Grants:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/Training program at Bioinformatics and Molecular Biology Unit, Federal University of Technology, Akure

statusNot funded
Training program at Bioinformatics and Molecular Biology Unit, Federal University of Technology, Akure
start date2023-06-01
end date2024-05-31
budget (local currency)7579658 NGN
amount requested (USD)16493.58 USD
grant typeIndividual
funding regionSSA
decision fiscal year2022-23
funding program roundRound 2
applicant and people related to proposalUser:Solaeleko

User:Mrnyben1313

User:Bibiire1

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Applicant details edit

Wikimedia username(s):

User:Solaeleko

User:Mrnyben1313 User:Bibiire1

Organization:

G. Have you received grants from the Wikimedia Foundation before?

Applied previously and did receive a grant

H. Have you received grants from any non-wiki organization before?

No

H.1 Which organization(s) did you receive grants from?

N/A

M. Do you have a fiscal sponsor?

No

M1. Fiscal organization name.

N/A

Additional information edit

R. Where will this proposal be implemented?

Nigeria

S. Please indicate whether your work will be focused on one country (local), more than one or several countries in your region (regional) or has a cross-regional (global) scope:

Local

S1. If you have answered regional or international, please write the country names and any other information that is useful for understanding your proposal.

T. If you would like, please share any websites or social media accounts that your group or organization has. (optional)

N/A

M. Do you have a fiscal sponsor?

No

M1. Fiscal organization name.

N/A

Proposal edit

1. What is the overall vision of your organization and how does this proposal contribute to this? How does this proposal connect to past work and learning?

I am a faculty member at the Federal University of Technology, Akure, and currently head the Bioinformatics and Molecular Biology Unit, Department of Biochemistry. In 2022, I was ranked among the world’s top 2% of scientists by Stanford University. I contribute to medical-related topics on Wikipedia. We want to build capacity for students (undergraduates and postgraduates) and academic staff on how to contribute to Wikipedia, and we want to run this program as an extra-curriculum activity. The vision is to recruit subject-specific experts for Wikipedia.

2. What is the change that you are trying to bring about and why is this important?

The change we are trying to bring about is building capacity for students (postgraduate and undergraduate) and academic staff on how to contribute to Wikipedia.

  • Challenge: Academics are positioned to improve Wikipedia yet they neither contribute nor encourage their students to contribute.
  • Problems: The above challenge impacts the quality of contributions to Wikipedia, especially those on subject-specific topics.
  • Activities: We will organize monthly training and edit-a-thons for students and academic staff, after which they will be mentored and assignments will be given to them and graded.
  • Outcomes: At the end of this program, at least 200 students and academic staff members will have gained experience on how to contribute to Wikipedia. At least 300 articles would be created.

3. Describe your main approaches or strategies to achieve these changes and why you think they will be effective.

Our main approach or strategy is to build capacity for students (postgraduate and undergraduate) and academic staff on how to contribute to Wikipedia. This would be achieved through a monthly training program, mentoring, and continuing to engage them after the program. This way, we can bring about this change

4. What are the activities you will be developing and delivering as part of these approaches or strategies?

  • Invitation: Academic staff members and students are invited to a training program.
  • Training: Trainings are conducted for participants.
  • Mentoring: New participants are mentored immediately after each training.
  • Assignment: Assignments are given to participants and graded.
  • Reward: Each month, the top 3 participants are awarded souvenirs and certificates.
  • Continued engagement: Participants continue to be engaged after the program.

5. Do you want to apply for multi-year funding?      

No

5.1 If yes, provide a brief overview of Year 2 and Year 3 of the proposed plan and how this relates to the current proposal and your strategic plan?

N/A

6. Please include a timeline (operational calendar) for your proposal.

7. Do you have the team that is needed to implement this proposal?

8. Please state if your proposal aims to work to bridge any of the identified CONTENT knowledge gaps (Knowledge Inequity)? Select up to THREE that most apply to your work.

Content Gender gap

8.1 In a few sentences, explain how your work is specifically addressing this content gap (or Knowledge inequity) to ensure a greater representation of knowledge.

We plan to organize a monthly edit-a-thon to contribute scientific topics to Wikipedia. This is our strategy to address the content gap.

9. Please state if your proposal includes any of these areas or THEMATIC focus. Select up to THREE that most apply to your work and explain the rationale for identifying these themes.

Education

10. Will your work focus on involving participants from any underrepresented communities? Please note, we had previously asked about inclusion and diversity in terms of CONTENTS, in this question we are asking about the diversity of PARTICIPANTS. Select up to THREE that most apply to your work.

Geographic

11. What are your strategies for engaging participants, particularly those that currently are non-Wikimedia?

This program would run as part of our department's extracurricular activities. To keep participants engaged, assignments would be given and graded. We will provide incentives in form of internet data, souvenirs, and certificates to encourage participants to keep participating.

12. In what ways are you actively seeking to contribute towards creating a safer, supportive, more equitable environment for participants and promoting the UCOC and Friendly Space Policy, and/or equivalent local policies and processes?

During each training, at least one or two hours would be dedicated to the UCoC so that participants could familiarize themselves with the behavioral expectations during the program. Our department has a standard procedure for taking disciplinary action, but in extreme cases, we will inform the Wikimedia Foundation.
All participants would be given an equal opportunity during this program without any form of discrimination against sex, gender, or race.

13. Do you have plans to work with Wikimedia communities, groups, or affiliates in your country, or in other countries, to implement this proposal?

No

13.1 If yes, please tell us about these connections online and offline and how you have let Wikimedia communities know about this proposal.


14. Will you be working with other external, non-Wikimedian partners to implement this proposal?

No

14.1 Please describe these partnerships and what motivates the potential partner to be part of the proposal and how they add value to your work.

N/A

15. How do you hope to sustain or expand the work carried out in this proposal after the grant?


16. What kind of risks do you anticipate and how would you mitigate these. This can include factors such as external/contextual issues that may affect implementation, as well as internal issues, such as governance/leadership changes.

Lack of participation and poor communications have been identified as potential risks, but they would be mitigated as described below.
  • Lack of participation - We will highlight the importance of encyclopedic writing skills and how this could enhance their academic performance.
  • Poor communication - We will create a more efficient communication strategy among participants, facilitators, and coordinators.

17. In what ways do you think your proposal most contributes to the Movement Strategy 2030 recommendations. Select a maximum of three options that most apply.

Increase the Sustainability of Our Movement

18. Please state if your organization or group has a Strategic Plan that can help us further understand your proposal. You can also upload it here.  

No

Learning, Sharing, and Evaluation edit

19. What do you hope to learn from your work in this fund proposal?

We hope to learn the following
  • How does the program impact participants?
  • How diverse are the contributions?
  • What subject-specific topics interest participants the most?
  • What factors impact the program?
  • What challenges did we face during the program?
  • What worked well for the program?
  • What did not work well for the program?
  • What we could do to improve the program?

20. Based on these learning questions, what is the information or data you need to collect to answer these questions? Please register this information (as metric description) in the following space provided.

Main Metrics Description Target
Number of academics that participated This is the total number of academic staff members that participated and create accounts 20
Number of (postgraduate and undergraduate) students that participated This is the total number of students that participated and create accounts 200
Number of new articles created This is the total number of new articles created by students and academic staff 500
Number of non-males that participated This would help us identify the diversity of participants 100
Number of editors that continue to participate after the program This is the total number of editors that continue to participate after the program. We want to measure the retention rate 50

Here are some additional metrics that you can use if they are relevant to your work. Please note that this is just an optional list, mostly of quantitative metrics. They may complement the qualitative metrics you have defined in the previous boxes.

Additional Metrics Description Target
Number of editors that continue to participate/retained after activities Editors that continue to participate/retained after the program 50
Number of organizers that continue to participate/retained after activities 10
Number of strategic partnerships that contribute to longer term growth, diversity and sustainability N/A N/A
Feedback from participants on effective strategies for attracting and retaining contributors We will collect feedback from participants to learn about the impact of the training 200
Diversity of participants brought in by grantees Number of women that would participate 100
Number of people reached through social media publications N/A N/A
Number of activities developed Number of activities developed 10
Number of volunteer hours Hours of volunteers invested 300

21. Additional core quantitative metrics. These core metrics will not tell the whole story about your work, but they are important for measuring some Movement-wide changes. Please try to include these core metrics if they are relevant to your work. If they are not, please use the space provided to explain why they are not relevant or why you can not capture this data. Your explanation will help us review our core metrics and make sure we are using the best ones for the movement as a whole.

Core Metrics Summary
Core metrics Description Target
Number of participants Total number of people that would participate 300
Number of editors Number of people that would create account 200
Number of organizers Total number of people that would be involved in organizing this program 10
Number of new content contributions per Wikimedia project
Wikimedia Project Description Target
Wikipedia The number of articles improved and the number of articles created. 300
Wikimedia Commons The number of images added to Wikipedia 200
N/A N/A N/A
N/A N/A N/A
N/A N/A N/A

21.1 If for some reason your proposal will not measure these core metrics please provide an explanation.

N/A

22. What tools would you use to measure each metric selected?

We will use the following tools.

  • Wikimedia outreach dashboard
  • Wikimedia event metrics dashboard

Financial Proposal edit

23. & 23.1 What is the amount you are requesting from WMF? Please provide this amount in your local currency. If you are thinking about a multi-year fund, please provide the amount for the first year.

7579658 NGN

23.2 What is this amount in US Currency (to the best of your knowledge)?

16493.58 USD

23.3 Please upload your budget for this proposal or indicate the link to it.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1I4H9xjaGoBucS8adsS4Z0fazs6VTsRviSTOz-ZsIOPQ/edit#gid=2099383086

23.4 Please include any additional observations or comments you would like to include about your budget.

N/A

Please use this optional space to upload any documents that you feel are important for further understanding your proposal.

Other public document(s):

Final Message edit

By submitting your proposal/funding request you agree that you are in agreement with the Application Privacy Statement, WMF Friendly Space Policy and the Universal Code of Conduct.

We/I have read the Application Privacy Statement, WMF Friendly Space Policy and Universal Code of Conduct.

Yes


Feedback edit