Government pledges solid support for UDSM research and innovation initiatives
By UDSM Staff Writer,
The government of the United Republic of Tanzania has pledged its unwavering support to the University of Dar es Salaam strategic initiatives on research, innovation and knowledge exchange by investing more on related capacity.
In his address at the opening ceremony of the 7th UDSM Research and Innovation week on 24th May, 2022 in Dar es Salaam, the Prime Minister, Hon. Kassim Majaliwa Majaliwa (MP), said the 6th government had allocated more funds on research capacity and environment in line with the market and the fourth industrial revolution demands.
“We are certainly aware that excellent innovation and discoveries are dependent on conducive environment for learning, teaching and other academic activities at different education levels”, said the Prime Minister who was represented at the occasion by the Deputy Minister of Education, Science and Technology, Hon. Omary Kipanga (MP).
Hon. Majaliwa stressed that the government has already offered 972 billion shillings through the Higher Education for Economic Transformation (HEET) project to cater for the nation-wide economic transformation on higher education.
In addition, he said that the government has funded the Eastern and Southern Africa Higher Education Centres of Excellence (ACE-II) project that aims to offer research capacity among higher learning institutions to address societal challenges through research and innovation.
“Through this project, the government has offered up to 24 USD million which is a loan from the World Bank, and we have been able to offer 799 postgraduate scholarships; in which, 267 are for PhDs and 535 for Master’s degree studies”, said the Prime Minister.
Meanwhile, the Vice Chancellor of the University of Dar es Salaam, Professor William Anangisye said that every academic year, UDSM allocates fund for research and innovation projects with direct impact to the society.
“Through our internal income sources, in the financial year 2018/2019, the University allocated 1.0 billion shillings for research and innovation. Then we had 1.4 billion shillings for similar purposes in the year 2019/2020; and 1.9 billion in 2020/2021. In the 2021/2022 financial year, we managed to allocate 3.15 billion shillings; the fund is distributed to academics with various research and innovation proposals”, said Prof. Anangisye.
At the closing ceremony of the 7th UDSM Research and Innovation week on 26th May, 2022, the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, Prof. Eliamani Sedoyeka emphasised that the government aims at strengthening research clusters, and that it will now be rewarding researchers who publish in High Impact Factor Journals.
Speaking about this year’s research and innovation week, whose theme was ‘Research and Innovation for Societal Impact in Tanzania’, the Deputy Vice Chancellor-Research, Prof. Bernadeta Killian said that it has attracted a participation of 869 researchers: 419 (42%) were lecturers and 450 (52%) were students. Also, 269 research and innovation projects were submitted and exhibited, as different from the 218 projects submitted last year.