The first collaborative research initiative held at the
Kwara State University, Malete, Kwara state, from the 9th – 13th
May, 2015. The theme of the conference was Building Research Capacity in
Nigerian universities and other research Institutions. The opening ceremony was
chaired by Dr Killian C. Ikwuakor, the Director Centre for Sponsored Project
Convener/Chairman LOC.
The Collaborative Research Initiative Conference is a forum
for representatives from academia, government, industry and other interested
parties to discuss the importance of collaborative research in nurturing future
research leader and more importantly finding solutions to the developmental
challenges facing Nigeria.
Dr Killian during the conference said research needs to be
commercialized in order be taking serious and important to create solutions to
problems facing the country, saying research and innovation are the bedrock of
the successful development of countries all over the world and Nigeria like the
rest of the world , faced with daunting and complex societal and developmental
challenges will only create solutions to its problem if only we are prepared to
embrace collaborative research and advancing it, as we also look forward to
commercializing every aspect of our research.
The key benefit of the 1st collaborative research
initiative conference is to promote collaborative research, support sustainable
research linkages among universities, research institutions, government and
industries. To strengthen the capacity of research institution to conduct and
deliver more applied research, encourage partnership for effective
collaboration and funding, recommend world-class and uniform research standards
for Nigerian universities and other research constitution, create a directory
of experts and research supervisory/advisors accessible to prospective
researchers and postgraduate students, working towards achieving world-class
research-oriented postgraduate education for training and nurturing future
research leaders and finally promote under-graduate research programmes in
social entrepreneurship.
During an interview with the Coordinator, Centre for
Undergraduate Research Programme (CURP) Dr Grace T. Abolaji, who said that
apart from the collaborative research, the university has shown love to its
community by helping to improve the level of agriculture within its environs,
although they had already trained the women in the community on how to improve their lives through various
agricultural vocational training and the institution is not stopping at that,
but also working to create a suitable environment and platform, to train and
educate the students on the importance of research and agriculture, and ways to
create job opportunity and wealth.
She futher noted that with more collaborative research the
country is going to experience a huge success in agriculture and other sector,
as research will be taken with all seriousness. She also said that family farms
should be encouraged and farmers should also make use of the irrigation system
created.
The stakeholders at the end of the conference resulted, that
research should not be generalized but should be specific, and should
collaborate with local authorities. It was further said that definite research
policy should be created to regulate all it activities, which also includes
funding that needs to be spelt out on percentages that should be allocated to
research.
The stakeholders also agreed that research needs constant
light. Lack of constant electricity has been attributed to the failures in the
research system. The issue of effective electricity needs to be addressed.
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