Govt votes $50m for establishment of National Research Fund
The government has voted $50 million as seed money for the establishment of the National Research Fund.
The Cabinet has already given approval for the establishment of the fund and a draft bill will be presented to Parliament shortly to give it the necessary legal backing.
The Minister of Education, Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh, announced this when he opened the first-ever joint Africa Centres of Excellence (ACE) workshop in Accra on Tuesday.
The three-day workshop is being attended by about 300 participants from 15 African countries and more than 40 universities.
It is being organised by the Association of African Universities (AAU) and sponsored by the World Bank.
Africa Centres of Excellence
The ACEs are centres based in some universities in Africa where
specific research areas are selected for graduates in those areas to
undertake research to engender development in the participating
countries.
In Ghana, there are two of such centres at the University of Ghana,
Legon and the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology
(KNUST).
They are the West Africa Centre for Crop Improvement (WACCI) and the
West Africa Centre for Cell Biology of Infectious Pathogens (WCCBIP) at
the University of Ghana and the Regional Water and Environmental
Sanitation Centre, Kumasi (RWESCK) at KNUST.
Dr Opoku-Prempeh explained that the National Research Fund was part
of steps by the government to enhance the entrenchment of the culture of
high quality research in higher educational institutions and research
centres in the country.
Scaling up centres of excellence
He pledged the government’s readiness to provide the necessary facilitation or any other support that might be required.
“I wish to serve notice of the keen interest of Ghana in taking full
advantage of any future initiatives by the World Bank to scale-up the
centres of excellence project.
“We intend to seize any such opportunity to establish the new centres
of excellence envisaged in clearly defined priority areas,” he
stressed.
Dr Opoku Prempeh, therefore, challenged higher educational
institutions to start developing competitive proposals that would earn
them selection in the next round of call for the establishment of the
centres of excellence.
In a statement read on his behalf, the World Bank Country Director,
Mr Henry Kerali, said the bank was excited to host the workshop, which
would support ACEs in delivering excellence in higher education in
Africa.
He said the ACEs project was quite unique in the World Bank’s
portfolio, which was paving the way for the re-thinking of how the bank
could support higher education and advanced research in Africa.
Mr Kerali observed that there was a critical demand for skilled
graduates in the areas of Science, Technology, Mathematics and
Engineering and covering themes in agriculture, health, water and
sanitation, construction, energy and climate change.
“Building these skills in African countries will be critical to reach
the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The ACEs are uniquely
positioned to invest in such skilled graduates and research in these
areas,” he said.
Purpose of workshop
Welcoming the participants, the Secretary General of the AAU,
Professor Ettiene E. Ehile, explained that the joint workshop sought to
provide a platform for learning and knowledge sharing among the ACEs and
also enable the member institutions to seek guidance on improving
university-industry linkages and collaboration.
Source: Graphic online
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