The Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND) 2022 Alliance for Innovative Research for Nigerian Researchers (TETFAIR) has engaged about 66 participants to intensified efforts toward solution-driven research and development in the country.
The TETFAIR programme is being conducted by TETFund in collaboration with Innov8 Technology Hub, a firm championing the advancement of Science and Technology Education in Nigeria.
The programme is designed to support the advancement of solution-driven research, innovation and sustainable development in Nigeria and is a year-long programme, aimed at providing a unique opportunity for academics and researchers in Nigerian Universities to transform their ideas into market-driven solutions.
Speaking during the opening event of the Programme, the Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu said the edition will help address gaps and proffer solutions that will help Nigeria meet the global demands.
Adamu who was represented by the Honourable Minister of State for Education, Goodluck Nanah Opiah said it will also help promote collaboration between agencies and private sectors in Nigeria.
He Commended TETFund and all partners for the initiative, expressing hope that it will be sustained.
“Most of the countries that have emerged as global leaders have achieved this status through genuinity and hard work of their scientists.
“There is the need for our researchers and research findings to bring about knowledge, sharing of ideas, mobilisation of practical implementation of these ideas.
“I believe that all the experiences gained would be deployed to improve and expand the frontiers of Science and technology in solving real life problems,” the Minister said.
Speaking at the event, the Executive Secretary of TETFund, Arc. Sonny Echono said it is part of its various innovative initiatives designed to promote the institutionalization of R&D and ensure that the research outputs from our tertiary institutions are tailored towards solving our societal problems to enhance national development.
Echono said the programme is carefully packaged to take the participants through various courses that combine the intricacies, processes and procedures of Innovation Development, Prototyping and Venture Creation to enable them bring their innovative ideas to fruition.
“They will also go through training and mentorship on the business/entrepreneurial aspect of their project. At the end of the programme, participants will have the opportunity to showcase their innovations to stakeholders in the innovation ecosystem and potential investors, both local and international.”
The focus areas for the TETFAIR Programme, according to him include Agriculture and Food Technology; Environment, Energy and Circular Economy; Health and Accessibility: Information Communication Technology; Security; Transportation, Aviation and Shipping: and Streamlining/Improving Production Process were carefully selected based on strategic needs and national priorities.
“The choice of the focus areas which align with TETFund’s National Research Fund thematic areas is also based on our conviction that Science, Technology and Innovation have been, and will inevitably remain the most critical inputs to the development process, particularly in the face of increasingly globalized knowledge-driven economies.
“The target is to achieve the desired goal of of innovators and wealth creators for national development, producing entrepreneurs, supporting start-ups as creating a generation.
“For our participants, having emerged successful to participate in the programme based on innovativeness, viability and tangibility of their ideas from a rigorous and competitive selection process, they will have the opportunity to translate their ideas and research into innovation, solutions and enterprise through the access to the ultramodern innovation and fabrication hub as well as the mentoring and capacity enhancement by international experts.
“I believe that the rigorous courses they are going through, coupled with the practical training and tailored mentorship will expose them to a new world of innovative possibilities and empower them to make a difference in the society.
“On our part, the Fund is committed to sustaining its intervention support to ensure that research from our tertiary institutions are responsive to the needs of the society and national aspirations,” the Executive Secretary said.
Also speaking, the Communication adviser Innov8 Hub, Deji Ige was founded by Professor Gregory Ibe and Dr Moshe Moalem, to help Nigerians who are pregnant with innovative ideas birth them into invention, nurse their invention into solution, and transform their solution into enterprise.
He said in the 3 years of it existence, it has become the epicentre of innovation, invention, solution and start-up incubation in Nigeria; aided considerably by critical collaborations with visionary and resilient partners like the Tertiary Education Trust Fund, the Embassy of the State of Israel in Nigeria, MakeLab, Zell Entrepreneurship and others, who share their vision of inculcating the culture of innovation and venture creation in Nigerians; to gradually transform Nigeria into a start-up nation.
“So far, we have helped Nigerians develop and perfect over 72 prototypes ready for commercialization, we have mentored over 150 innovators, inventors and venture creators, among whom are academics and researchers.
“We have been involved in the emergence of 15 solid start-ups and on the backdrop of our impact on Innovation and start-up Ecosystems in Nigeria, the US Secretary of State- Secretary Antony Blinken visited Innov8 Hub during his official trip to Nigeria in November 2021.
“Innovation is a culture, within which the language of interaction is creativity and ingenuity; and when this culture is learned, understood and imbibed by a people, the outcome is invention, solution, enterprise development, job creation, wealth generation and societal improvement. This is the culture Innov8 Hub impacts.
“Today, we gather around the pages of history once again, to write a new chapter that will redefine the essence of academia in Nigeria, and redetermine the fortune of academics and researchers in Nigerian Universities; for the ultimate goal of nation-building.”
Ige added that with the TETFund Alliance for Innovative Research TETFAIR, in collaboration with Innov8 Hub, a paradigm shift has been instigated, that will rejuvenate the Triple Helix Synergy among the Government, the Academia and the Industry.
“Permit me to liken academia to the largest ship ever built, and innovation- to the sea that gives it sail. Without innovation, academia becomes an immobile vessel, bereft of possibilities and power to navigate; hence, the TETFAIR initiative.
“So, the ideas which the 66 participants of TETFAIR will translate into invention, solution and enterprise, may cause them to become patent holders and venture owners; so, while in their classrooms as scholars, their phones will keep buzzing with bank credit alerts, from royalties and profits, same with Government treasury.
“This proactive initiative of TETFUND will definitely bring back the glory days of Nigerian academia being a harvest field of innovation, invention, solution and enterprise for the nation and beyond.
“To the TETFAIR participants, as unapologetically proud Nigerian, may I remind us that once upon a time, tales of invention were written from this side of the globe. Before inkjet paper somewhere in the West, we cast words in iron, on parchment and scroll, tablet of stone and the heart of those in search of greatness; we crafted masterpieces with gold, designed legal tenders, made medicine from herbs and roots, and our lingual invention was a thing of wonder.”
The programme is carefully packaged to take the participants through various courses that combine the intricacies, processes and procedures of Innovation Development, Prototyping and Venture Creation to enable them bring their innovative ideas to fruition.
They will also go through training and mentorship on the business/entrepreneurial aspect of their project. At the end of the programme, participants will have the opportunity to showcase their innovations to stakeholders in the innovation ecosystem and potential investors, both local and international.
The Honourable Minister, Science, Technology, and Innovation, represented by the Perm. Sec of the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation, Mrs. Monilola Udoh stressed the need for more research collaborations, saying that it is only the knowledge society that can bring transformation.
The Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission, Prof. Abubakar Adamu Rasheed also said the Government can provide infrastructure, tax reduction, multiple wavers, to enable the academia to conduct research.
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