USU PR– Universitas Sumatera Utara (USU) held a training on proposal writing for the Community Service Program, funded by the Directorate of Research, Technology and Community Service (DRTPM). The event occurred at the Le Polonia Hotel & Convention on Wednesday (Mar. 6)

This activity is an important annual routine carried out to meet the needs of community service, especially at the national level, as well as the Tri Dharma obligation of lecturers, which is carried out to pass the national training selection. Therefore, this activity invites resource persons who are experts in national community service.

Through this activity, the participants who attended the training showed improvements every year.

Prof. Dr. Okid Parama Astirin, MS., as a resource person in today's training, emphasized the importance of thorough preparation in writing a funding proposal. He said that this funding source is highly competitive among lecturers throughout Indonesia. In addition, support for control from the APBN is also needed to ensure the quality of the submitted proposals.

Prof. Okid also told USU lecturers not to upload their proposals until the deadline. Because late uploading of proposals can cause fewer proposals to be reviewed by national reviewers, even though the number of proposals submitted is high. One of the contributing factors is the lack of consistency in format and completeness according to the established rules.

"Don't upload proposals close to the deadline, so even though the number sent is high, in terms of substance, only a few are finally reviewed by national reviewers. The number of yearly proposals is high because the proposals may not be sent perfectly. But the real ones received are only a few. That's one reason. The other reason is the lack of format, completeness in accordance with the rules, and so on. All lecturers are smart; it's just a matter of intention," explained Prof. Okid.

Secretary of the Institute for Research and Community Service (LPPM) USU, Dr. Meutia Nauly S.Psi., M.Si., and Psychologist hope that the number and quality of proposals submitted will continue to improve. He also responded to Prof. Okid's suggestion regarding the importance of avoiding submitting proposals at the last minute. Finally, Dr. Meutia emphasized the need for a fast and efficient upload process to avoid potential problems, especially near the final deadline.

"We hope that there will be more and more proposals with good quality, in addition to what Prof. Okid said earlier about how lecturers can make them not at the last minute so that the process can be processed because we will involve the upload process, and there is a process that is relatively long and can cause problems, especially in the last few days. So it's better to finish the upload process quickly”, said Meutia.