As we continue exploration of the Research for Impact Initiative (R4i) experience, more participants have shared their unique perspectives and insights into the programme
R4i is a ground-breaking initiative of TETFund in collaboration with Innov8 Hub which aims to equip members of Nigerian academia from various public higher institutions with the necessary skills, processes and procedures needed to create innovative solutions from their research ideas, in order to tackle real-world challenges.
Through their voices, a deeper understanding of the challenges, growth, and connections forged on the remarkable journey so far.
My R4i Experience: Nasiru Suleiman
Over the years as a university lecturer with vast experience of teaching and research at the prestigious Usmanu Danfodiyo University, the pursuit of uncommon didactic and transformative knowledge has always been at the forefront of my aspiration. Though I garnered prestigious grants in my field of research and was honoured with the esteemed Fulbright Research scholar award, which avails me the opportunity to delve into the realms of academia in the United States. Such knowledge, through untrammeled struggles and stride, have limited the frontier of morphing it to spawns socio-economic values that are fundamentally indispensable with efforts being injected.
Receiving a pristine transformative knowledge through the Research for Impact initiative has created a renewed hope and aspiration that all the efforts in teaching and practical engagements in my discipline have not disappeared into forlorn hope. This programme has depicted from the title, limited vicissitude of time done justice in transforming my mindset for an aesthetic stride in commanding the inherent commercial values inbuilt in me, towards promotion of individual and humanity’s socio-economic status. The immense effort of R4i has transformed and obliterated my untransformed knowledge to prolific endeavours of converting its economic values.
Albeit, the Research for Impact (R4i) initiative at Innov8 Hub, for two enlightening weeks, was a didactic training that created an idea that radically absolved my thought of overwhelming reliance on monthly stipends. It has positively accelerated my consciousness towards making a better living standard, as well as channeling the course for empowerment of youths as job creators by tapping the enviable advantages and opportunities.
R4i has distilled and redefined my thought and aspiration against the directionless purpose of reading voraciously without engagement; to convert it into an enviable provenance of money-making venture creation. At this juncture, with a high sense of humility and resolution of mind, I say with a high sigh of relief from knowledge acquired from this initiative, thank you all. However, it is splendid and worthy of associating with intelligentsia. I am therefore immensely grateful to the initiators (TETFund and Innov8 Hub, my colleagues and my esteemed Usmanu Danfodiyo University Sokoto, for the convivial relations I enjoyed during the course of the training programme.
My R4i Experience: Engr. Nura Hassan, Federal Polytechnic, Damaturu
I have been wondering for a long time that Nigeria has the people with the best brains, and most of them are in academia. When they go to developed nations, they perform wonderfully. But why not in Nigeria? I found the answer to this long-unanswered question at Innov8 Hub.
Through the R4i initiative, I was able to reorient my faculty of thinking towards research in Nigeria, from research for strictly publications to commercialized research. The facilitators inspired, encouraged, and educated me on how to add value to my research. Consequently, adding value to research means adding value to yourself and the nation. I found myself engulfed in an ocean of opportunities, pushed to be in love with the problems and not the solutions, with an open mind, as problems may have multifaceted approaches toward their solutions.
My level of research and development advanced into one of creativity, innovation, societal impact, and commercialization through dynamic sessions led by excellent facilitators. These sessions fostered a spirit of inquiry, emphasizing that innovation ought to proceed from problem identification through concept creation, hypothesis testing, business modeling, and rapid prototyping. In addition, it included operating models, agile concepts, commercialization, public speaking, prototype creation, emotional intelligence, and intellectual property protection.
For me, innovation has become an emotional process that needs to be guided by the 3H (Head, Heart & Hands) paradigm. It is the people’s invention, by the people, and for the people. Instead of letting the nation’s economic circumstances depress us, we should develop ideas that can SCAMPER (Substitute, Combine, Adapt, Modify, Put to another use, Eliminate, Replace) and make things valuable and advantageous for society.
Through the R4i initiative, I have developed new skills that have clarified why my past research works should not be limited to publications that end up on bookshelves without adding value to society, entrepreneurship, sustainability, patenting, or venture creation. We can change Nigeria’s future for the better. I will always treasure the time I spent at Innov8 Hub, the bond that all participants shared, the hospitality, the technical know-how, the love, the care, and the time management skills of the staff members. They have all had an everlasting impact on my academic and professional career. Without an iota of doubt, the collaboration between Innov8 Hub and TETFund marks the beginning of a new chapter in the Nigerian research and development landscape. This cooperative strategy highlights the enormous potential of cooperation among the Government, Academia and Industry.
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