Don urges govt to invest in research

Director, Directorate of Research and Development, University of Calabar, Prof. Bassey Igri Okon, has called on government to allocate 26 per cent of yearly budget to the education sector to fund research in tertiary institutions.

Okon made the call at the institution’s International Conference Centre during a two-day workshop organised by the Directorate in collaboration with the Centre for Teaching and Learning Excellence (CTLE). The workshop had the theme: ‘’Writing Fundable Research Proposal’’.

He said though government has been providing research grants for research in the country’s ivory towers, it still needs to up the ante by increasing research funding.
He said: ‘’Government needs to do the basic things of meeting the sustainable development goals of allocating 26 per cent of the yearly budget to education to cover a lot of things, including research. But to a large extent, government is doing well in funding research but needs to do more.’’

Okon said the essence of the workshop was to sharpen the proposal writing skills of academic staff to attract more grants into the university.

While urging academics to redouble their efforts towards writing good proposals for research grants, he said attracting more grants would help in improving the university’s ranking, visibility and internally generated revenue.

The director, in a paper, titled: ‘Grant Budgeting and Management’, said there were many grant opportunities for researchers, adding that the best way to secure research grants is to present a good and sellable proposal.

The workshop also featured paper presentations by other scholars, including, Prof. Mbe Nja, Prof. Chris Chukwurah, Prof. Ajayi Omoogun and Mr. Yohanna Joseph Waliya.