Grants:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/Rapid Fund/Building the Bioinformatics Map in East Africa (ID: 22572613)
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Applicant Details[edit]
- Main Wikimedia username. (required)
KaregaPauline
- Organization
N/A
- If you are a group or organization leader, board member, president, executive director, or staff member at any Wikimedia group, affiliate, or Wikimedia Foundation, you are required to self-identify and present all roles. (required)
N/A
- Describe all relevant roles with the name of the group or organization and description of the role. (required)
Main Proposal[edit]
- 1. Please state the title of your proposal. This will also be the Meta-Wiki page title.
Building the Bioinformatics Map in East Africa
- 2. and 3. Proposed start and end dates for the proposal.
2024-06-03 - 2024-09-06
- 4. Where will this proposal be implemented? (required)
Regional (more than one country in the same continent or region) We intend to do involve these countries in our project; Ethiopia, Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda, and Tanzania
- 5. Are your activities part of a Wikimedia movement campaign, project, or event? If so, please select the relevant project or campaign. (required)
Not applicable
- 6. What is the change you are trying to bring? What are the main challenges or problems you are trying to solve? Describe this change or challenges, as well as main approaches to achieve it. (required)
The main aim of the project is to bring change in the visibility and accessibility of bioinformatics research across East Africa. Currently there is no centralised resource that gives a comprehensive overview of the ongoing bioinformatics research efforts in the region. The information is scattered for students and researchers, which results in fragmented collaboration, duplication in research, and uneven resource distribution caused by the difficulty finding funding sources aligned to their interests.
Our approach is to utilise the power of community, by holding in-person and virtual collaborative "edit-a-thon" events where participants can contribute to building a comprehensive bioinformatics research map for East Africa. We will use crowdsourcing to gather the data, engaging students and, researchers and bioinformatics enthusiasts in the data collection process. A user-friendly centralised platform will be used to compile the collected data. We will then engage experts to create a visually pleasing interactive map, maintaining our open approach.
- 7. What are the planned activities? (required) Please provide a list of main activities. You can also add a link to the public page for your project where details about your project can be found. Alternatively, you can upload a timeline document. When the activities include partnerships, include details about your partners and planned partnerships.
The project is divided into three phases. The main activities include: Phase 1:
- Website development
- Development of outreach material which includes flyers and social media posts and email templates for the edit-a-thon
- Partnership building which involves reaching out to institutions and universities
- Organising a steering committee to guide the project development
Phase 2
- Social media campaigns
- Targeted email outreach
- Information sessions and live Q&As
- The Edit-a-thon platform launch
Phase 3
- Data quality review and verification to check accuracy and consistency
- Website updates and refinements
- Disseminate final map
- Report submission
- 8. Describe your team. Please provide their roles, Wikimedia Usernames and other details. (required) Include more details of the team, including their roles, usernames, Wikimedia group, and whether they are salaried, volunteers, consultants/contractors, etc. Team members involved in the grant application need to be aware of their involvement in the project.
The project team comprises of the organisations main team members and community members. Pauline Karega - Project coordinator; responsible for communication with the key stakeholders, managing timelines, and overseeing the whole project. Paid role. Micheal Landi - Outreach coordinator; managing partnerships with universities, communities, and organisations, and developing outreach strategies to reach possible participants. Paid role. Laurah Nyasita - content creator and social media manager; creates targeted social media campaigns to encourage participation, manages the projects social media presence, develops engaging content for the website. Paid role. Website developers - Responsible for developing and maintaining the user-friendly online platform for the bioinformatics research map. Consultants, Paid role. Steering committee - Comprised of researchers, students, and representatives from partner institutions. provides guidance and oversight for project development and content accuracy, and review information submitted during the edit-a-thon, data quality check.
- 9. Who are the target participants and from which community? How will you engage participants before and during the activities? How will you follow up with participants after the activities? (required)
Our target participants include bioinformatics students, professionals in the fields such as researchers, lectureres, policymakers, funders, and enthusiasts who would benefit from the knowledge.
We plan to initially engage participants using social media platforms including LinkedIn, X, Facebook groups, and slack channels. We will also plan to use emails. We will use these channels to engage with the groups after the activities. The interactive map will also have a chatbot that will allow us to continually engage with individuals interested in the project, including updating it.
- 10. Does your project involve work with children or youth? (required)
No
- 10.1. Please provide a link to your Youth Safety Policy. (required) If the proposal indicates direct contact with children or youth, you are required to outline compliance with international and local laws for working with children and youth, and provide a youth safety policy aligned with these laws. Read more here.
N/A
- 11. How did you discuss the idea of your project with your community members and/or any relevant groups? Please describe steps taken and provide links to any on-wiki community discussion(s) about the proposal. (required) You need to inform the community and/or group, discuss the project with them, and involve them in planning this proposal. You also need to align the activities with other projects happening in the planned area of implementation to ensure collaboration within the community.
The project was ideated from multiple conversations, meet-ups and outreach events carried out by the BHKi group and collated into the edit-a-thon idea in a closed meeting of the BHKi steering committee.
- 12. Does your proposal aim to work to bridge any of the content knowledge gaps (Knowledge Inequity)? Select one option that most apply to your work. (required)
Other Important Topics (topics considered to be of impact or important in the specific context)
- 13. Does your proposal include any of these areas or thematic focus? Select one option that most applies to your work. (required)
Other
- 14. Will your work focus on involving participants from any underrepresented communities? Select one option that most apply to your work. (required)
Not applicable
- 15. In what ways do you think your proposal most contributes to the Movement Strategy 2030 recommendations. Select one that most applies. (required)
I do not know
Learning and metrics[edit]
- 17. What do you hope to learn from your work in this project or proposal? (required)
- The distribution of research resources across the regions listed, and the barriers to poorly equipped regions.
- The research focus and major outcomes of different regions.
- The existing and upcoming communities in the different regions and their main focus such as training, or more.
- 18. What are your Wikimedia project targets in numbers (metrics)? (required)
| Other Metrics | Target | Optional description |
|---|---|---|
| Number of participants | 600 | |
| Number of editors | 15 | |
| Number of organizers | 5 |
| Wikimedia project | Number of content created or improved |
|---|---|
| Wikipedia | 1 |
| Wikimedia Commons | |
| Wikidata | |
| Wiktionary | |
| Wikisource | |
| Wikimedia Incubator | |
| Translatewiki | |
| MediaWiki | |
| Wikiquote | |
| Wikivoyage | |
| Wikibooks | |
| Wikiversity | |
| Wikinews | |
| Wikispecies | |
| Wikifunctions or Abstract Wikipedia |
- Optional description for content contributions.
N/A
- 19. Do you have any other project targets in numbers (metrics)? (optional)
No
| Main Open Metrics | Description | Target |
|---|---|---|
| N/A | N/A | N/A |
| N/A | N/A | N/A |
| N/A | N/A | N/A |
| N/A | N/A | N/A |
| N/A | N/A | N/A |
- 20. What tools would you use to measure each metrics? Please refer to the guide for a list of tools. You can also write that you are not sure and need support. (required)
- Google Analytics: to track website traffic, user demographics, user behavior (e.g., page views, time spent on site), and conversion rates (e.g., number of researchers who submit project information)
- Social media analytics tools: Most social media platforms offer built-in analytics that track reach, impressions, engagement metrics (likes, comments, shares), and follower growth for the project's social media pages.
- Surveys and interviews to gather feedback and on their experiences.
Financial proposal[edit]
- 21. Please upload your budget for this proposal or indicate the link to it. (required)
- 22. and 22.1. What is the amount you are requesting for this proposal? Please provide the amount in your local currency. (required)
619000 KES
- 22.2. Convert the amount requested into USD using the Oanda converter. This is done only to help you assess the USD equivalent of the requested amount. Your request should be between 500 - 5,000 USD.
4970 USD
- We/I have read the Application Privacy Statement, WMF Friendly Space Policy and Universal Code of Conduct.
Yes
Endorsements and Feedback[edit]
Please add endorsements and feedback to the grant discussion page only. Endorsements added here will be removed automatically.
Community members are invited to share meaningful feedback on the proposal and include reasons why they endorse the proposal. Consider the following:
- Stating why the proposal is important for the communities involved and why they think the strategies chosen will achieve the results that are expected.
- Highlighting any aspects they think are particularly well developed: for instance, the strategies and activities proposed, the levels of community engagement, outreach to underrepresented groups, addressing knowledge gaps, partnerships, the overall budget and learning and evaluation section of the proposal, etc.
- Highlighting if the proposal focuses on any interesting research, learning or innovation, etc. Also if it builds on learning from past proposals developed by the individual or organization, or other Wikimedia communities.
- Analyzing if the proposal is going to contribute in any way to important developments around specific Wikimedia projects or Movement Strategy.
- Analysing if the proposal is coherent in terms of the objectives, strategies, budget, and expected results (metrics).