UNIABUJA awards N3.7m research grant to 10 students

The University of Abuja announced that it awarded 10 undergraduate students the sum of N3.7 million naira as research grant.

This was made known by the Director of the Centre for Undergraduate Research of the institution, Dr Talbat Atoyebi.

In a statement made available to our correspondent on Thursday morning, Atoyebi noted that the research covered thematic areas such as economic prosperity, food security, educational opportunity, quality health, climate change and environmental protection and other innovative solutions to societal issues.

The centre was inaugurated in 2019 by the current vice-chancellor of the institution, Professor Abdulrasheed Na’allah, in a bid to promote undergraduate research.

Speaking in the statement, Atoyebi said, “The total sum of the grant for today is N3,772,000 for 10 students.

“Ten research proposals were scaled through and are being presented today. Some proposals were returned for corrections and upgrades, these researches are to be considered in the buildup for the next. We are currently receiving applications and proposals from any interested group of students for the next batch of grants.”

Also, Prof Na’Allah said the idea wass to attract young people.

Represented by the chairman of the University of Abuja Research Council, Professor Abubakar Yusuf, the vice chancellor commended the initiative, describing it as a memorable one.

He said, “The programme is significant because research and development is critical to national development and what you are seeing today is a presentation from students who have their supervisors as mentors and the idea is to cultivate their interest in research and development because any university that does not have the component of research and development will not be highly rated.

“So, what the vice chancellor has done when he came in 2019 was to strengthen the research components of this university and he wants the University of Abuja to be research intensive and how to do that is to look at the senior level of research which involves professors and also the students.”