Bola Ahmed Tinubu Approves N5.1bn Grant Research

 

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, has greenlit a N5.1 billion grant to support 185 successful research proposals through the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) National Research Fund (NRF) 2023 Grant Cycle.

The allocation includes N3.7 billion for the Science, Engineering, Technology, and Innovation (SETI) thematic group, N759 million for Humanities and Social Science, and N583 million for the Cross Cutting thematic group. Individual grants range from N8 million to over N46 million.

The NRF Grant, initiated by TETFund, aims to promote cutting-edge research exploring areas relevant to Nigeria's societal needs, such as power and energy, health, security, agriculture, employment, and wealth creation.

Sonny Echono, the Executive Secretary of TETFund, stated in a Wednesday, January 17 statement that the approval followed the recommendations of the TETFund National Research Fund Screening and Monitoring Committee (NRFS&MC). The committee endorsed the funding of 185 research proposals after a rigorous screening process that began in March 2023 with the receipt of 4,287 Concept Notes.

Some of the approved research works under the SETI thematic group include the development of a national rural water quality assurance plan, the creation and utilization of doubled haploid maize lines for improved yield and tolerance, and the development of an intelligent multi-chamber evaporative cooling preservative system for post-harvest storage.

Projects under the Cross Cutting thematic group include the utilization of scrap tires and plastic wastes for renewable energy storage, the development of technology for the production of aluminum alloy sacrificial anodes for the Nigerian oil and gas industry, and the creation of an economical low voltage programmable electroporator for wound healing and cancer treatment.

Research proposals approved under the Humanities and Social Science group cover topics such as digital financial inclusion, the structure of rural households' consumption and well-being, creating access to library resources for visually impaired students in Nigerian universities, and mitigating post-traumatic stress disorder among frontline Nigerian Army personnel using stress inoculation therapy.