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Seed fund for research

We are now looking at how we can use our coming together as directors of research institutes to solve the problem of decreased funding for the research sector. That is one area which we now articulating a position paper that can be sent to government. Already, some of us have worked during the crafting of Vision 2020 on how to have what is called the National Science and Technology Fund. In the past, we had this fund which is a quick intervention fund that people in science and technology and related areas can draw from.

It can be called the Foundation for Industrial Development, but we believe there is a need to have a mechanism that will enable research institutes to be able to have the kind of funding they require to be able to do the kind of research that can impact on industries. Almost every developed country has it. Its equivalent in the United States is the National Science Foundation. They use funds from that foundation to solve industrial problems. If problems from industries are given to research institutes, they draw money from that foundation. It can also be used for capacity building, for improving on laboratories so you can have centres of excellence for certain area of science and technology.

Minimum of N500 billion required

If you are an entrepreneur and you are interested in setting up a business based on the result of a new research, you can draw from this fund. Usually funds like this are not given as loans because sometimes people ask: ‘why you don’t go to a commercial bank?’ That kind of work is not something that profit will start coming in a year’s time. So it is something like venture capital. In other words, that fund can be taken to set up an industry using research result from Nigerian scientists and before the industry is developed they can be given five years before they need to start paying back the money. In paying back, it should be at no interest so they can stabilize, but once they start making profit they will be like any other company and begin to pay tax.

Government needs to absorb that gestation period of five or 10 years as a development process, because when you have 1000 of such industries established to utilise research outputs, of course they will start employing our school-leavers and that will solve social problems for government. That is what that kind of fund can do for this country so that any area that is a new venture area, a smart entrepreneur can develop with it. That was how all these countries did it and unless we do it in this country, we will continue to go round and round. Unless we energise the emergence of a critical mass of Nigerians who can produce and manufacture things within Nigeria we are not going anywhere.

We had recommended minimum of N500 billion to start this foundation. We are talking of changing the economy and it will cost a lot.

An example

When Peugeot Automobile Nigeria (PAN) was established in Nigeria, the government gave PAN a deadline that after 10 years they must move from completely knocked down parts to actual manufacturing of the parts in Nigeria. PAN was working with their French counterpart at that time. Some scientists were saying that if we give PAN this challenge we must also create an enabling environment within the research communities in Nigeria to be able to create vehicles parts. That didn’t happen here. Although RMRDC gave grants to people to work on auto bodies – that is, doing composites – they came up with a good result of a mixture of metals, plastics and fibre to do auto bodies. They could only make panels, but it showed that it was possible. The challenge we had was who will pick up that and begin to make auto bodies from it. If there was a national science foundation, a businessman can pick up that and begin to do auto bodies.

That didn’t happen, but Peugeot in France was also thinking ahead. We were looking at doing auto bodies within five or ten years in Nigeria, by the time we got to the five or ten year mark, the main manufacturers in France were no longer doing auto bodies with metal. The bodies are now made of fibre-enforced plastics, which is lighter and stronger. If you go to PAN today, they are still bringing in knocked-down parts, but if we had a national science foundation, companies can begin to manufacture even one component of a car using local raw materials. This is important because if you are making it in Nigeria, you can even get orders to supply in plants in Germany. Once you manufacture to standard, you can supply internationally.

Commercialisation will be possible

The other area of focus is on what we have observed in the past. Moving results of research from laboratories to marketplace has been a major challenge in this country. We find a situation where if you go to every research institute you see technologies coming up, research that has been done, gadgets and devices that have been developed are just sitting there. So we want to use this network to see how we can collaborate among ourselves. Working together will enable us to synergise more, work more closely with industries. So our main thrust now is commercialization.

Every year we will target a certain number of research results, whether they are ideas or machines, and apply them directly to industries either to use them to establish new industries or to use those results to solve existing problems in the industries. That means there will more collaboration with organised private-sector groups. So we hope to work more closely with the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria, the Association of Small Scale Industrialists and chambers of commerce.

Need to adjust our models

Moving research results from laboratories to the market place also implies looking at the entire model we had adopted. Today, people stay in their laboratories, imagine problems and attempt to solve them and then begin to look at who will adopt the results. But there are two models of development, when you are talking of manufacturing.

The Technology Push model adopted in even world-class institutions is when a researcher sits and thinks about a problem that doesn’t even exist and comes up with a solution. Because the solution exists, the technology for that solution exists, he begins to market it. Nobody may have thought about that problem before but because people are now seeing a solution, they begin to adopt it as long as that is going to make somebody’s work easier. Before the Wright brothers thought about flying, nobody thought about it. In addition to the Technology Push model, there will also be the Demand Pull model.