Provide enabling business environment to encourage partnerships, OAU VC charges govt 

The Vice-Chancellor, Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Professor Simeon Bamire, has called on government to provide an enabling business environment to encourage partnership between knowledge institutions and the business sector.

The Vice Chancellor said this while delivering his keynote address titled ‘Science, Technology and Innovation Imperatives: the Nexus Between Knowledge Institutions and Industries for National Development’ at the 2023 Biennial African Institute of Science Policy and Innovation, AISPI International Conference at the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) on Tuesday.

According to him, “Universities in present days have fine-tuned their research activities to increasingly engage in applied, interdisciplinary researches for development of new technologies or interventions that could be of industrial use.”

“Nevertheless, exploration of the research results necessitates interactions between the academia and industry. Government must become a facilitator, by providing enabling business environment; investment in fundamental research and ensuring stakeholders’ involvement in policy design and implementation.”

In his own submission, the key Speaker at the programme, the Vice-Chancellor of Bamidele Olumilua University of Education, Science and Technology, Ikere Ekiti, Ekiti State, Professor Adeoluwa Victor, called on governments at the Federal and State levels to commission institutions of higher learning in finding solutions to the country’s challenges.

He also called for a collaboration between institutions and industries to foster national development. 

According to Adeoluwa, research, which is the bedrock of a nation’s development was sparsely funded in Nigeria, adding that research was mostly conducted in Nigeria for the purpose of earning promotion. 

The VC noted that linkage between institutions and industries will provide students with practical experience which cannot be simulated in the classroom. 

He said: “Governments in Nigeria should make a deliberate commitment to invest in research and development. They should also make it a point of duty to commission institutions of higher learning to find solutions to various challenges in the country.

“Institution-industry linkages are tailored towards mutually beneficial relationships where ideas springing forth from research reports and factory trails are shared. It thus has a lot to do with research and development and this is sparsely funded in Nigeria. 

“Moreover, not many industries fund research efforts in the knowledge institution in Nigeria. In fact, many industries that could have been able to do so have either folded up or left the shores of the country. Therefore, researches are mostly conducted in higher institutions for the purpose of earning promotion.”

In his welcome address, the Director, African Institute for Science Policy and Innovation (AISPI), Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile – Ife, Dr. Billy Oluwale noted that the conference offered an opportunity to address the challenges and opportunities in building effective linkages between knowledge institutions and industry.

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