EU Commits €440,000 to Support Nigerian Researchers

Kuni Tyessi in Abuja 

The move by the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) to attract major international research grants to Nigerian scholars has received a massive boost as the European Union (EU) has committed to provide €440,000to support shortlisted research teams in the country under the Horizon Europe Project.

The head of TETFund’s team on Horizon Europe programme, Mr. Tope Toogun, made this known while briefing the Executive Secretary of TETFund, Mr. Sunny Echono, on the ongoing efforts to ensure Nigerian researchers’ participation in the global renowned research project. 

He lamented that despite the rich human resources in the country, researchers in Nigeria had before now taken the back seat in accessing grants of the EU Horizon project.

According to him, the situation is now changing for the better following TETFund’s engagement with the EU and its decision to set up a team to address challenges preventing Nigerian researchers from participating in the project. 

“It is embarrassing that Nigeria, with all our intellectual capital, cannot participate in Horizon. “The EU works in terms of a seven-year framework; the current one is Horizon Europe; the previous framework was called Horizon 2020 and it ran from 2013 to 2020. 

 “Africa got about 350 projects, out of which South Africa alone cornered 146, Egypt and Morocco got between 50 and 70, and Kenya got 46, Nigeria was not on the radar. It doesn’t mean we have not been participating, we have been on the sideline,” he said.  Toogun, who briefed the TETFund’s boss alongside another member of the team, Ayo Ajayi, identified the inability of Nigerian researchers to organise and prepare sufficiently for the Horizon project as one of the major impediments which prevented them from accessing the grants, hence, the decision of TETFund to set up the team in order to clear all the hurdles. 

“We have shortlisted initial 60 research teams from about 400 of applications and the EU Commission has committed to the provision of a facility of €440,000 in technical assistance to support the development of capacity in what we come up with in this programme that TETFund has initiated. 

“The research teams we have identified; we are going to do an intensive physical training programme for them in September and in that training, one of the key components will be on EU project management competency,” he said. 

Speaking further, Toogun said his team had developed the National Contact Point (NCP) network for Nigerian researchers and uploaded it in the global portal, adding that it is a major requirement in accessing the grant.