UDSM Research and Innovation Week at Unit Level Kicks off with Projects Boom

By UDSM Staff Writer,

The University of Dar es Salaam Research and Innovation Week for the year 2022 began on Wednesday 20 April, 2022 at the Unit level, with a boom of numerous competitive projects that demonstrate great efforts the University is undertaking to improve livelihoods of Tanzanians.

A survey in different units, such as colleges, schools and departments, has established that this year’s research and innovation week has attracted up to 453 projects by UDSM staff and students that have significant impact to the society.

“The number of projects only in our college, from different departments, is very big; this is certainly going to make the judgement process very fascinating and tricky”, explained one researcher from one of the colleges pavilion at Mwalimu Nyerere campus.

A visit to various units’ pavilions at the Mwalimu Nyerere Campus found that 353 projects are being exhibited by Colleges, Schools, and Institutes. In particular, 23 projects are exhibited by the College of Agriculture and Food Science; 60 by the College of Natural and Applied Sciences; 10 by the College of Social Science; and 4 by the School of Journalism and Mass Communication.

Also, there are 19 projects exhibited by the College of Humanities; 45 by the Institute of Resource Assessment; 31 by the College of Information and Communication Technologies; 28 by the School of Aquatic Science; 7 by the School of Economics; 23 by the School of Mines and Geosciences; 3 by the School of Law; 7 by the University of Dar es Salaam Business School; 80 by College of Engineering and Technology; and 7 by the Institute of Kiswahili Studies; and 6 by the Institute of Development Studies.

Meanwhile, a total of 54 research and innovation projects are being exhibited at the Dar es Salaam University College of Education, 40 projects at Mkwawa University College of Education and 6 projects at the Institute of Marine Sciences, Zanzibar.

The research and innovation week is usually held in two phases namely at the Unit (colleges, schools and departments) level and at the University-wide level, where this later phase comprises of a few particular research and innovation projects that have won in the former phase and selected to compete with other ones at the University level.

The 2022 Research and Innovation week at the unit level is held for three days from 20 to 22 April, 2022; while at the University-wide level it will be held from 23 to 25 May, 2022.

Speaking about this year’s research and innovation week, whose theme is ‘Research and Innovation for Societal Impact in Tanzania’, the UDSM Deputy Vice Chancellor-Research, Prof. Bernadeta Killian said this week is a University key platform for UDSM to showcase its research and innovation results in addressing societal challenges.

“This event provides a great opportunity for dissemination, stakeholder engagement and public awareness of important initiatives, activities and products of the University’s research and innovation”, said Prof. Killian.

Prof. Killian emphasised that this year’s research and innovation week is celebrated while marking 60 years of UDSM since its inception in October 1961. The event will also recognize excellence in research and innovation among staff and students by providing awards to the selected winners.

Since 2015, the University of Dar es Salaam (UDSM) has been organizing the Research and Innovation Week for showcasing competitive research results. The main drive is to bring together diverse groups of researchers to share and further scholarly and creative research work and highlight some of their best research outputs and innovations.