Hon.Eng. Jonard Asiimwe applauds Makerere University’s legacy ,calls for Stronger collaborations.
Hon. Eng. Jonard Asiimwe, Uganda’s Minister for science, Technology and Innovation has called for stronger collaborations between government universities and industry in order to accelerate the transformation of research discoveries into commercial products and jobs.
The minister made these remarks during a two-day engagement with Makerere University’s top leadership, researchers, Innovators and students with his main aim being to assess the institutions current and recent contributions to Uganda’s Science, Technology and Innovations Ecosystem.
In the course of the engagement, the minister toured a number of research facilities, innovation hubs and laboratories at the university including the Makerere University Innovation hub where he interacted with several Innovators developing solutions in creative arts, music and film production, textile design, Wood craft, product design, software development, block chain technology and electric mobility.
The minister went on to say that innovation must extend beyond traditional laboratory research and include creative industries, digital technologies, engineering and advanced manufacturing where ideas can be transformed into businesses that contribute to the national wealth creation.
Eng. Hon Assimwe also said Uganda’s ambition of achieving USD 500 Billion economy by 2040 requires universities to become central drivers of scientific discoveries, Technological advancements and innovation led productivity.
The minister’s tour included engagements with faculties and research platforms focused on engineering, manufacturing, digital technologies, artificial intelligence agriculture, natural sciences and enterprise development.
The minister further engaged researchers working in artificial intelligence and digital technologies at the National AI research cloud hosted by the regional university’s forum for capacity building in Agriculture (RENU) and CoCIS Artificial intelligence and Data science laboratories.
The visit also covered agro industrialization and food Technology platforms, including the food Technology and business incubation center, agricultural engineering fabrication facilities, mechanization technologies and post-harvest innovations.
At one of the facilities he said Uganda must move decisively from research to innovation, from innovation to patents, patents to commercially viable products and from products to scalable enterprises.
Speaking during the minister’s tour of the university and its different facilities, the vice chancellor prof. Barnabas Nawangwe welcomed the comments and said Makerere University will move beyond classroom teaching and focus on putting in place solutions that will respond to societal needs and challenges.
The professor went on and said that Africa indeed has institutions capable of transformation but requires greater investment in research, partnerships and commercialization of Innovations.
The Professor highlighted electric mobility, affordable energy solutions, agriculture and digital technologies as areas where universities can make a significant contribution to Africa’s development.
The minister concluded the engagements with a commitment from the government to strengthen the partnerships between academia, industry, and research institutions to position innovation as the main driver of industrialization and social-economic transformation.
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