By Adeyemi Elijah-Benin
Igbinedion University, Okada in Edo State, is set to inaugurate Academia-Industry Board that would help drive the patenting rights and research commercialization.
According to the institution, the groundwork has begun and it is aimed at fostering technology transfer through the deployment of intellectual property to boost research as well as spur innovative start-ups.
The Vice Chancellor of the institution, Prof. Lawrence Ezemonye, on Wednesday stressed the need for Academia and Industry collaboration, which are critical components of efficient national innovation strategy.
He disclosed this during the institution’s Research Day and Conference with theme, “Greening Academia/ Industry Research Synergy: To Promote Sustainable Development Goals in Nigeria”.
He said, “Igbinedion University has played a pioneering role in greening the academia-industry synergy, which stems from the need to mainstream Sustainable Development goals, SDGs into Higher Education through effective collaboration with both national and international partners”.
In view of the above, he said: “This approach provides a pragmatic framework for the infusion of business partnership and enterprise into research and innovation.
Continuing, “The potency of academia-industry engagement is its ability to duly address employment and unemployment rate which have largely been attributed to the mismatch between employee skills and the Industry skills required for performance in the modern workplace”.
In his remarks, the keynote Speaker on the occasion and Director General of National Office for Technology Acquisition and Promotion (NOTAP), Prof. Dan’Azumi Ibrahim, identified research and technology as the main drivers of sustainable economic development goals in the Country.
On his part, former Vice-chancellor of Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University, Prof. Abubakar Sani Sambo, commended the institution for its unique vision in identifying a central national problem and providing a platform to generate knowledge about it.
“I commend the industry partners as well as the government representatives for giving this issue a prime of place. I am positive that with more interventions in this direction, Nigeria is on its way to developing its own Silicon valley”, Sambo said.
