**1. Introduction**

In recent times, the term "sustainability," a word frequently used across several disciplines, has gained significant popularity in policy-oriented research and other social sectors of development, and consequently has become part of our everyday lexis in higher education research. Looking from the lenses of donors and NGO's, it is the most sorted feature nowadays to ensure success to a project venture. Historically, the origin of the word "sustain" dates back several centuries, from two Latin words *sus* which means "up" and *tenere* meaning "to hold." So literally the word "sustain" means "to hold up," although in its current use implies something that continues for a long time. In its current usage, and in research project management sense, sustainability simply is the ability of an organization or research project team to continue its mission or programme of activities far into the future. Looking at sustainability from an organizational point of view, it means continuing to

perform and deliver project benefits to the primary target group after the funding from a donor(s) terminate [1–3]. In other words, sustainability is to maintain and continue your efforts as an organization and/or project management/implementation team after the funding for such activities is over.

Underscoring sustainability planning in research project management1 principally is the view that all projects have to come to an end eventually at some point, but project impact should continue to be delivered for a considerable length of time [2, 4, 5]. Essentially, project donors want to see how project impacts will outlive their (i.e. donors') direct involvement and inputs. This thus makes sustainability planning a key feature of project management practice. In this sense, typically, research project sustainability simply implies the continuation of the research project activities and sustenance of research project outcomes after the initial/primary grant expires. For this reason therefore, most donors are concerned about sustainability aspect of research projects and often fund projects which have a well-defined and/or comprehensive sustainability plans in place [4, 6, 7]. Besides, it is often a challenge for most organizations to ensure a steady flow of funds for executing their projects and programmes. Integrating sustainability principles in their ongoing projects can therefore be an effective way to ensure long term impact.

From a theoretical standpoint, this idea of project impact sustenance holds relevant for all organizations and institutions of higher learning to prevent them from having "donor-driven visions" [2]. However, in practice, the preponderance of available research evidence, particularly from Development and Project Management literature, identifies lack of sustainability planning as one major challenge that has plagued (and continues to plague) research project implementation and management efforts of countries, particularly those in sub-Saharan Africa. In many of these countries, new policy initiatives are not adopted nationwide and sustained after donor-funded projects end. In Ghana as a case in point, new initiatives recede after funding stops, particularly as most funding for projects come from donors [8, 9]. Consequently, the term "sustainability," at least in research project management sense, has come, all of a sudden, to gain enormous popularity and significance in policy-oriented research, and has become part of our everyday lexis in higher education research. Yet, in attempting to address the issue, sustainability planning, particularly in research project proposals, has been approached and conceptualized by many to refer solely to financial sustainability, as if to say other categories and/or types of sustainability either do not exist or do not matter.

This chapter addresses this issue of sustainability planning in higher education research. In the process, financial sustainability is elucidated, and through that two other categories/types of sustainability are identified and discussed crisply for rumination. Following up on this, steps to sustainability planning are outlined to set in context the contention of the chapter that sustainability planning in research project management in higher education requires long term planning to facilitate diverse donor engagements and for improving institutional capacity of target populations. Thereafter, and using an example of a research proposal which responds to Open Call for project proposals for funding from a renowned

<sup>1</sup> Sustainability planning and project management, as used in this article, have different meanings. Project management is used in this article to denote he step-by step process for planning, organizing and managing projects. It involves the practice of initiating, planning, organizing, executing, controlling, and closing the work of a team to achieve specific goals and meet specific success criteria at the specified time. Sustainability planning, on the other hand, is used to depict that aspect of project management that ensures that project activities are planned and executed in such ways that make it possible for project impacts to continue to be delivered and sustained even after the project cycle elapses.

multilateral funding agency, the chapter exemplifies how sustainability planning in research project proposals can be addressed to help strengthen the proposals to attract research funding from potential donors. Essentially, the chapter argues that sustainability planning in higher education research is important in as it prepares higher education institutions to deliver positive outcomes in the absence of primary funding.
