On Wednesday, October 30, 2013 4:00:20 PM, Folorunso Oludayo <daydupe2003@yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
Nigerian R&D funds go unclaimed
Two Nigerian research funds have issued a second call for applications after their first calls earlier this year went unanswered by the country's academics.
The Lagos State government announced a N1.5 billion (US$9.4 million) fund for researchers across the country to turn research results into commercial products and services in February, but has had no responses to it so far.
And in June the federal government announced a US$1.2m fund for research on cocoa farming. This, too, has gone unclaimed.
Babatunde Fashola, governor of Lagos State, said he is disappointed with the lack of interest in the state's grants, particularly as the announcement was a response to complaints from university lecturers and scientists about a lack of funding.
Apart from supporting commercialisation, the Lagos grants also aim to facilitate collaborative partnerships with the private sector and with domestic and international research institutions.
On the cocoa funding, Nigeria's agriculture minister, Akinwunmi Adesina, said it is important that researchers take advantage of the offer to help Nigeria increase its share of the world cocoa market.
"We want researchers to come up with results that will drive up production yield per unit land area on the current 650,000 hectares of active plantation through efficient use of critical inputs like agrochemicals or fertilizers," he said.
Researchers in the country offer various explanations for why national research funding sources go unclaimed.
Bamidele Aro, a lecturer at Lagos State University, says he isn't sure about the explanation, but suggests that academics might feel that the funding won't materialise and so isn't worth applying for.
"I strongly feel researchers seem to believe that this type of funding is just for the pages of the newspaper," he says.
Researchers should give government the benefit of the doubt, he says, be more open to government policies and work with government to achieve development through research.
Oyedeji Samuel, a young researcher studying food science technology at Lagos State University, says the lack of applications could also indicate poor communication between government and academics.
"It's not as if researchers do not want to take advantage of the funding, but many of them do not get to know of research funding announcements on time because adequate information is not disseminated," he says.
Besides, he adds, many Nigerian academics seek grants outside the country and Nigerian opportunities are simply not on their radar.
To access the cocoa funding, interested researchers should go directly to the Ministry of Agriculture's cocoa division at the Federal Secretariat Abuja Nigeria and log on to the website www.fmard.gov.ng. Fax: +234 9 5233644
To access the Lagos State funding, researchers should contact the Lagos State Research Development Council at the State Secretariat, Alausa, Lagos. email: Info@lagosstate.gov.ng
Image credit: EverJean, Flickr
FASINA, Folorunso Oludayo, DVM (Ibadan), MSc (Veterinary Science, Pretoria), PhD (Pretoria)
Senior Lecturer, Section of Swine Health,
Department of Production Animal Studies ,
University of Pretoria,
Onderstepoort 0110,
South Africa.
Telephone: +27 (12) 529 8069; Cellphone: +27 719 790 042;
dayo.fasina@up.ac.za (Work email)
Nigerian Tel: +234 (0) 803 6494 772, +234 (0) 703 312 8949
Research Interest: Viral Epidemiology, Economics and Ecology, Disease Modelling at Animal-Human Interface.
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