LASU wins $50,000 Volvo foundation research grant

A team of experts from the School of Transport and Logistics at the Lagos State University (LASU), Ojo, has won a research grant worth US$50,000 (about N37.2m) from the Volvo Research and Educational Foundation (VRET).

The grant is for the team to carry out evidence-based research on a Comparative Study of Water and Road Traffic Crashes in selected cities in Nigeria, Ghana and Kenya with a view to providing safety regulatory framework that would help reduce to the barest minimum cases of crashes on roads and waterways in Africa and beyond.

The leader of the team and former Dean of the School of Transport and Logistics, LASU, Prof Samuel Odewumi, made this disclosure at a Zoom meeting with newsmen, on Wednesday.

He said aside LASU team, the research work would be carried out in collaboration with four other colleagues from universities in Nigeria, Ghana, the United Kingdom and Kenya.

He named them to include Prof Kazeem Adebiyi of Ladoke Akintola University of Technology(LAUTECH), Ogbomoso, who is currently the Rector of the Polytechnic Ibadan; Prof Abane Albert of the Department of Geography and Regional Planning, University of Cape Coast Ghana; Prof Gituro Wainaina of the Department of Business and Management Sciences, University of Nairobi, Kenya, as well as Prof Karen Lucas of the School of Environment, Education and Development, University of Manchester. United Kingdom, who serves as the lead consultant.

Prof Odewumi said the research work, which is to be delivered in three months, would unveil the number, pattern, causes, injuries and fatalities of road and water accidents in the selected cities such as Lagos, Nairobi and Accra, in the three countries.

He said the overall objective of the study is to come up with recommendations that would help government and relevant agencies to formulate policy framework, regulations and enforcement that would help to sustain equitable use and safety of human mobility on roads and waterways not only in the three selected countries but globally.

Odewumi, a Professor of Transport and Environment, pointed out that LASU community is particularly excited that the institution’s School of Transport and Logistics has become a global Centre of Excellence for Transport Research and Education for Africa.

He said the school had received several streams of young scholars from Ghana and South Africa for VREF’s sponsored mentorship programmes, commending the foundation for the consistent support and for the research activities.

He said the university’s Vice-Chancellor, Prof Ibiyemi Olatunji-Bello, on her part, has also been very supportive of research activities by the scholars from the university.
He said that was why LASU scholars keep winning competitive research grants from local and international organisations.

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