The Federal Government approved a sum of N5,128,180,623 on Wednesday to fund 185 successful research proposals under the Tertiary Education Trust Fund National Research Fund (TETFund) 2023 Grant Cycle.
The Minister of Education, Prof. Tahir Mamman, announced the approval in a statement on Wednesday following the report of the TETFund National Research Fund Screening and Monitoring Committee, which recommended the funding of the 185 research proposals after a rigorous screening exercise that commenced in March 2023 with the receipt of 4,287 concept notes from prospective applicants.
TETFund’s spokesperson, Abdulmumin Oniyangi, said the breakdown of the approval indicates that the sum of N3,784,635,923.00 was approved for the Science, Engineering, Technology and Innovation (SETI) thematic group; N759,875,400.00 for Humanities and Social Science (HSS); and Cross Cutting (CC) received N583,669,300.63 with individual grants ranging between N8 million and over N46 million.
Oniyangi also noted that some of the approved research works under the Science, Engineering, Technology and Innovation thematic group include the Application of the Hydro-Biogeochemical Framework to Develop a National Rural Water Quality Assurance Plan for Sustainable Water Quality Management in Nigeria.
Others include the development and use of doubled haploid maize lines for improved maize yield and tolerance to armyworms (Spodoptera frugiperda), the development of an intelligent multi-chamber evaporative cooling preservative system for Post-Harvest storage of selected fruits in Nigeria and the development of an electric vehicle with special features, among others.
Projects under the Cross-Cutting thematic group include the utilisation of Scrap Tyres and Plastic Wastes as aggregate Conductive Material for Renewable Energy Storage Systems; the Development of Appropriate Technology for the Production of aluminium Alloy Sacrificial Anodes for Applications in Nigeria’s Oil and Gas Industry; and the Development of an Economical Low Voltage Programmable Electroporator and Investigation of Pulse Electric Field for Wound Healing and cancer.
Digital Financial Inclusion, Rural Households’ Consumption Structure and Well-being in Nigeria, Equity and Inclusion: Creating Access to Library Resources for Students Living with Vision Impairment in e-Learning Environments in Nigerian Universities, and Mitigating Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder among Frontline Nigerian Army Personnel Using Stress Inoculation Therapy, among others, have been approved under Humanities and Social Science.
