National Research Fund: UNIOSUN Tops State Universities, Wins Six Awards

Yinka Kolawole in Osogbo

Osun State University (UNIOSUN) has emerged as one of the two universities nationwide that leap-frogged to six awards with over N174 million from the National Research Fund.

This research fund is an intervention of the federal government targeted at boosting research and development for Nigeria’s economic and technological advancement through the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund).

The Vice-Chancellor, Prof Odunayo Adeboye, disclosed this at the official presentation of letters of the award to the winners of the 2023 TETFund national research fund and recent international grant held at the multipurpose hall of the university’s main campus.

He noted a whooping increase of 486 per cent compared to 2022, when UNIOSUN won just two NRF grants valued at N36 million in the 2023 grant cycle.

The VC stressed that UNIOSUN and two other universities in the Southwest led state universities in Nigeria, each with six successful research proposals.

According to him “UNIOSUN also emerged as one of the two universities nationwide that won the highest number of NRF research grants under the Humanities and Social Science (HSS) Research Category, both universities produced four awardees each in the HSS category.”

He also acknowledged the contributions of the Office of Research and Innovation Management (ORIM) under the leadership of Professor Olukoya Ogen for the unprecedented success in the university’s annals. 

Adeboye disclosed that the university planned a serious mentorship strategy, campus-to-campus grantsmanship and sensitisations campaigns, while the success as a university was the result of the invaluable technical inputs and guidance provided by the ORIM during the entire application process.  

The vice-chancellor expressed delight that the National Research Fund received high-quality 4,287 research proposals from all public universities and polytechnics in the country, which were painstakingly assessed and defended before a team of experts in the different research fields. 

He noted that at the end of the hotly competed exercise, only 185 research studies were successful and consequently approved for funding by the federal government, out of which UNIOSUN scholars won six grants.

“There is no doubt that these esteemed scholars and grantees have all demonstrated exceptional dedication to duty in their various areas of scholarship,” he explained. “They have all been pushing the frontiers of knowledge and significantly contributing to the advancement of the university’s research agenda.”

The vice-chancellor, who commended and congratulated them for making the university proud, described the various grants as investments in the future and potentialities of research as a major driver of knowledge and tool for societal transformation. 

He stated, “We strongly believe that the works of these scholars will have far-reaching implications and contribute to the global body of knowledge.”

Adeboye assured various stakeholders that UNIOSUN is unwavering in its poise to serve as a model of academic productivity, local relevance and global recognition and shall continue to be the most peaceful public university in Nigeria and assuredly the foremost Nigerian university with a stable and predictable academic calendar.