VICE-CHANCELLORS of Nigerian universities have been urged to develop quality grant-winning research proposals that would improve the lives of the citizens, add value and knowledge to the education system and positively contribute to the overall development of the nation.
Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission, NUC, Prof. Julius Okojie in a welcome address at a workshop on the World Bank-initiated Africa Centres of Excellence, ACE project in Abuja urged the vice-chancellors to look inwards and task themselves to discover something new.
Prof. Okojie said with the ACE project, researchers in Nigerian universities could focus on their areas of strength where they have comparative advantage, seeking solutions to the challenges that confront their immediate environments and the nation at large.
He explained that by taking advantage of the Nigerian Research and Education Network, NgREN, researchers from the nation’s universities could collaborate with other researchers from across the globe as well as showcase their own works to the world, adding that by so doing, the doors of collaboration would be widely opened.
Prof. Okojie advised them to work diligently to understand the procedures involved in the selection process and the focal areas for their proposal to ensure that their universities are successful in the process.
He said that the ACE project was aimed at promoting regional specialization among participating universities in Africa to address common regional development challenges and strengthen their capacities to deliver high quality training and applied research.
“The NUC has worked towards this workshop to update you on the ACE project and give you the guidelines for drafting winning proposals to ensure successful outcome in the competitive process. The goal of the ACE project is to meet the demand for skills required for the development of the continent and also contribute to the strengthening of the best African universities within science-based education.
“This is in line with one of the goals of the NUC which is to match graduate output with the national manpower needs,” he said.
In her keynote address, the Minister of Education, Prof. Ruqayyatu Ahmed Rufa’a said ACE project was a regional higher education project to promote regional specialization among participating universities within the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, areas that address particular common regional development challenges and strengthen the capacities of the universities to deliver high quality training and applied research.
The Minister said, “We are indeed in a new era, a time technological advancements have continued to define how we live.
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