A meeting of the Agricultural Research Council of Nigeria (ARCN) with the National Agricultural Research Institutes (NARIs) was held in December 22, 2021. It was centered on the HORIZON Europe call for proposals. The meeting was held with some EDs and Directors/Heads of Research of various National Agricultural Research Institutes held at the Council’s auditorium. As submitted by Kayode I. Aiyedogbon, Head, Protocol and Publicity at the Council, the Executive Secretary (ES) of ARCN, Prof. Garba Hamidu Sharubutu mni, who was in attendance, noted that there are lots of challenges facing the research sector. He further opined that the nature of budget implementation has not been taking care of research, as more than 60% of the budget goes for sundry things other than research. The ES further stated that when budget topics are framed to reflect research, nobody can fault it. Hence, the Honourable Minister has instructed that at least 60% of budget must be research based. The ES remarked that budget line must be crafted to reflect research activities so that all purchases be embedded in the research topic with suggestions and recommendations to be drawn after the meeting. The ES indicated that the template used to conduct research cannot sustain it since most of the research funding are supposed to come from outside, because Government funding alone can’t sustain research. Closely related to the issue on hand at the meeting, as stated by the ES, was proposal writing which was recently in focus by FARA and some research donor agencies because they are concerned about the ability to put up a very good research proposal for funding.