Dr. Obiageli Amadiobi, head of NOTAP, made these remarks in Abuja while speaking with reporters about her accomplishments since taking up her position.
Discussing the topic, "Enhancing Indigenous Capabilities: NOTAP's Efforts in Technology Transfer, Local Content Growth, and Creative Initiatives," Amadiobi mentioned that the organization has engaged both academic institutions and businesses so that scholars can focus on issues presented for commercialization.
My minister is quite deliberate regarding this—extremely focused on the commercialization of research outcomes, which we've already presented to him. These are significant studies that require commercial exploitation.
We've created 69 technology transfer offices for intellectual property within 69 universities, with more being counted. We've notified the vice-chancellors of Nigerian universities about establishing these centers and plan to visit to provide education on intellectual property and technology transfers.
While carrying out this work, we are simultaneously recording information about all the researchers from these universities and research centers, and compiling it into a comprehensive volume.
"So, we receive compilations from the universities and store them in a database. As you may remember, recently, the ministry—our overseeing ministry, the Federal Ministry of Innovation, Science, and Technology—initiated a program called Energise Commercialisation. This initiative aimed solely at commercializing all research and development outputs," she stated.
Research institutions involved in studying fields aligned with industrial demands were highlighted, as she stated, "NOTAP is closing the gap between research and development concerning industry requirements." This initiative is part of our program known as the NITDF, NOTAP Industry Technology Transfer Fellowship. Through this program, we collaborate with both universities and industries within what we refer to as the triple helix model. We work closely with these entities to facilitate sponsorship, where industries support a Ph.D student at a Nigerian university for conducting pertinent research.
They will identify the subjects they wish to investigate, and these students will conduct their research on those topics with support from industry partners, as they understand the challenges firsthand. However, typically, there are PhD candidates who are already well-established. Just this year, we approved around 15 of them to join this program, and they have now moved on to different universities.
And we continue to seek individuals to work on certain projects; the areas of study we currently have. However, we aren't receiving sufficient volunteers to carry out the research. Therefore, we plan to place more advertisements to attract additional applicants.
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