Human capital development: Echono identifies challenges, suggests way forward

The Executive Secretary, Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund), Arc. Sonny Echono, has remained resolute in his determination towards human capital development, especially in the education sector.

Already, he has identified lack of a philosophy in national planning, frequent change in government and policies, inadequate funding as well as poor investment in education as factors responsible for the decline in research activities in the country’s higher education institutions.

Poor or dilapidated infrastructure, power fluctuation, lack of facilities and capacity to carryout research by scholars and the inability of institutions to foster international collaborations and networks have also been identified as major challenges confronting capacity development.

In view of these challenges, the Executive Secretary called for concrete steps to be taken.

He said: “One of the most important steps is creating the needed atmosphere or environment for research activities in the country by government. The provision of basic infrastructure and facilities, which goes hand in hand with increased budgetary allocation to the education sector and to research specifically, has become imperative.

“Understanding the specific context and diversity of individual research systems and how it relates to partnerships and international cooperation remains key to effective research and capacity building among the nation’s academics.

“Developing national systems for research to identify needs is also necessary. It is through such systems that research results and local impact are known and measured.”

Echono informed that building research capacity can be achieved through collaborations, partnerships and networking among local and international researchers while higher institution focus on researches aimed at solving local problems rather than struggle to publish papers only for promotion.

“The triple helix model of government-academia industry collaboration is the panacea for transforming research and education generally in our Country.  That to my mind is the mission link as it will simultaneously address issues of focus, funding and relevance”, he stated.

At the TETFund level, Echono listed some of the interventions carried out with a view to filling existing gaps. According to him, “the Fund established the Department of Research and Development Centres of Excellence to promote institutionalization of Research and Development through effective support for research and innovative partnership between tertiary institutions/research institutes, industry and government as a national response towards technological revolution, human capital development and sustainable economic competitiveness.”

Other interventions include introduction of National Research Fund (NRF), an intervention that is intended to fund impactful research across the three broad thematic areas of Science, Technology and Innovation; Humanities and Social Sciences as well as Cross Cutting. These he stated, will contribute to national developmental efforts as well as tackle global challenges.

Minister of State, Education, Mr. Goodluck N. Opia at the unveiling of 50 books published by TETFund recently in Abuja.

“To boost uptake of research outcomes with potentials for commercialisation, the Fund in 2021 sponsored the TETFund Alliance for Innovative Research (TETFAIR) programme, an initiative designed to pull researchers, innovators and inventors from various beneficiary institutions to accelerate their researches, innovations and inventions with the aid of state-of-the-art innovation hub, experts and mentors to enable them transform their ideas into inventions, innovation or solution up to Proof of Concept and Prototypes that can be pitched to investors for commercialization. The successes recorded from the initial TETFAIR programme motivated the Fund to commence the second phase in 2022.

“In the same vein, to enhance the capacity of our lecturers for innovative and impactful research to address societal challenges, the Fund has sponsored some selected lecturers of beneficiary institutions across the geopolitical zones of the country for intensive capacity building programme on Research for Impact.

“The initiative is intended to groom a dynamic generation of researchers, innovators and inventors within the academia.

“The programme is designed to provide participants with an in-depth insight into the necessity, principles, processes, platform and procedures of research and development ideation and implementation, as well as prototyping.”

Echono added that in its effort to enhance the capacity of scholars for innovative research so as to attract international research grant and benefits from other funding windows for research across the globe, TETFund has sponsored 1,761 academic staff of beneficiary institutions from across the country for the train-the-trainer capacity building programme on Research Proposal Writing and Grant Management.

This took place in various countries of the world between 2019 and 2022.

“This laudable programme is being stepped down locally across the geo-political zones to ensure that more lecturers of beneficiary institutions benefit from it”,   “The recognition of the role of Centres of Excellence in Institutionalization of R&D has motivated the Fund to establish 24 Centres of Excellence in our beneficiary institutions with 12 Centres in selected Universities, six Centres in selected Polytechnics and six Centres in selected Colleges of Education specializing in various aspects of national needs across the geo-political zones.

“The initiative is provoked by the belief that Centres of Excellence invariably define research and innovation priorities of any country for local, regional and national needs.

“This new thinking by the Fund underscores the unwavering commitment of TETFund to promote the interface between the academia and industry on the premise that the Centres would ultimately partner with research institutions and the industry, being an organizational environment that strive for high standards of protocols and methodical benchmarks in the field of research and innovation.”

Echono further disclosed plans to establish entrepreneurship hubs and innovation parks in beneficiary institutions and link them with industry to enhance entrepreneurship, innovation and employability in line with contemporary global best practice.

The hubs, he informed, are expected to provide the enabling environment for conducting ground-breaking research and development of innovative technologies and solutions to drive national development through research and development innovations, initiatives and stimulate the Triple Helix synergy in the country.