**4. Steps in sustainability planning**

In practice, sustainability planning outlives research project proposal development and submission processes as it requires long term planning to facilitate diverse donor engagement and for improving institutional capacity of target populations. As such, it is always advised that great pains should be taken to discuss among members of the organization (including research project team members) the various processes and mechanisms to utilize even at the proposal development stage of project activities. Admittedly, and as a result of the strenuous processes, involved, views regarding steps to sustainability planning in the project management and development literature necessarily do not converge [3]. This notwithstanding, the following four suggested practical steps are most useful in guiding the discussion, planning and implementation processes of sustainability planning, particularly in higher education research.
