments etc. however, would exclude governmental
subsidies.
2 The externally generated revenue would need to be certified as part of the financial audit (see also Indicator No. 12).

and
demonstration
of value to
students and
partners

Section 5: Center of Excellence Action Plans (Limited to 18 pages in total 2 pages

maximum per action plan)
Guidance: Develop, for each action plan, key activities that will be undertaken during the project,
their purposes, and the ways in which they will interact (based on your institutions results
framework for this proposal). This should include, for instance, a description of new courses and
electives to be offered as part of the Centers of Excellence; the credentials, role, and length of
stay of any visiting professors or technical experts; the contribution of any visiting professors;
use of any requested pedagogic and library materials; and the role and expected use of any
laboratory equipment requested.
5.1 ACE Action Plan to achieve Learning Excellence (Maximum 2 pages for this section)
Guidance: Describe key activities that are needed for achieving learning excellence. These
include offering new master programs, new electives, short term courses for industry and
government professionals, finishing courses, new and innovative teaching & learning
approaches (e.g. team-based learning) and/or methods, revising curricula (both the content (what
they learn) and the context (how they learn), institution and/or program accreditation, investment
into new labs, purchase of learning equipment, and minor rehabilitation of existing facilities,
upgrading of faculty, amongst others. Please include the use of ICT in delivering Learning
Excellence
Describe briefly which Objectives and Results this action plan will contribute towards:

Describe in detail what this action plan entails:

5.2 ACE Action Plan for Research Excellence (Maximum 2 pages for this section)
Guidance: Describe key activities that are needed for achieving research excellence. These
include scaling-up PhD programs, industry and/or international research collaboration, joint
research programs, purchase of research equipment, faculty development, research grant pools,
incentives based on achievement such as publications in highly ranked journals, and field studies,
amongst others. (Note incentives do not have to include direct monetary benefits, but can include
study abroad, research visits and other non-salary incentives). Please include the use of ICT in
delivering Research Excellence
Describe briefly which Objectives and Results this action plan will contribute towards:

Describe in detail what this action plan entails:

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5.3 ACE Action Plan regarding Equity Dimensions (Maximum 2 pages for this section)
Guidance: Describe key activities that are needed to ensure an equitable distribution of excellent
and high-quality teaching & learning and research efforts among qualified national and subregional academic partner institutions. Include the leading role of the ACE to ensure broad-based
scientific capacity-building across the country and possibly sub-regionally, preventing isolated
academic ivory-tower excellence, ensuring social relevance and enhancing as wide a joint
scientific constituency as possible.
Describe briefly which Results this Action Plan will contribute towards:
Describe in some detail what this action plan entails, either comprehensively across sectors and
academic disciplines, or individually per sector and academic discipline, or by scientific topic
selected:

11

5.4 ACE Action plan for attracting Regional Faculty and Students (Maximum 2 pages for
this section)
Guidance: Describe key activities that are planned to attract regional faculty and students. These
include information outreach/marketing to potential students, faculty and researchers from
around the region, potential student, faculty and researchers flows from academic partner
institutions in the region, partnership agreements with companies (regarding both R&D relevant
to the companies concerned and targeted education for graduate needs of the companies
concerned), sector organizations, and governments for short term training of working
professionals, etc. This section could also describe the activities planned to facilitate broad
regional student attendance, such as language support and support for relocating, as well as
institutionalized faculty exchange or regional research projects. Similarly out-reach programs to
strengthen academic partner institutions in more remote areas or neighboring countries may be
included here.
Describe briefly which Objectives and Results this action plan will contribute towards:

Describe in detail what this action plan entails:

12

5.5 ACE Action Plan for Regional and National Academic partners (Maximum 2 pages for
this section)
Guidance: Describe key activities that would engage with and contribute to enhanced learning
and teaching performance and research performance in national academic partner institutions
(specific national academic partners e.g. by discipline or specific inter-disciplinary
orientation), as well as , where suitable, regional academic, scientific or professional partner
institutions (e.g. in neighboring countries).
Describe briefly which Objectives and Results this action plan will contribute towards:

Describe in detail what this action plan entails:

13

5.6 ACE Action Plan for Regional and National Sector Partners (Maximum 2 pages for this
section)
Guidance: Describe key activities that would engage with and contribute to enhanced learning
and teaching performance, and research performance, in national sector partner institutions
(specific national academic or research sector partners e.g. by sector or specific inter-sectoral
orientation, such as national agricultural research institutes or national medical research
institutes that may not be directly affiliated with an academic or university establishment), as well
as, where suitable, regional academic, scientific or professional sector partner institutions (e.g. in
neighboring countries). This also includes collaboration with line ministries.
Describe briefly which Objectives and Results this action plan will contribute towards:

Describe in detail what this action plan entails:

14

5.6 ACE Action Plan for Collaboration with International Partners (Maximum 2 pages for
this section)
Guidance: Describe key activities envisaged to ensure close collaboration with high-quality
international partners. These include both short-term and long-term faculty exchange and joint
research projects and scientific publications between the ACE and universities and research
institutions elsewhere in Africa and in other continents worldwide.
Describe briefly which Objectives and Results this action plan will contribute towards:

Describe in detail what this action plan entails:

15

5.8 ACE Action Plan for Management and Governance (Maximum 2 pages for this section)
Guidance: Describe key measures, structures and activities (to be) undertaken to ensure that
academic governance remains free from political or special interest influence (e.g. regarding
academic appointments) and allows the pursuit of both learning & teaching and research in as
free an academic and scientific environment as possible. In addition, describe management
activities designed to enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of teaching and research
performance, including the enabling environment for both. Please include the use of ICT
management and governance of the grant.

Describe briefly which Objectives and Results this action plan will contribute towards:

Describe in detail what this action plan entails:

16

5.9 ACE Action plan for Sustainable Financing (Maximum 2 pages for this section)
Guidance: Describe key activities that are needed to ensure sustainable financing. These include
core financing, tuition for popular professional development courses, research consulting fees,
funding for joint international research projects and programs, fundraising and donations.
Describe briefly which Objectives and Results this action plan will contribute towards:

Describe in detail what this action plan entails:

17

Section 6: Use of Existing Physical Resources

List existing, relevant, major resources in your department, unit or institution that will be used in
the project. These may include special equipment, existing labs, library collections or journal
subscriptions, available human resources from other departments (including administration,
financial management and procurement), etc. These will be important for judging the proposals
potential contribution to efficiency improvement.
Resource

Currently used for and by

18

Proposed Project

Section 7: Faculty Resources, Capacity Building and Visiting/Industry Faculty Plan

First, please summarize the main existing faculty expertise that the Center of Excellence will use
and further built upon to provide up-to-date high quality teaching to students and conduct novel
applied research (Reference could be made to the CVs attached).
Second, please list in summary form, the main areas for faculty development/training of existing
staff, planned use and benefit of visiting faculty from within the region and from international
collaboration as well as use of industry faculty to teach. (Relate these to the relevant action plans
in Section 5).
Type of faculty
(existing, visiting,
new, industry etc.)

Area of expertise

Note: Add lines as needed

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Comment (benefits)

Section 8: Implementation Capacity, Arrangements and Plans

1. Describe the overall implementation capacity and arrangements set up to implement this
proposal.
Guidance: Describe which colleges/academic departments will be involved in the operations of
the Center of Excellence, how will the coordination be managed, and specifically who will be in
charge of the center. (ii) Describe actions, if needed, to ensure adequate capacity, including
necessary hires, systems, purchases, policy changes, or training programs.
2. Academic management
Guidance: Describe how academic quality will be ensured in research and teaching. Will the
universitys existing policies apply to the center? Will existing university offices have a
monitoring function? Specifically which offices and which functions will be involved?
3 Administration, including financial, procurement, and environmental aspects
Specific questions on Financial Management include:
a)
Provide the qualifications and experience in accounting of the staff who will account for
the Centers of Excellence (CoE) funds.
b)
Provide the audited accounts and management letters for the last two years of the
institution
Specific questions on Procurement include:
a) Provide the qualifications and experience of the procurement staff (procurement officers, head
of procurement departments and other responsible designated officials) who will process
purchases for the proposed center of excellence
b) Please provide a typical example of a recent challenge in procurement at your institution (for
example how bottlenecks are overcome, how timelines in procurement are adhered to, how
technical requirements are prepared, if an outside technical consultant is used, how laboratory
equipment is purchased, etc)
Guidance: How will the administration of the center be undertaken? Will the universitys general
administrative policies apply to the center? Will the center management have the necessary
fiduciary capacity in terms of staffing and in terms of knowledge, including financial
management, procurement and environmental capacity? Summarize prior experiences with
donor-funded projects to the extent relevant.

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Section 9: Implementation Plan of each ACE Action plan

Description of Activities

Year 1
1st
Qtr

Example:
Start of short term training
programs of faculty of
nursing schools in
emergency obstetrics
Example: Start of new
electives /courses in
petroleum engineering

Progra
m
design
and
outreac
h
Curricul
um
design
and
visiting
faculty

2nd Qtr.
Cont.

Lab and
equipme
nt
procurem
ent

Year 2
3rd
Qtr.

Start
of
one
week
cour
se
Cont.

4th
Qtr.

1st
Qtr

2nd
Qtr.

one
week
cours
e
Installat
ion

Offeri
ng
to3rd
year
stude
nts

21

Cont.

3rd
Qtr.

Year 3
4th
Qtr.

1st
Qtr

one
week
cours
e

one
week
cours
e

2
PhDs
enroll
ed in
the
new
area

Offeri
ng to
3rd
year
stude
nts
and
start
of
new
Maste
r
progr
am

2nd
Qtr.

3rd
Qtr.
one
week
course

Cont.

Inservice
progra
m for
prof.
engine
ers

4th
Qtr.

Section 10: Main Costs of the Proposal

Provide an indicative list all major budget items above US$ 200,000 along with a statement of their purpose and a teaching, learning, or management related
justification for their inclusion in the proposal. One budget item could be a grouping of a number of separate items. For instance, installation of a hydrology
lab, modernization of soil testing lab, or costs from international collaboration with X university, including travel, visiting faculty, short term PhD travel
scholarship, etc., or costs from academic and research partnership with Y.
Add additional lines as needed.

Action Plan

List major Items/group of items that are required to carry out each action plan in Section 5

1.

Estimated Cost
US$

Total

2.
Dollar equivalent of national currency total
3.
Total value of Proposal budget in US Dollars
Note: The total dollar value of the proposal should be inserted in the appropriate space at the top of page 1. Approved expenditures in national currency will
be disbursed to ACE account in the tertiary institution.Section 11: Risks (Maximum page)
Guidance: Describe risks to the successful implementation of the center of excellence and steps that will be taken to mitigate these risks. Note: this differs to
a SWOT analysis in that the SWOT analysis is focused on the institutional level, while the risk analysis is focused on the level of the center of excellence.

22

Section 12: Additional Information Relevant to the Evaluation of this Proposal (Maximum
one page)
Please provide any additional information that was not covered previously and that is of
importance for the evaluation of this proposal.

23

Section 13: Agreement of Key Members of the Proposal Implementation Team to

Collaborate
Chairman of the Governing Body
Head of Institution
Proposed Center Leader
Head of main departments/colleges involved
We the undersigned Project Participants have agreed to collaborate on this Project

____________________________________________________________
Name and Role
Signature:
Date:

_____________________________________________________________
Name and Role
Signature:
Date:

_____________________________________________________________
Name and Role
Signature:
Date:

_____________________________________________________________
Name and Role
Signature:
Date:

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Attachments:
Strategic Plan, including table with basic institutional indicators
Curriculum Vitae of key personnel:
o The proposed Center Leader
o The 2-4 Principal teaching and research members
Letters of Supports:
o From regional and national partners
o From companies and knowledge partners involved in the sector
o From international universities and institutions
List of other large project implemented by the institutions over the 2010-2016 period
External auditors Statement for the last two fiscal years will be requested if the Proposal is
short-listed and selected for a site-visit
Guidance for attachments:
Attachment 1: Most recent version of the institutional Strategic Plan
Attachment 2 - CVs of key persons for the proposed Center of Excellence
Provide abridged curriculum vitae of not more than 4 pages per key person. The CVs for the
proposed Center Leader and the 2-3 principal faculty members/researchers are mandatory. The
CVs should briefly describe relevant academic qualifications, pertinent professional experience,
relevant publications, current positions and other relevant information.
Attachment 3 - Letters of Support
Name of Partnership organization/firm:
Basic Characteristics of the Firm:
Number of Employees:
Main products:
Annual revenues:
Area of Proposed Collaboration:

Budget:
Firms Contribution toward the Center:
Potential funding, provision of guidance, provision of internships, provision of industry
teachers, etc.
Expected Benefits from the Collaboration:

25

Letters of support should be signed by senior management of the partner institutions

The letter of support or the proposal must include a contact person from each main partner (with
phone and email contacts)

26