H22. Motivation

Scientific results distinguish between external motivation and internal.
External motivation, like money, is short-lived and will die out very soon.
Internal motivation, like passion for an innovation that will do good, is long-lasting and sort of never dies.
Also, team motivation is long-lasting, if I know that I belong to a team that is supportive and that is capable of achieving the goal.

Like external motivation will have a negative impact on the HR&S success rate, so will the aid motivation. Meaning we have two negative motivation factors; external and aid.
And two positive; internal and team.

 

Our customers

– Recruiting social entrepreneurs and agreeing on programme collaboration

We aim to ensure that RISE entrepreneurs and partners have internal and team motivation.
Our Branding and Public Relations managers provide platforms for our RISE Centres to identify a new social entrepreneur and partners with the right type of motivation.

unsplash - fuel passsion

CEO’s reflection

It can be noted that in the African context often the word “motivation” often actually refers to being paid with money.

Surveys on motivation- Research management

TP1 Researchers

20 workshops have been held benefitting from the HR&S strategies.

We have target Burkina Faso, Benin, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Kenya, Mali, Nigeria, Rwanda, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

The programme addresses five categories of Target partners (TPs):

  • TP1 Research:
    TP1A. Researchers: PhD students, Post-doc researchers, Professors.
    TP 1B. Research Students: MSc students.
    TP 1C. Supervisors,
    TP 1D. Entrepreneurs from the university.
  • TP2 Education:
    TP 2A. Lecturers.
  • TP3 Research services:
    TP 3A. Laboratory Technicians,
    TP 3B. IT technicians,
    TP 3C. Librarians.
  • TP4 Research management:
    TP 4A. Department management,
    TP 4B. University Top management; VC, DVC research, innovation and enterprising, DVC administration, DVC academic, Finance manager, Bursary,
    TP 4C. Top management Administration; Accountant, Procurement officer, Public relations and communication.
  • TP5 External Research services:
    TP 5A. Agreed Suppliers.

Ambitions

The Professional ambitions concerns:

  1. Individual career goals.
  2. Perform high quality research.
  3. Disseminate scientific findings.
  4. Implement scientific findings.
  5. Enable talents of Africa.

Individual career goals

  • Do scientific career. Be promoted.
  • Become a professor.
  • Become an authority in a subject.
  • Establish a research group and become a team leader.
  • Become journal editor.

Perform high quality research, in order to:

Generate knowledge.

  • Become experts, for example in water treatment.
  • Develop products and services.
  • Generate innovations.

Address the needs of the people

  • Solving problems of the population. Save Africa from suffering from a lot of problems, save Africans.
  • Develop new products and services for the community, for example: minimal amount of minerals required in rice, varieties of cotton, develop phyto-medicine, implement cooperative processes.
  • Characterise the local situation for example: identify appropriate local material (clay etc.), sharing of land.
  • Sensitise the local community on development, for example: analyse the mind-set of the community, promote use of developed products.
  • To know what research that needs to be done to save Africa.
  • To develop our communities by using research results, gather all local research to benefit basic development in the communities.
  • Introduce anthropology in health-care, promote health-care by medicinal plants.

Address the needs of the country

  • To know the needs of the country and address it through research, for example;
    address the lowering level of groundwater, to know the quality of water and able to make advanced measurements of water quality and with the most advanced pieces of equipment, identify and address pollution from industries, to use results from research to improve agricultural and process engineering.

Address the needs of the government

  • Support politicians to develop national policies to promote community development, lobbying politicians
  • Support policymakers.
  • Involve universities and research teams in the elaboration and realisation of development policies.

Address the needs of the private sector.

  • At the university level.
  • At the institutional level.

Disseminate scientific findings

To other researchers

  • Publish scientific papers.
  • Present results at conferences.

To the public

  • Produce books and distribute to the public.
  • Offer workshops to the public.
  • Translate findings into local language.
  • Increase community awareness about development.

To the government

  • Share scientific findings with the policy makers.
  • For example: regulated sharing of land, enabled free movement of people in Africa.
  • Through University website.

To the private sector

  • Through University website.

Implement scientific findings and services while making profit

Offer chemical, physical and biological analytical services

  • Chemical, physical and biological analyses.
  • Accredited chemical analyses.
  • Training on analytical equipment.

Take on consultancy assignments

  • Address the needs of the rural and urban civil society, for example: food security, economic resilience for cotton, manage livestock, access to safe drinking water, improved water treatment, fuel production and appropriate habitat based on local raw material.
  • Address the needs of the government.
  • Address the needs the private sector.

Develop for-profit businesses

  • Sell products and services developed through research.
  • Develop patents of novel ideas for example on pesticide formulation.

Enable talents of Africa

All youths, also those lacking tuition fees.

  • Enable the talents of the youths of the country. Develop the university to be able to capture the genius of all the youths, because only a few get this opportunity, many more would contribute if provided the opportunities.

Female students and researchers.

  • Offer opportunities targeting women to do scientific research.

African researchers in other continents

  • Promote African researchers at other continents.

Outcome challenges

Individual career goals

Lack of motivation to do research

Lack of motivation due to lack of dissemination or implementation

  • To be motivated then I have to add something to the scientific community.
  • Motivation depends on the real goal. You need to have a clear and reachable goals.

Lack of motivation due to weak leadership

  • Some needs to be motivated by others.
  • Good leadership can provide motivation, but we lack motivating leaders.
  • The leader have to give the motivations by their presence in meetings.
  • Police, soldiers, and leadership are related to provide motivation.

Lack of motivation due to limited financial support

  • Low salary, private institution infer more “motivation”.
  • Think should that we make the investment in ourselves, but we do not.

Lack of interest in and passion for research

  • We cannot oblige someone to be motivated.
  • The motivation, or lack of motivation, will be seen as difficulties appear.
  • If we don’t get something when we do something, then we do nothing. The focus may be on achieving money rather than quality values. Some people tend to love money too much.
  • If members do not have motivation he can be chased away from the team. We don’t force anybody to be a member of a research team.

Time management

  • Lack of workhours to spend on research.
  • Administrative challenges.

Perform high quality research

Collaboration & networking

Lack of:

  •  Difficulty with developing multidisciplinary teams.
  • Opportunity to attend conferences.

Performing theoretical research

Lack of

  • Data management.

Performing practical research

Lack of:

  • Access to functioning equipment; AAS, HPLC, GCMS ICPMS FTIR UV LCMS capillary electrophoresis, NMR.
  •  
  • Knowledge about which equipment is needed.
  • Workhours to spend in the laboratory.
  • Not allowed to choose supplier.

Addressing the needs of the rural and urban civil society

Lack of:

  • Information about local needs.
  • Commitment at the community level.
  • Social know-how; how to introduce new methods to the community, how to change the communities’ mind-set.
  • Communication skill and experience from development.
  • Knowledge about local technical conditions, technical know-how and equipment at community level.
  • Weak internet connection at the community level.

Disseminate scientific findings

Lack of:
Publishing about innovations.

Implementing scientific findings

Share scientific findings with the government

Lack of:

  • Communication between academic sector and policy makers.
  •  
  • Opportunity to practice.
  • Policy-briefs

Developing Businesses

Lack of:

  • Publishing about innovations.
  • Patent certification.
  • Human resources.
  • Capacity related to production and valorisation.
  • Capital.
  •  
  • Land and related means when agriculture is targeted.
  •  

Enable talents of Africa

  • Social economic challenges hindering women from doing scientific career.