The Minister of Education, Dr Maruf Tunji Alausa, has urged Nigerian universities and the National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure (NASENI) to bridge the gap between academic research and the marketplace by transforming innovations into businesses, jobs and practical solutions.
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Alausa gave the charge during a presentation to Vice-Chancellors, Directors of Academic Affairs, Directors of Postgraduate Studies and officials of the Federal Ministry of Education’s Directorate of University Education on the proposed partnership between universities and NASENI through the NASENI Campus.
The Minister said the initiative could create a structured pathway connecting university researchers with advanced laboratories, prototyping facilities, industries and investors, enabling promising ideas to move from laboratories to the marketplace.
He stressed that Nigeria must deliberately move beyond producing research papers and prototypes to commercialising innovations if the country is to fully harness its human capital and achieve its ambition of becoming a $1tn economy.
According to him, Nigerian researchers should be supported to patent their inventions, develop marketable products and partner with investors to establish viable companies.
Alausa cited the innovation ecosystem around Cambridge, Massachusetts, as an example of how research institutions, investors and industries can work together to transform knowledge into businesses and economic value.
He urged NASENI to strengthen its affiliations with universities around its development centres, noting that universities have a large pool of researchers, lecturers and students whose expertise could complement the agency’s work.
The Minister also called on NASENI to support patenting, connect researchers with venture capital and facilitate the creation of university spin-off companies.
He specifically urged the agency to explore opportunities in lithium processing and battery manufacturing as Nigeria expands its renewable energy and industrial capabilities.
Earlier, the Executive Vice Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of NASENI, Khalil Suleiman Halilu, outlined the agency’s efforts to bridge the gap between research and production in line with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s directive to move innovations beyond prototypes into commercial production.
Halilu said the proposed NASENI Campus, located within a 100-hectare free trade zone, was being developed as an integrated environment where researchers, professors, prototyping facilities, industries and commercialisation opportunities could operate together.
He added that several factories and industrial facilities had already been established within the zone.
The Vice-Chancellor of the University of Abuja, Prof Hakeem Babatunde Fawehinmi, said the institution’s existing partnership with NASENI demonstrated the potential of the proposed model.
He said the partnership had produced facilities including an integrated agriculture incubation centre, greenhouse facilities, automated poultry systems and tissue culture laboratories supporting undergraduate and postgraduate research.
Fawehinmi said the university was prepared to deepen its collaboration with NASENI in areas including dairy science and renewable energy.
Similarly, the Vice-Chancellor of Bayero University, Kano, Prof Haruna Musa, said the institution was exploring expanded collaboration with NASENI in nanotechnology, vaccinology, toxinology and mathematical modelling.
Musa disclosed that two BUK research projects had reached the final stage of NASENI’s research commercialisation grant process.
The projects include a reusable sanitary pad initiative and the commercial production of sweet potato-based starch derivatives.
Alausa reaffirmed the Federal Government’s commitment to building a functional pathway from research and innovation to investment, production and job creation.
He said the objective of the Renewed Hope Agenda was not merely to increase research output but to ensure that Nigeria’s knowledge, skills and innovations translated into products, enterprises, employment and sustainable economic prosperity.
EduTimes Africa, a product of Education Times Africa, is a magazine publication that aims to lend its support to close the yawning gap in Africa's educational development.