Researchers want varsities’ research results commercialized
The International Conference on Research and Innovation has lamented that researches conducted by tertiary institutions in Nigeria have not made significant contributions to national development due to lack of commercialization of research results.
A conference with exhibition scheduled to hold from October 1012, 2017 in Kaduna is organized by the Consortium of Partner Organizations made up of National Board for Technology Incubation (NBTI), National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure (NASENI), Kaduna Refining and Petrochemical Company Limited (KRPC), National Water Resources Institute (NWRI) and National Office for Technology Acquisition, Women in Technical Education and Employment (WITED) and Promotion (NOTAP), among others.
Addressing newsmen in Kaduna ahead of the conference, the chairman, main organizing committee of the conference, Engineer Okopi Alex Momoh said that commercialization of research outputs requires the involvement of investors in the organized private sector and policy direction of government.
He said globally, sustainable industrial and economic developments had been achieved primarily through active Research and Development (R & D) efforts; adding that innovation from research and development could give a company its competitive advantage in its sector.
“The development of the Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) sector of a nation is a key factor to its sustainable growth and development. This development is enhanced by commercialization of research outputs,” he said.
The conference, he said, seeks to promote real time problem solving researches and commercialization of research outputs through AcademiaIndustry-Government linkages. He added that the lack of linkages and collaboration for commercialization of productive researches was the major concern that the conference seeks to address.