The Science Granting Councils Initiative (SGCI) has awarded a $250,000 grant to four Nigerian research teams.
This was stated during the project’s launch and initial boot camp for SGCI funding in Abuja.
The grant was awarded to the shortlisted teams following the execution of the Research for Impact Initiative (R41) by the Tertiary Education Trust Fund.
SGCI is a multi-funder program that aims to increase the capacity of 17 scientific granting councils (SGCs) in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Saliba Girei Bakare, TETFund’s director of research and development, stated that the money will assist the team in transforming their research ideas into “commercializable goods.”
He also stated that the grant will provide the team with both technical and economic benefits.
“The essence is to help them transform their research findings into commercializable goods and services in this country,” he said.
“Four teams are going to use this money to develop their research into prototypes and pitch them with industries so that there will be take-off of the product coming out from the research.”
The team’s initiatives include breakthroughs in garri processing and pioneering work in renewable energy, among others.
The SGCI was founded in March 2015 as a collaboration between the UK’s Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), Canada’s International Development Research Centre (IDRC), and South Africa’s National Research Foundation.
Its initial phase improved the ability of Councils from 15 nations to administer, design, and oversee research initiatives.
It was founded on the use of strong science, technology, and innovation (STI) indicators to facilitate knowledge transfer to the commercial sector and to promote collaborations between SGCs and other scientific system actors.
The initial collaboration (SGCI-1) lasted five years and terminated in September 2020.
It overlapped with the second five-year phase (SGCI-2), which began in June 2018 with additional funding from the Swedish Development Cooperation Agency (Sida), IDRC, and NRF.
